I had a bad feeling when I checked into my second hotel on my trip to Lisbon. While in town for the week to review about 50 hotels for our Lisbon guide, I’d be spending three nights at this hotel.

I had just spent three nights at another hotel, the Metropole, several blocks away. My room had been wonderful—a spacious double on the fifth floor, with a small balcony opening to sunny city views. (And yes, it was quite affordable, given the off-season rates.)

But as I checked into this second hotel rather late in the afternoon, I grew nervous. The receptionist tapped away at his keyboard, apparently trying to find something open for my three nights. He frowned a lot. Finally, he handed me a keycard with a sigh and said, “I’m sorry, but this is the only room available.”

Minutes later I opened the door (which banged into the bed) of a very small room that hardly offered enough room to enter. It goes without saying that there was no desk (annoying, as I was in town for work), nor was there room to put away my luggage.

I had to face the facts: I had landed the worst room in the hotel.

Related: When should you book to get the best hotel rates?

I was partly to blame for ending up with this room. After all, I knew better. Here are a few pointers to avoid getting stuck with the “worst room”.

1. Be clear when making your reservation.

Receptionists have all the power. Pictured: The friendly owner of La Macarena Hostal, Madrid.

What exactly are you looking for in a room? Do you prefer one on a high floor overlooking the street? Are you looking for something on a lower floor with windows opening to the courtyard? Do you want one of the rooms with a balcony? Perhaps you need a bathtub instead of a shower?

Mention these preferences in your correspondence with the hotel at the time of making your reservation (but keep in mind that you’re requesting them, not demanding them). Sure enough, when I booked my room (through EuroCheapo, naturally), I did request a “room on a high floor with a view, if possible.” Well, I did get a room on a high floor…

Related: 10 Ways to save time & money before you go to Europe

Joking aside, your requests will usually be considered. When I’m inspecting rooms, I often notice certain rooms with little extras, like terraces, extra-large bathrooms, or great views. I often ask the manager or owner if I can write about the special perk—and if guests can request the room in advance. They almost always say the same thing. “Sure, mention it when reserving. If it’s available, there’s no problem.”

Which brings us to…

2. Show up early.

Although rooms are usually assigned in advance, there’s often a bit of juggling that goes on during the check-in process. Maybe another guest checked in and had an issue with their room. (For example, perhaps two friends had been given a double instead of a twin room. It happens all the time.) Check-in is never flawless and problems surface. People switch rooms. Get to the hotel as early as possible to minimize your chances of falling into the last place of a chain reaction.

However, remember that if you arrive before check-in hours (typically noon or 2 p.m.), you will probably have to leave your luggage in a storage room and come back once your room is ready. If this happens to you…

3. Make sure that you check in.

What? Didn’t you just check in? Not necessarily. Just because you’ve exchanged pleasantries with the hotel receptionist and left your luggage, doesn’t mean that you’ve actually “checked in.”

Ask if you can go through the process of checking in. That way, you’ll probably see a room number associated with your name on all the check-in paperwork.

When checking in, it’s also a good idea to ask nicely about the room. For example: “Could you please tell me if this room faces the back courtyard? I’m a light sleeper and just wanted to make sure.” When you ask nicely, with a smile, this can be the moment that changes everything.

4. Come back early to inspect your room.

So, you’ve left your luggage, checked in, and hit the town. Now what? I’d recommend, if possible, returning to the hotel early in the afternoon to move into your room. (This isn’t just about making sure your room is adequate. It’s also about leaving your possessions in a luggage room that’s shared by countless others.)

By moving into your room early, you can inspect it to make sure that it fits the bill. Does it?

5. If the room isn’t satisfactory—act quickly.

Upon entering the room, look around. Does it work? Be fair. Remember that most European hotel rooms (and especially bathrooms) are small. However, if the room doesn’t work for you and you get the impression that a better room may be available, act quickly.

Very important: Do not open your luggage, flop onto the bed, or (especially) use the bathroom. If, for some reason, you want to change rooms, you’ll need to act quickly, without disrupting anything. In many small hotels, after all, the cleaning staff leaves during the afternoon. In the case of a “sold out” hotel, you will only be able to swap rooms if you haven’t touched anything.

The other reason to act quickly is that as others check in, your chances of changing rooms diminishes.

6. Be nice and offer a good explanation when asking for a new room.

This is rather obvious, but if you return right away to the reception and ask to switch rooms, be as courteous as possible. The receptionist, after all, has all the power in this situation.

Explain why you’d like to switch rooms. Had you requested something else when reserving? Are you afraid of bathtubs and need a shower? Do you prefer a quieter room on the courtyard? Offer some sort of explanation—and smile.

A smile and friendly hello can go a long way with a hotel receptionist. Photo: Paulien Osse

7. Regardless of the outcome, thank the receptionist.

Perhaps the receptionist will bump some things around and offer you another room in the house. Or, perhaps they’ll sigh and apologize, and you’ll be stuck with your room. Either way, you’ll be seeing them for the rest of your stay, so be nice and thank them for their effort.

8. Stuck? Offer to switch the next day.

If you’re stuck in your room and staying for multiple nights, ask if it might be possible to switch rooms the next day. This often works, although it requires that you repack your bags after your first night. (Often the cleaning staff will move your luggage to the new room for you. Thank them with a tip upon departure.)

