The 907 Main hotel in Cambridge is expected to reopen in early December after shutting down by surprise Sunday when operator Sonder declared bankruptcy.
The new operator is Lark Hotels, the company said Thursday.
“Our team is equipped to step in and seamlessly take on hotel management to resume occupancy very quickly,” said Rob Blood, Lark’s founder and chair.
Staff and guests at the 67-room boutique hotel in Central Square were told Sunday afternoon that they would have to evacuate the building by 9 a.m. Monday after Marriott ended its licensing deal with Sonder. The management company in turn blamed its bankruptcy on problems integrating its technology with Marriott’s since the companies joined in August 2024.
The tech problems meant “significant, unanticipated integration costs, as well as a sharp decline in revenue arising from Sonder’s participation in Marriott’s Bonvoy reservation system,” Sonder interim chief executive Janice Sears said.
There was no immediate response to whether 907 Main staff who worked under Sonder would be kept on, or what compensation would be offered to guests who had to leave their rooms over the weekend or weren’t allowed to move in.
The hotel opened in September 2020 with the management company Hay Creek in place; that company was replaced in 2021 with Sonder. The site includes a Toscanini’s ice cream shop and Praline Patisserie and two restaurants: Althea is at its base, and Saigon Babylon has a rooftop space. All remain open during the transition to Lark from Sonder.
Lark’s properties encompass nearly $1 billion in assets, employing 1,500 employees in peak season across 27 States in American and Mexico in a range of offerings – from Awol hotels, which intend to immerse visitors in their natural surroundings, to Blind Tiger guest houses, which are meant to make customers “feel like they’re at the home of a friend.”
The company had nothing in Greater Boston, though, until word in August that it would open a 16-room “lodging house” – like a boutique hotel – in a historic property across from Cambridge Common. Cambridge Common House, then announced as opening late this year, now is set to welcome guests in the spring, according to a recorded response at its phone number and a booking site on which the first available date is April 1.
Now it looks like 907 Main will beat it to becoming Lark’s first opening in Cambridge.
Lark’s booking system, Mews, will “allow our team to get a hotel back up and running with ease,” Blood said. The takeover is being done in cooperation with the owners of the hotel, T.O. Johnson, Tim Johnson and Patrick Barrett III, he said. Lark and the owners had been in touch about management about the hotel in years past, according to someone familiar with the deal who was not authorized to speak on the record.
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