The EuroCheapo Story

Humble Beginnings

It was the summer of 1998 and Tom Meyers, recently graduated from college and living in New York City, was bored with his temp job at NBC. His primary responsibility, after all, was checking for burned out lightbulbs. One afternoon, he purchased "Web Design for Dummies" over his lunch break and started throwing together his first site. Soon he had learned enough HTML to claim it as a "skill" and landed a job producing websites for a software company in New York.

But, his mind was in Europe. How could he develop a website that would force him to travel, but also provided useful, needed information? He knew a thing or two about hotels. Tom had lived in Paris for a couple years and knew the kind of hotels he had scouted for visiting family and friends. He also knew what it was like to travel on a budget throughout Europe with an eye for quality and "something special." Plus, he knew that, in order to develop the site, he had to go over...for a while.

And so EuroCheapo.com was born. Lists were made, bags were packed, and Tom grabbed his passport.

Europe and Berlin

2001 was spent traveling, learning, exploring, and pushing into thousands of hotels.

Tom started in London and nearly panicked. Finding cheap hotels wasn't a problem. The problem was that everything looked the same. Over and over he saw depressing B&Bs offering small rooms and lame bathrooms, usually blessed with bored management. Was this useful information?

Nursing a cup of coffee near the British Museum, he scribbled out a checklist of EuroCheapo standards to help him narrow down the list and develop a more critical eye. Cheap wasn't enough. The hotels had to be "spic-and-span." They should have a pleasant management, or better yet, a family or interested proprietor in charge. And ultimately, he'd have to be comfortable enough with the hotel to send his own family there.

Soon after in Rome, the EuroCheapo editorial staff doubled when Gianni Bettucci, an Italian friend, joined the force. The two spent the next month in Rome, Florence, Amsterdam and Paris before crash landing in Berlin. They established EuroCheapo's first office in the edgy neighborhood of Friedrichshain, from which they launched the Paris guide in June 2001. Florence followed in July, and then Rome and Amsterdam. Tom and Gianni continued their travels, adding Vienna and Venice before Christmas 2001.

In January 2002, Emily Ford and Mauricio Mena hopped in a car with Tom (and a Daft Punk CD) and drove from Berlin to Paris and then off to Madrid, where they tackled hotels and hostals. From there, the group continued on to work in Lisbon, Barcelona and Nice before winding their way home, completely exhausted.

Back to the States

In the Spring of 2002, EuroCheapo moved back to New York. It was good to be back. From New York, the trips back to Europe came fast and furiously, and the group that went along expanded.

In the Fall of 2003, EuroCheapo moved into a new office at 22nd and Fifth Avenue (above a Club Monaco -- dangerous!). Kari Hoerchler, a longtime friend, joined the team as a writer, designer, and court-jester. Soon after, Marina Cashdan joined the group, and next thing they knew, it was Spring 2004 and they were pounding the pavements of Madrid and Barcelona.

Further Expansion

By the Spring of 2005, traffic to the site had doubled and EuroCheapo was ready to press on into new territory. It was time to grow, and so the group expanded by three: Alex Robertson Textor, Vivien Thorp, and Sylvie Grimm.

In the Fall of 2005, we moved to our new headquarters at 611 Broadway (at Houston Street) and spent a couple days assembling IKEA furniture. Soon after, the group took off for our most ambitious tour yet -- through Amsterdam, Berlin, Copenhagen, Dublin, London, Munich, Prague, and Stockholm. After finishing off hundreds of new reviews and countless city guides, we launched our most ambitious list of new cities to date: 9 new cities in 2006 alone.

In December 2006 EuroCheapo received its own complete makeover and launched a swanky new site design, logo and extensive nifty travel tools. A flock of new correspondents have joined the EuroCheapo team, based in London, Paris, Rome, Athens and other cities across Europe.

In January 2007 EuroCheapo launched its budget travel blog and is putting the finishing touches on exciting new travel community products... stay tuned!

At EuroCheapo, we love dreaming up more ways we can expand and continue helping our fellow Cheapos experience travel in an affordable and memorable way.

And yes, we're still having fun. And planning our next trip.