9. Really stuck? Chill out.

In my case, I was really stuck. The hotel had no vacancies, and there was no possibility of switching rooms on the second day. At first I was upset. My room was tiny, my bed was small and not comfortable, and I really wanted a desk. As I walked the halls, I could see much larger rooms being cleaned—and they had probably paid the same amount that I had.

And then I relaxed. I was focusing so much attention on wanting a larger room, that I wasn’t fully enjoying my evening in Lisbon. That night, I was strolling the Bairro Alto‘s web of narrow streets, looking for a spot for dinner, but still miffed about a room I wasn’t even in at the moment. That was my fault.

After all, my travel experience should be about more than just the size of my hotel room. Yes, it’s nice to attain the best room possible, but I’d caution against letting our accommodation desires (“I asked for a balcony!”) get confused for the reason we travel. If I was just traveling to pamper myself with comforts, I could just check myself into a spa for the weekend—back home.

Part of traveling is about not always being in control. That is what I told myself, at least, as I relaxed and settled into my funny, lumpy, little room.

Which is also why I showed up—and checked in—to my next hotel bright and early.

Your advice?

Do you have any tips on how to avoid getting stuck with a stinker of a room? Share them with us in the comments section.

The post Strategy: How to not get stuck with the worst room in the hotel appeared first on EuroCheapo's Budget Travel Blog.

I had studied up on the city’s tram system in advance, and knew that to get from Centraal Station to my hotel, the cute-and-simple Museumzicht next to the Rijksmuseum, I could board either the number 4 or 5 tram at the station and hop off next to the museum. Either of the trams would work just fine, and they both ran on Sunday. But it wasn’t to be.

An unplanned walking tour

Part of the fun of travel are the events, planned and otherwise, that throw off your best planning. On Sunday there wasn’t a 4 or 5 tram to be found at the station. No trams at all, in fact, were running south along my route. It was windy and starting to rain, and the hotel was nearly three kilometers away. Forget about a taxi.

I didn’t have much of a choice but to shrug and literally roll with it, toting my luggage with the masses down Damrak, the tourist-clogged thoroughfare that leads south from the station, getting a wet welcome from the souvenir shops, fry stands and “sex museums” that line the way.

We all rolled on to Dam Square, the heart of the city, which was blinking and twirling on this rainy morning with a fall carnival in front of the palace, its Ferris Wheel and haunted house understandably empty. We continued south along the wide sidewalks of the Rokin. Bikes whizzed past in the rain, and pedestrians dared the unthinkable—walking along the tram lines, which had pretty much fallen silent.

Next time I’ll rent one of these. (Bikes parked at the impressive three-story bike parking garage next to Centraal Station.)

Crowds picked up as I crossed the four canals ringing the center, the Singel (with its flower market), the stately Herengracht, Keizersgracht and Prinsengracht, all lined with beautiful homes and docked houseboats. It was a great way to arrive in the city, even if the wheels on my suitcase were getting cranky.

Finally, at the Stadhouderskade, the busy street lining the Singelgracht canal in front of the Rijksmuseum, a stream of runners from around the world huffed their ways toward the nearby Vondelpark. A crowd of pedestrians watched and cheered on, then crossed the street in a tight pack, flawlessly orchestrated by the police.

I was a bit soggy when I checked into my hotel and hoisted my suitcase up the 67 comically steep steps to my third-floor room. However, it was worth being reminded again that when traveling, all kinds of events can lead to unplanned marathons of your own. Roll with it.

Cruising Utrecht’s canals on Saturday.

A pleasant detour to Utrecht

Of course, I should have known about the marathon. Last month when booking my Amsterdam hotels, I was shocked by the high hotel rates for this past weekend. I was arriving on Friday morning in Amsterdam from New York, but the cheapest decent hotel I could find was more than $300 a night!

There was clearly something happening in the city—so I booked a hotel in Utrecht, a short ride away by train and far cheaper. Thus, I spent Friday and Saturday, the first two days of my trip, getting to know that charming university town, while still able to make daily commutes to Amsterdam to explore.

The view from my balcony at the Hotel Admiraal in Utrecht.

It turned out to be a pretty big money-saver. My room was €95 a night at the art-filled Hotel Admiraal, located in a residential part of town and overlooking a large private garden. The room had a small balcony (along with a Nespresso machine that got a workout).

Granted, €95 is still far from cheap, but it’s much less expensive that what was on offer in Amsterdam, where most remaining hotels were going for more than €250 a night (due to, you guessed it, the marathon). Harlaam would have been an even closer option, but I wanted to find out what a buzzing Dutch university town felt like.

It was cute. I wandered its Saturday morning market, walked the canals, visited the Medieval Domkerk, grabbed a tasty club sandwich at the King Arthur restaurant along the Oude Gracht canal and then hopped on a train to Amsterdam.

Intercity trains from Utrecht to Amsterdam leave every 20 minutes or so, and the journey takes about 25 minutes. At €7.20 each way (plus a €1 fee per ticket), the trips aren’t really cheap, and the country’s “Chipkaart” ticket system is not exactly tourist-friendly (to put it mildly). Just know that: 1) most American swipe-style credit cards won’t work at either the ticket machines or the ticket counter (pay in cash); and 2) you must tap your tickets on the yellow machines in the station to validate them before boarding a train and when leaving (otherwise, well, great shame could fall upon you by a ticket inspector).

