San Francisco-based Sonder has just leased an entire floor of a historic Dallas hotel, strengthening their foothold into the iconic Texas city.

The company will create 14 short term rental units in the Hotel Newland building in Dallas’ historic Cedars neighborhood. Bradford Commercial Real Estate Services assisted Sonder in finding the location, as reported by The Dallas Morning News.

“Sonder is very selective about its locations and finish-out,” Bradford’s Josh Meraz said in a statement. “Property owners are now chasing them.”

The company has been busy making inroads into Dallas, recently leasing an entire 26-story apartment building in the city. All told, Sonder has more than 9,500 short term rental units spread across 30 U.S. cities.

Sonder, like its apartment-hotel peers Lyric and Domio, has positioned itself as an alternative to ‘cookie-cutter’ hotel rooms. The company offers text-enabled around-the-clock concierge services, among other amenities. As such, they have become a threat to big hotel operators.

“These companies undercut hotels’ ability to boost daily room rates when occupancy is close to full, often around big events like the Super Bowl, other sporting events or a major conference,” Patrick Scholes, senior lodging and leisure analyst with SunTrust Robinson Humphrey Inc said. “It has been getting harder for hotels to push rates up significantly, in part because these firms have given customers another option.”

Sonder recently received a cash injection of $210 million in a Series D funding round and is currently projecting a $400 million revenue run rate by year’s end.

WhyHotel, which offers a similar concept, recently secured $20 million in Series B funding. Venture capitalists have also pumped money into Lyric and Domio, making this “temporary hotel” thing more than just a trend and a genuine threat to how garden variety hoteliers conduct business.



photo credit: bradford real estate

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