Carol Tsai was just getting back to her Sonder hotel room after a long day of sightseeing in London when she read an email from the accommodation company informing her she needed to leave immediately.

“I literally freaked out,” said Tsai, who had been staying at the hotel for a few days and had paid for the stay in full.

“The first thing I said [was], 'Where am I going to go now?'”

Guests at Sonder properties from New York to France say they were asked to leave their hotels abruptly after the company defaulted on payments, causing global chain Marriott to end a licensing deal it had with Sonder.

Sonder, which operated about 9,000 short-term rental and boutique hotel units in over 40 cities across the world — including Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal, where it was founded — announced on

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