The view of the Rijskmuseum from the breakfast room of the Hotel Museumzicht.

Hotel hunting

And thus, yesterday, happily situated in my hotel in Amsterdam’s museum quarter, I started my four-city hotel inspection adventure, one which started with this city’s picturesque canal-side B&Bs, before continuing on to find the best affordable hotels in Munich, Prague and Berlin.

Watch your step! Standing at the top of the stairs at the Museumzicht.

I’m eager to visit and update all of our reviews in these cities, dropping just “ho-hum” hotel listings, while focusing our reviews on the real deals out there. A cheap hotel is easy to find; just do a search and sort by price. However, places that are charming, small, interesting, impeccably kept, central… and affordable? These are a bit trickier to track down.

It’s going to mean a few weeks of climbing steep staircases to reception areas, inspecting bedrooms, snapping photos of bathrooms and trying to read the faces of the guests I pass in the hallways. (Do they seem well rested? Tired? Creeped out by my quizzical stare?)

You can follow along on our Facebook and Instagram pages, where I’m posting photos along the way.

Now, back to hotel inspections. Although this time I might hop on a tram. I hear they’re running!

The post Rolling Along: A Cheapo at Work in Amsterdam appeared first on EuroCheapo's Budget Travel Blog.

Today let’s move a bit southwest and examine five hotels in the 10th and 11th arrondissments, neighborhoods which are actually closer to the center of the city. I believe that each of these hotels represents a fine value and should be considered by EuroCheapo’s editors for possible inclusion as “editor’s picks” in the future.

Renovations in the 10th

Two hotels in the 10th have undergone recent refurbishment and are luring guests in with their fine qualities and affordable rates. These include:

The Hotel Garden Saint Martin, situated in the proximity of the Canal Saint-Martin gets very high marks for cleanliness and location, and offers singles at €100 and doubles at €110. (35 Rue Yves Toudic, 75010)

Located a few blocks away from the Garden Saint Martin, the Belta Hotel has also received glowing reviews for its friendly staff, its good continental breakfast and its overall value, with rooms starting at €115. (46 Rue Lucien Sampaix, 75010)

Meanwhile in the 11th…

The Hotel Beaumarchais, located about half way between République and Bastille and near the Eastern edge of the Marais, introduces itself as “The cheapest 3-star funky hotel in the Marais district.” With singles starting at €92 and doubles at €120, the Beaumarchais’ rates are not precisely “cheapo” but are a convenient deal, considering the strategic location, the well-equipped, air-conditioned rooms, the comfortable bathrooms and the presence of an elevator at the premises. The staff has been justly celebrated for its friendliness and helpfulness. (3 Rue Oberkampf, 75011)

Update (August 2015): The Grand Hotel de l’Avenue (see below) has been rechristened the Ibis Paris Avenue de la République, with rates from €63. This is what we had to say about its predecessor:

Housed in a vintage Parisian building, the charming Grand Hotel de l’Avenue, described as a “petit hotel familial,” offers 40 rooms with fully equipped bathrooms, direct phone, TV, and double glass-windows. Its low prices (€72 for a single, €85-88 for a double/twin) attract an eclectic clientele, which has grown more and more enthusiastic over the years. (14 rue Rampon, 75011)

Printania Temple: A Cheapo that deserves a review

A small hotel near the Cirque d’Hiver (11th) has recently been going up in the ratings, given its excellent quality/price ratio and, in the process, baffling the connoisseurs. The Printania Temple, unknown to many, is an example of an extreme “offline” hotel. Without a website or email address, or any possibility of booking through the online methods, the Printania’s popularity is passed by word-of-mouth among its hardcore fans.

This circle of friends—they actually sound like an extended family—consistently praise the owners (especially Raymonde, the patronne), the welcoming staff, the cleanness and comfort of the premises and the low prices. These rates, only mentioned in passing in some reviews, appear to lie in the zone of €55-60 per night.

Whether it’s a concealed candidate for a well-deserved EuroCheapo accolade or it’s just the spinster aunt of other properties near the Place de la République, this intriguing hotel deserves better attention. (16 Boulevard du Temple, 75011. Phone: +33 1 47 00 33 46)

Need more budget hotel suggestions? Look no further than our guide to cheap hotels in Paris, with hotel picks that have been inspected and reviewed by EuroCheapo’s editors.

The post Paris: 5 hotels in the 10th and 11th that should be on the Cheapo radar appeared first on EuroCheapo's Budget Travel Blog.

These days, the same building houses a different sort of hotel, not the one with the ugly wallpaper—a squalid place called Hotel L’Alsace—but now a Left Bank darling, a luxury hotel simply named L’Hôtel.

Cheapo picks go from “budget” to “boutique”

In the past few years, Paris has seen several instances of inexpensive hotels closing their doors, being renamed and revamped before finally reopening as full-fledged boutique properties. However, the great majority of them had not been fleabags crying for renewal—or corrective closure—but popular and beloved quality budget hotels.

Things went quickly from budget to boutique when the once cheapo Sejour-Beaubourg (top) transformed itself into the Hotel Georgette (bottom). (Top photo by EuroCheapo, bottom photo from the Hotel Georgette’s website.)

