EuroCheapo, one of the online world’s most popular travel sites, celebrates their 10th anniversary this week. According to the news the European budget hotel finders will also launch new guides for Zurich and San Francisco. Argo Travel says Happy Birthday to one of the web’s most visited online travel sites.
The startup that began in Berlin in 2001, bears little resemblance to the one travelers see today. What was a cheap hotel guide tool for people headed to Paris, has evolved into a service offering deals in nearly 30 countries. EuroCheapo’s founder and Editor-In-Chief, Tom Meyers, had this to say via PRWeb press release:
“Since our first day in business, our editors have personally visited, reviewed and photographed thousands of budget-friendly hotels, hostels and B&Bs in major cities in Europe. While the travel industry has greatly changed since our launch, our mission has remained the same: to be a comprehensive, unbiased guide to the best budget hotels out there.”
The company’s plans for this Summer include the launch of guides for Geneva, Switzerland and San Francisco, California sometime in July. And, the news suggests other destinations will be added later in the Fall. Going the way of future OTA’s EuropCheapo now offers not only hotel deals, but budget picks in car rentals, flights, and rail travel as well.
Since we just came from Milan, it seems like a good idea to show off one of EuroCheapo’s deals there, just to say Happy Anniversary. The closest hotel (and EuroCheapo’s top pic for a weekend) actually ended up being about €100 more than we paid for the same nights. Two rooms, 4 people, we got off for about €250 – Hotel Corte del Naviglio, a block over from our hotel, would set us back €354. And as the Google Maps image below refeflects, one block over is not the best neighborhood. EuroCheapo actually meta searched Venere to find it too.
Of course this is an isolated case, Google maps locations have changed a bit, etc. As you can tell by the image of our hotel, it was once a Holiday Inn. Still, €100 difference? And that’s $150 dollars difference to you American readers. It seems to me “deal” is still a relative term. The interesting thing here is that I used Google to find the Idea Hotel, then called and was advised to use the hotel’s website to book – bada boom! No mess ups either. Later on we will do a real comparative to see where EuroCheapo and others sit “deal” wise.
View Comments (2)
Hi Phillip,
Thanks for taking the time to write about EuroCheapo and our 10th anniversary. We really appreciate it.
Regarding the "deal" that you point out--we're hoping you'll give it another go. Not every search turns up the best deals, and not every hotel in our results represents the best deal out there. However, most searches in major European cities will turn up hotels that are central, clean and affordable.
The hotel that you mention, the Hotel Corte del Naviglio, is not one of our "picks," and is in our results because of our partnership with Venere.com, as you mention. We have partnerships with several other reservation agencies, as well, and have built our own meta-search engine to find the best rate across our partners.
I believe our strength, however, is in the hotels that we visit and recommend, with original reviews and photos.
If you search for one room the same weekend (or better yet, the following weekend, further away from Men's Fashion Week, currently running in Milan through the 22nd -- but undoubtedly still affecting availability this coming weekend), you'll see several of these "picks" with original reviews. Many of them have rooms for under 75 euros -- and their locations are much more central than the hotel you pointed out.
As you rightly note, sometimes you can get a better deal by calling the hotel and negotiating a price directly (or through their official website). For this reason, in our guide to hotels in Milan (click on "Milan" on the home page, we include phone numbers. We also recommend this.
Again, thanks for taking the time to write about us. We appreciate your feedback and are always looking for ways to improve our service.
All the best,
Tom Meyers
Editor
EuroCheapo.com
@Tom, Thanks so much for stopping in Tom. Looking back at my story, I actually did not intend to reflect so negatively. Like any search based portal, EuroCheapo is limited, as you say, for the long tail of searching rooms and rates. No platform out there is perfect. Of course I will try again, and advise all our readers too as well.
Part of my job, as I see it, has always been to ferret out both good and bad aspects of websites. Since the days I analyzed beta startups for ReadWriteWeb, Profy, Mashable, and others, developing an eye for - well, you understand. EuropeCheapo is actually one of the best out there, just so my readers know. BUT, always cross check a bit - that is until Phil finds you all the perfect meta search innovation :)
Hey, it may well be Argophilia the Eastern European travel port - coming very soon! Cheers Tom, and keep up the great work.
Always,
Phil