Francis Davidson, the co-founder and former CEO of Sonder, launched a new startup on June 1st. Odessia is an AI travel agent that plans and books complete trips, covering flights, hotels, and experiences, in a single conversation. The product is live in preview at odessia.com, with access running through a waitlist.
The name Odessia won't mean much to most short-term rental operators yet. The founder's last company will.
What Happened to Sonder
Davidson co-founded Sonder in 2014 and built it into one of the most visible startups in short-term rentals. The company signed long-term leases on apartment buildings, then rented the units to travelers with hotel-style consistency. It reached $143 million in revenue within five years and went public through a SPAC merger in 2022 at a $2.2 billion valuation.
Revenue climbed past $600 million after the pandemic, but the company never found stable footing. Sonder cut staff repeatedly and twice faced delisting from Nasdaq. A 20-year licensing deal with Marriott in August 2024 brought its 9,000-plus units into the Bonvoy system and was widely seen as a lifeline. Davidson stepped down as CEO in June 2025, days after the integration finished. Five months later, Marriott terminated the agreement citing default, and Sonder filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy the same week. Some guests got less than 24 hours' notice to vacate.
What Odessia Does
Odessia works like a conversation with a travel agent. A user describes the trip they want, and the system plans the itinerary, presents options, and completes the bookings. That last step is what separates it from most AI trip planners, which build an itinerary and then hand the user off to Booking.com or Expedia to finish the purchase.
The company has reportedly raised $6 million in seed funding, with participation from Sequoia Capital. The product runs on OpenAI's GPT-5.5 model, and the team worked out of OpenAI's offices during development.
It's also a very different business than Davidson's last one. Sonder held the leases on thousands of apartments, and those fixed obligations sank the company when revenue dropped. Odessia is software only. It holds no real estate and operates no properties.
Where Vacation Rentals Fit
Odessia's launch materials list flights, hotels, and experiences as the bookable inventory. Vacation rentals aren't mentioned. But booking an entire trip in one place is the same goal Airbnb is working toward, as its Chief Business Officer said in April that the company is absolutely thinking about" adding flights.
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