Several properties have followed this course of events and EuroCheapo has mourned the loss of each passing budget hotel. The Lyon Mulhouse—my very favorite Parisian hotel for years—became the Hotel Original; the Séjour Beaubourg is now the Georgette, and the Sévigné in the Marais, was reborn as the Émile.

Hotel Crayon by Elegancia, located in an enviable spot in the shadow of the Louvre, is the former Louvre Forum, now thoroughly refurbished and rechristened, while the modern and sophisticated Design Hotel Sorbonne, in the Left Bank, was the Hotel de la Sorbonne in its past life.

Also, smack dab in the middle of the Latin Quarter, two other exceedingly cheapo-friendly hotels have closed their doors. The former Delhy’s, now defunct and in cheapo-heaven, has been transmogrified into Le Clos de Notre Dame. This three-star newcomer, decorated in a design style, has announced its imminent opening, which will be celebrated with free champagne.

On the other hand, the mythic Les Argonautes, a favorite of budget-conscious bohemians and night owls, closed a couple of years ago and its ultimate fate is a mystery.

Almost all these new boutique hotels are doing very well indeed. Their quite fabulous rooms, the bold decor and excellent service have attracted a different legion of fans. The better for them!

The Hotel Lyon-Mulhouse (top) was a EuroCheapo favorite for years. It transformed itself last year into the much fancier (and pricier) Hotel Original (bottom).

Adieu to a favorite cheap sleep

However, I was shocked and saddened when the Lyon Mulhouse closed. That was a neat, utterly comfortable and welcoming place, which boasted an exceptional location—a short walk from Place de la Bastille and the magnificent Place des Vosges (and within walking distance of most of central and east Paris, either of the left or the right bank). The front staff was incredibly courteous and friendly: Nothing seemed too much trouble for them and they were genuinely helpful. The hotel prices were extremely advantageous. A real gem; one in a million.

To get an idea of what the place was like, here is the groovy description that Theadora Brack, EuroCheapo’s chronicler extraordinaire wrote a couple of years ago (“…so start packing your raccoon coats because the Hôtel Lyon-Mulhouse is the real McCoy…”).

All these losses makes EuroCheapo ever more appreciative of those hotels that resist renovating away all of their charms.

[Where else would a letter carrier from Denver, Colorado on her first European holiday, rub elbows and fraternize with some upbeat musicians from South America, or enterprising college girls from Taiwan get the first taste of the Vie de Bohème by ecstatically listening to the elocutions of a would-be Arthur Rimbaud, in search of inspiration in the university of life that is Paris? Would you picture these disparate characters in anything other than an utterly romantic, charming hotel as the ones described in detail by the EuroCheapo knowledgeable diarists?]

Deconstructing the trend

This rather recent trend of successful boutique hotels being born from the ashes of highly popular and quality budget ones (rather than from discredited and rundown sleeps, of which there are plenty) implicitly generates a couple of perverse—and wrong—corollaries.

The first is that a budget hotel and a boutique-type one are mutually exclusive. What an absurd notion. While both types have their own core constituencies, they can also sometimes overlap. You can at times book a room in some of the bijou hotels for more or less 100 euros, as Lise Charlebois-Ludot has persuasively discussed in her column “Paris: 5 Budget hotels with boutique style“, or for a little more, as in the sleek and comfortable Design Hotel Sorbonne. So, definitely, there is room for everyone in Paris.

The other notion is that the idea of a “deluxe” type hotel is indisputably a modern one, meanwhile dismissing affordable and simple sleeps as outdated and passé.

Really? We all know about the inflated costs typical of several expensive multi-star hotels, where you have to pay extra not only for the utilitarian Wi-Fi but for a myriad of useless gadgets. But, above all, you’ll be overcharged for the added decoration, at times extravagant and overdone, perpetrated by a designer with an inflated ego.

The quirky lounge of the super cheap Hotel Les Argonautes in the heart of the Latin Quarter. The hotel has now closed, its fate uncertain. Photo: EuroCheapo

Consequences of the boutique craze

As a result of all of this, there are fewer decent budget hotels available to budget-conscious tourists. Consequently, we will have to conform to pay more, now for rooms in properties with lesser quality/price ratios than those of our old favorites. In this scenario of spiraling costs, it’s we who pay in the long run, indirectly bearing the costs of the (usually unnecessary) designers’ oeuvre—as well as playing a part in the overall swelling of property values and real estate speculation.

Many of these reforms are made in the name of “modernity.” However, there is nothing remotely avant-garde or modern about the restrictive concept that sees being wealthy as a prerequisite for being able to travel. On the contrary, this is an archaic—and rather offensive—assumption.

Nor is there anything particularly new about paying a fortune for sojourning in a room that recreates the stuffy ambiance of the “Thousand-and-one Nights'” tales. Maybe that’s cute and extremely exotic, but modern? Maybe it was breathtakingly innovative during the Orientalists’ heyday, a century and a half ago…

In today’s world to be truly modern is to empower the cost-conscious and adventurous travelers, especially young people, to reach their varied goals and broaden their horizons. Budget-savvy travel is a mindset, and goes hand in hand with its natural companion: slow travel.

This is a notion that Wilde would have happily espoused. Now, that is a modern concept!

Share your thoughts!

Who do you think wins when hotels go from budget to boutique? Is this trend perfectly normal and, in fact, good for the consumer? Have you been heartbroken by the closure of your favorite budget hotel? Share your thoughts in our comments section below.

The post Paris: Who wins when budget hotels go boutique? appeared first on EuroCheapo's Budget Travel Blog.

Ten years ago this week, we launched EuroCheapo from my apartment in Berlin with a guide to 25 budget hotels in Paris. On June 14, 2001, with three friends huddled around my desk, I clicked “upload,” refreshed the browser, and watched djddz.com come to life.

True to “cheapo form,” we clinked glasses of inexpensive sparkling wine and went off for a Vietnamese dinner in Prenzlauer Berg.

The "Original Cheapos": Gianni, me and my old red bike reunited in Berlin in 2008.

2001: A Web Odyssey

Remember early 2001? George Bush was sworn into his first term in January. The US economy was rolling along and airline security less restrictive. European travel was different: You shopped with francs in France, Deutsche Marks in Germany and (lots and lots) of lira in Italy.

I had been dreaming of writing a guide that would promote the idea that European travel could be affordable for everyone. As I’m particularly fond of small, interesting hotels, I decided to focus on them. Guidebooks covered some of these, it was true. But I thought we could find an audience by only writing about cheap hotels, showing photos, and putting it all on the Web for free.

To start the site, I flew to London in January 2001 and tried to sleuth out cheap sleeps in the Bloomsbury neighborhood. That first day I knocked on the doors of B&B’s along Gower Street.

But there was a problem: The city was flooded with B&B’s. There were dozens of them lining Gower Street alone, and they all looked about the same from the outside. How was this ever going to work?

Kari and Alex working in my apartment, summer of 2005.

Saved, by Cheapo standards

I panicked… and headed to Rome, where my friend Gianni Bettucci helped me get my–and the site’s–act together. At the tourist information office by Termini Station they handed over a thick directory of every hotel and alberghi in the city.

On the back of a place mat at a nearby Chinese restaurant we listed out what we called our “EuroCheapo Standards.” To even be visited and “inspected,” the hotels had to be centrally located and cheap. To be chosen as an editor’s pick, they had to be clean and, ideally, smaller, non-chain properties. Bonus points would be awarded for personality.

I'm failing to impress the receptionist at the Winston Hotel in Amsterdam in 2005.

We got to work inspecting bedrooms, taking notes, and snapping photos of beds, showers and breakfast rooms. All the while we were explaining a site that didn’t exist to somewhat skeptical proprietors. In a few cases, we even had to explain the concept of the Internet. (“Is it like the fax?” asked one B&B owner in Rome. “Kind of.”)

Throughout the spring of 2001, we also visited hotels in Amsterdam, Florence, Paris and Prague. And yes, I revisited and re-tackled London.

Throughout the first month in the new office we didn't have an Internet connection. We tried to find one wherever we could.

Finally, we set up our apartment (with office) in Berlin’s Friedrichshain neighborhood. I spent a couple of months composing the hotel reviews and designing the site at the Staatsbibliothek near Potsdamer Platz.

How was the site going to make any money? Easy–banner ads! I proudly coded one into the top of the home page. There were also some ads to Amazon.com that could pay a small commission if somebody bought a guidebook. These would pay the rent, right?

Finally, on that balmy June night, we clinked our glasses and celebrated the launch of our new guide. And then we waited for Yahoo! to notice. We’d be waiting for a while. (As for that other, newer search engine with the stripped-down design–we didn’t pay it much attention.)

Dash forward

Growth was slow for the first couple of years. I moved back to New York in 2002, although I headed back to Europe many times a year to add new cities and revisit the old ones. The site started to take off in 2004, which allowed me to hire Kari Hoerchler, followed by Alex Robertson Textor and Vivien Kim Thorp the following year.

The night got late early for Pete and me at Wake Up London in 2005. (The hostel--and dance club--no longer exist.)

At about this time we lost the lease on our sublet office space in SoHo, and the office memorably moved into my apartment in the Lower East Side of Manhattan. There the expanded crew (plus interns!) sweat out the summer of 2005. We moved back into New York’s historic Cable Building at Broadway and Houston several months later, where we remain today.

In 2006, my brother Pete and sister-in-law Meredith became my business partners, and helped take the site to another level professionally. Pete’s business and marketing skills immediately served us well, as did Mere’s editorial experiences. During the following two years we invested heavily in the site’s technology, building a hotel and flights search engine.

Ten years after launching, we’re still hunting down cheap sleeps and taking photos of bathrooms. The “EuroCheapo family” has grown with new hires, correspondents, tech wizards and interns. Like any Web site, we’ve gone through redesigns, logo antics, bug testing (and more bug testing), site crashes, and incredible new launches that leave us proud.

The site has expanded from reviews of 25 hotels in Paris to include hotel recommendations in 28 European cities, a guide to New York, and a blog that publishes dispatches from correspondents around Europe. And we’ve got some new cities ready to launch this summer. (Stay tuned!)

Vivien, Kari, Meredith and Pete in London in 2005

Cheapos I have known…

The site would not exist today without the contributions of the many talented people who have joined the team along the way. We feel fortunate to have found so many others who have agreed with our site’s mission to “help make European travel affordable to everyone.”

Presenting some Very Important Cheapos:

Pete Meyers and Meredith Franco Meyers: Pete and I are brothers, born 15 months apart. We’ve worked summer jobs together and run businesses together (including a wildly–some might say “weirdly”–popular shaved ice stand in Lakeside, Ohio). Therefore, it wasn’t a big surprise to those who know us when Pete and his wife Meredith joined the company in 2006 and became my business partners.

Pete and Meredith officially become my business partners -- and our mother signs as a witness.

It’s hard to imagine what the site would be today without them. The Web site with a funny name suddenly became a “family business,” and I had partners who were deeply invested in and passionate about the business. Pete came from a strong interactive advertising background and took over the business and marketing efforts. Meredith had spent years writing and editing for women’s magazines and gave those skills a “Cheapo” twist.

Kari Hoerchler: Back in New York in 2004, Kari was EuroCheapo’s first hire. During our initial meeting (at the “Big Cup” coffee shop on 8th Avenue in Chelsea), we filled a legal pad with the projects that she’d be tackling during her two days a week. Clearly, she needed to work more days–and I needed to learn how to prioritize projects.

Kari poses as Sarah lines up a shot in 2010.

Since then, Kari has visited hundreds of hotels in Europe (this year, in Seville)–and she currently serves as the listings manager for our hotel search engine. The site would be skimpier without Kari–and the office much less fun.

Suzanne Russo: A master of all editorial trades, Suzanne first interned for EuroCheapo in 2007. We assigned her to fact-check our city guide articles during the day, while she worked on her Masters of English at New York University at night. Sure, she could understand Joyce, but could she make heads or tails of Venice’s vaporetto pass? (Yes, she could.) Suzanne now serves as our listings editor, editing hotel reviews from our correspondents around Europe.

Michael Cargian and James Ellis: Since 2007, Mike and James have been writing and bug-testing the code that makes EuroCheapo work. Mike is on the line daily from San Francisco, and James works his magic from Sydney, Australia. Together, the duo have created a hotel price-comparison search engine, a budget flights search, built a blog, and dealt with many other “Cheapo-” prefixed projects. Without them, the site would be… well, it wouldn’t be.

Meredith, Suzanne and I plotting cities out on a map of Europe in 2011.

Our correspondents: As the site expanded, we needed to find hotel reviewers who could add new cities and revisit the existing listings. Finding the right reviewers can be tricky, as you need someone who shares a sense of value and keeps an eye out for charming touches, quirky details and that certain “je ne sais quoi.”

Additionally, the site sprung to life in 2007 with the launch of the EuroCheapo blog. Suddenly we were publishing daily dispatches about cheap and free things to do in a couple dozen cities. The blog continues to be an extremely important part of the site.

Thus, many, many thanks to the fine writers who have hunted down hotels and penned blog dispatches over the years. And many thanks to our current group of Europe-based writers: Audrey, Bryan, Chaney, Cynthia, Jacy, Jessica, Joann, Laura, Marc, Monica, Nicky, Nicole, Nina, Regina, Susanne and Theadora.

Alex, Vivien, Tom and Pete celebrating the redesign of EuroCheapo in December 2008.

Alex Robertson Textor: Alex joined EuroCheapo in 2005, and quickly attacked our city guides and transportation sections with a sharp eye and budget sensibility. Alex has reviewed hundreds of hotels for us all over Europe, this year in Dublin and London. Alex also served as the EuroCheapo blog editor for its first two years. Today, he also writes for Gadling.com, maintains his own blog, Spendthrift Shoestring, and contributes to numerous publications. Importantly, Alex also introduced our office to the magic of the Eurovision Song Contest.

Vivien and Kari planning their hotel visits while staying at the Hotel Garth in London, 2005.

Vivien Kim Thorp: As Vivien assumed her position as hotel listings editor in 2005, armed with a red pen, she asked, “Which style guide do you follow? AP or Chicago?” I had no idea what she was talking about, no doubt clarifying the scope of the project before her. During her three years at EuroCheapo, Vivien reviewed hotels in several cities, cracked an editorial whip, and greatly elevated the quality of the writing on the site. Today she lives in San Francisco, where she’s finishing off a Masters in journalism.

Sarah Silbert: Originally brought on as a summer intern, Sarah “graduated” into an editorial position at EuroCheapo, where she fact-checked, copy-edited and blogged from 2008-2010. She was also in the cheap hotel trenches, inspecting hotels in Copenhagen and Helsinki for the site. Today Sarah is an associate editor at Laptop Magazine in New York.

Tom, TJ, Laura, Viv, Annie, Alex, Pete

Annie Shapero: For several years, Annie served as our Italy-based correspondent. From her home in Rome, she reviewed hotels in the Eternal City, as well as Florence, Venice and Milan. When Vivien and I first interviewed Annie for the job at a cafe in Rome in 2006 (see photo, below), we immediately knew that we had found a Cheapo-in-spirit (which is evidently why I felt compelled to photograph the event). Today Annie lives in New York where she runs DiVino Wine Events, and she still reviews hotels for us in Italy (this summer updating our Milan guide).

Gianni Bettucci: After helping me out that first year, Gianni launched a career stage managing and producing theater in Berlin. He now runs the incredible Familie Flõz troupe of masked performers and still lives in Berlin’s Prenzlauer Berg.

Finally, my family has been involved in the business from the very beginning. Of special mention:

Vivien and I met with Annie Shapero in April 2006 in Rome. We hired her on the spot.

“Grandma Miller,” over the course of a Fourth of July family game in 2000, came up with the site’s original name, AntsyPants.com. I registered it the next week and was approached immediately by another company to buy it. (Those were the days…) I sold it, and this provided much of the site’s start-up capital. (“EuroCheapo” was a back-up name. Read more about this on Budget Travel’s Web site.)

Aunt Jeanie and Uncle Mel made an additional family investment (along with cousins Drew and Dave) that funded much of that first year in Berlin. We still hold annual meetings.

My mother and father: My dad, a lawyer, incorporated the business in 2001 and tended to the banking when I was traveling those first years, while my mother has been a constant source of support and encouragement through every entrepreneurial endeavor. Traveling with them in Europe is always a blast.

"Travel Gram" on a trip with me in Salzburg, 2004.

Eileen Detlefsen, a.k.a. “Grandma Det,” a newspaper woman since the 1930’s, continues to serve as a source of inspiration and occasional columnist, as “Travel Gram.” Eileen founded and operated her own newspaper in the 1950’s and 1960’s with my grandfather, and my mother and aunts were teen columnists. She still has the best copy-editing skills I know. (Read more about “Travel Gram.”)

Ben and Elizabeth: My two other siblings, both of whom have worked as editors, have offered thoughtful advice, editing help, and introduced us to interns. I ran the site for six months from my sister and (now) brother-in-law Matt’s home in upstate New York after returning from Berlin in 2002.

Guillaume: My partner and sounding board for business (and non-business) matters. During the past five years, he’s participated in thousands of hours of business discussions–and changed my mind about many things.

Louie, one of our early interns.

Looking forward

The Web is constantly evolving and user expectations have shifted dramatically since we launched the site ten years ago. This can be a daunting challenge.

I believe, however, that there will always be a demand for expert budget travel advice. I look forward to the next ten years, and am hopeful that, blessed with the talents of this group and the Cheapos yet to come, we will continue to provide a service that is helpful and relevant.

A meaningful travel experience in Europe doesn’t need to be expensive. We’ll do our best to promote ways to keep it affordable–and accessible–for as many readers as possible. We hope you’ll join us.

The post EuroCheapo Turns 10: Cheapos who made it possible appeared first on EuroCheapo's Budget Travel Blog.

Hosted at the Cantor Film Center in Greenwich Village, the two-day event featured panels, presentations, and readings featuring travel bloggers hailing from the US and abroad, some coming to town from as far away as New Zealand. The schedule was jam packed from mid-morning through late afternoon, allowing the more than 300 guests to learn from one another, compare notes, and discuss the intricacies of the travel blog industry with their peers.

In other words, it was the perfect weekend to throw a big party!

To celebrate the occasion, we collaborated with our friends from BootsnAll.com and invited all conference attendees to join us in the East Village on Saturday night for an evening of “anything goes.” What follows is a photo recap of an enjoyable, loud night in New York City.

(Note: We’re missing the names and Web sites of many partygoers pictured in the photos. Please help us out by emailing us the names, Twitter handles, and Web sites of those not named. You can also post the information in the comments section below. When sending a name, please include the corresponding photo number. Many thanks!)

1. First start with an interesting conference full of fun attendees: Here’s the crowd lining up to get in to TBEX 2010 on Saturday morning.

2. Then wait about eight hours and usher everyone to a lounge in the East Village. We had chosen The Professor’s Loft.

3. Next, add personable hosts for the evening: Tom Meyers and Sean Keener.

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The post Photo Essay: The EuroCheapo and BootsnAll TBEX Party appeared first on EuroCheapo's Budget Travel Blog.

Last week, in the wake of the eruption of Iceland’s Eyjafjallajökull volcano, first the countries of northern and western Europe closed their airports. And then country after country to the south and east followed suit. The whole thing proceeded as if by incredibly rapid viral transmission. Very quickly all sorts of relatively arcane volcano terminology began to crop up on television news programs in Europe.

The ash arrives in Romania and Moldova

For days I monitored the expanding shade of ash across the BBC’s map of Europe. Then on Saturday morning, I awoke to learn from an employee at our hotel in Gura Humorului, Romania that Romania and Moldova had closed their airports. Suddenly it seemed likely that I too would be directly affected by the air travel stoppage that had come to paralyze Europe.

The lack of regular updates by trusted sources became a source of frustration. Eurocontrol, the European Organization for the Safety of Air Navigation, has been updating their volcanic ash cloud maps far too infrequently. And then there are many publications listing European countries with full or partial airspace closures that have been omitting Moldova from their tabulations altogether, despite the fact that the Chisinau airport has been closed for days.

Taking flight today?

Today I’m scheduled to fly from Chisinau to Istanbul on Turkish Airlines. As of this moment, very early on Tuesday morning in Chisinau, my flight is scheduled to take off as planned around noon.

My mother—my traveling companion for the past week-and-a-half—is supposed to be Milan-bound on Meridiana at noon tomorrow. Her flight has been canceled outright. We’ve spent many of the last few hours sketching out contingency plans for her. Happily, she’s on vacation and can take the time to make her way south and west.

The post Flight Memo: Volcanic ash across Europe appeared first on EuroCheapo's Budget Travel Blog.

I recently returned from two weeks in Europe, one spent in Paris and one in Venice. This was a work trip, during which I visited about 90 hotels for EuroCheapo. I brought along my laptop, but what to do with my iPhone? Was there an economical way to use it in France and Italy? Should I pay for one of the international data packages offered by AT&T (my carrier)? Should I get a new SIM Card? Should I just leave the thing in New York?

Connecting with friends and travel companions is obviously aided by sending text messages. Those, however, don’t always work with American cell phones and, if they do, require an international phone connection. And if you turn on your connection, you could receive phone calls from home — which will cost you. But I’m getting ahead of myself…

I realized that my iPhone could be handy. But how could I use it without going broke?

After hours of hair-pulling and squinting at fine print (and some phone time with Verizon and AT&T employees), we have compiled a list of pointers for American travelers hoping to use their iPhones in Europe.

Click below to get started:

Setting up your phone to avoid a billing “surprise”

How to buy a SIM card in Europe for your phone

Tips for AT&T Customers

Tips for Verizon Customers

Tips for Windows, Android and Blackberry Customers

AT&T, Verizon & T-Mobile: A comparison of international plans

How to Keep Your Smartphone Safe in Paris… and What to Do if It Gets Stolen

The post Using an American iPhone in Europe… without going broke appeared first on EuroCheapo's Budget Travel Blog.

Although excited (a bit like a child on Christmas morning), I had no difficulty falling back asleep, lulled by the steady rainfall. At 9 AM, when I went downstairs to breakfast, I headed straight to the hotel’s front door to check out the scene. Sure enough, the water had come, turning my street, the Calle de Botteghe, into a stream.

A metal water guard.

My hotel is the charming, 10-room Locanda Art Deco just off Campo Santo Stefano, in Venice’s San Marco district. Last night before heading to bed, the receptionist had warned me about the water’s expected arrival. “It should start in the morning and peak at 10 AM, when it hits 1.15 meters [above the water table],” he explained. They really have this down to a science.

I’ve been in Venice all week, visiting about 50 hotels for our Venice guide, updating reviews and scouting out new picks. In between rooms, I’ve had a chance to talk water with the hotel owners. Yesterday, one owner showed me a text message she received during the day warning her of today’s expected flooding. They’re high-tech!

The water hits the city unevenly, depending on elevation. The Piazza San Marco is one of the lowest points in the city, and is thus constantly flooded. I took the photo at the top of this post yesterday in the piazza, while hardly any other streets were flooded. Note the pedestrian walkways the city constructs to help tourists cross the most heavily-trafficked areas.

This morning, I approached the hotel’s front door to find a metal guard secured in the doorway, locked against the front of the building to keep the stream at bay.

The Calle de Botteghe, this morning.

The morning receptionist explained that, in fact, the water wasn’t as bad as expected. “They told us to expect 1.15, but it turns out it will only be 1.05,” she told me, with a bit of a smile and a shrug. That’s nothing, in fact. If it goes over 1.2 meters, the water will enter the hotel’s lobby, forcing them to move all of the furniture (and there’s quite a bit!) up a staircase to the second landing.

Meanwhile, outside on the Calle de Botthege, Venetians sloshed by in their rubber boots, unfazed. A delivery man pushed a cart past the hotel stacked with boxes headed for the wine shop next door. Life goes on.

The water is set to peak at 10 AM (which is, by the way, right now as I write this in my room), and then subside over the next hour. The rain stopped about two hours ago, but it will take that long for Venice’s drainage system to do its work.

As for the city’s tourists, you either stay put and wait, or shove off. A British couple sitting at the breakfast table next to me decided to go for it. With the rest of us watching from our tables, they stood a bit apprehensively at the door, behind the metal guard, “Lonely Planet” in hand, sporting their heaviest shoes (decidedly not rubber boots). And then they took the plunge. The water went up over their feet, and they pushed off down the street.

As for me, I’ll give it a few minutes to drain before I set sail. But alas, the rain just picked up again.

Hmmm. Which pair of shoes do you think…

The post Venice: Postcard from a city under water appeared first on EuroCheapo's Budget Travel Blog.

The new guide to cheap hotels in Helsinki takes us into exciting new territory, farther north and east than any of our other guides.

Sarah Silbert, a contributing editor who covered the city following her update of Copenhagen, was initially surprised by the high rates of hotels in Helsinki while planning her trip. “I had expected that, like other cities covered on the site, there would be a wide variety of budget sleeping options. But ‘budget’ in Helsinki is different than ‘budget’ in Berlin,” she explained.

While Helsinki has a few hostels and pensions to accommodate the most budget-minded of travelers, even these are a bit more expensive than the same type of lodging in other European cities. A dorm at the Hostel Erottajanpuisto, for example, costs $36 a night.

“In Helsinki,” Sarah said, “that’s really cheap.”

Bumping up a notch, a double room with shared bath at the Eurohostel runs $72-$84 a night. Despite its name, the property only offers private rooms, not dorms. “I stayed at the Eurohostel and found it to be a good option, especially considering the steep rates at other hotels in Helsinki.”

EuroCheapo’s Helsinki guide also includes a number of three-star hotels, as well as travelers’ apartments and even one four-star pick. The city guide articles cover basics like Helsinki city transportation, expect to spend, and budget tips to keep it cheap.

The post Helsinki: EuroCheapo launches guide to cheap hotels in Helsinki appeared first on EuroCheapo's Budget Travel Blog.