In 2018 we wrote a guide to a year of working on the road; the company was sold in 2020 and shut in December 2024, just as working from anywhere had become normal.
In February 2018 we published a cheerful guide to Remote Year, a programme that let you spend twelve months working your way through cities around the world. We told you what it cost, how it worked and why it might change your life.
Almost nine years later, the how-to part is no use to anyone. Remote Year no longer exists. But the story of what happened to it is worth telling, because it is a strange one: the company was right about the future of work, and it still did not make it.
What we said in 2018
Here is what the original post told you, in short:
- Remote Year was started in 2014 by Greg Caplan and Sam Pessin, and ran its first trip in 2015.
- It was "still new on the scene but quickly picking up steam", with thousands of people applying each year and new programmes added about once a month.
- The full year cost $27,000: a $5,000 deposit, then $2,000 a month while you travelled. There were four-month options too.
- The price covered travel between cities, lodging, round-the-clock workspace, local City Managers and organised local experiences. Meals and your first and last flights were on you.
- It did not find you a job. You brought your own work, or your employer's blessing.
The big idea behind it was one line we wrote almost in passing: "in a growing number of industries, the possibility of remote work is expanding."
The part we got right
That line came true, and then some. After 2020, remote work stopped being a perk for a lucky few and became normal at scale. In the US, full days worked from home rose from 7% of paid workdays in 2019 to 26% in 2025 (WFH Research). The thing Remote Year was built on, the idea that good work can be done from anywhere, went from niche to mainstream in a matter of months.
If you had asked us in 2018 what would happen to a company like this in a world where millions of people suddenly worked remotely, we would have said it would boom. That is not what happened.
What actually happened to Remote Year
The timeline is short and a little sad.
- October 2020. Selina, a hostel-hotel group, bought the Remote Year brand and its customer base in an all-stock deal, announced on 5 October 2020 (Hospitality Net).
- 2024. Selina itself collapsed into administration in July, and in August Collective Hospitality bought most of its business from the administrators (Hospitality Net). Remote Year came with it.
- December 2024. Remote Year shut down, about four months after its new owner had called it a "fabulous business". Remote Year's own statement said the owner had "blocked our last opportunity to continue" (Skift).
So the company was not killed by its idea going out of fashion. It was sold into a larger group, and when that group fell, Remote Year went down with it. We don't know the inside story of each decision, and we won't guess at it. What the public record shows is the outline: an independent company in its fourth year when we wrote about it, then part of someone else's business, then closed.
What we would tell you now
We can't give you an application guide any more. What we can do is pass on what this story taught us, as people who have spent years around coworking and remote work. These are our own takeaways, not a study.
Being early is not the same as winning
Remote Year saw the remote-work wave years before most people did. Being right about a trend did not protect it from what happened to its owner. When you pick a company to build your plans around, whether it is a programme, a platform or an employer, the idea matters, but so does who owns it and how stable they are.
Don't pay a year up front for something you can't get back
The original model asked for a large deposit and then monthly payments. Any long, prepaid commitment carries the risk that the company changes hands or closes before you have had what you paid for. If you sign up for anything similar today, read what happens to your money if the operator stops trading, and prefer shorter commitments where you can.
The good parts are still available, piece by piece
Look again at what Remote Year actually sold: a place to sleep, a desk you could rely on, people to work alongside and someone local to ask for help. None of those depend on one company. A local coworking space, a community of other remote workers and a bit of planning can give you much of the same experience, at your own pace. We wrote about one version of this back then, in our piece on digital nomad retreats.
The "why" still holds
The best part of the original post was not the price list. It was the point that seeing ten days of a country on holiday is not the same as living and working somewhere for weeks at a time. That is still true, and it is easier to act on now than it was in 2018, because remote work is so much more common now than it was then.
The honest scorecard
- Remote work would keep expanding: came true.
- Remote Year was picking up steam: did not last. It was sold in 2020 and closed in December 2024.
- The prices and the how-to-apply advice: out of date. The programme no longer exists.
We liked Remote Year, and we liked writing about it. The idea it was selling won. The company did not survive to see it, and that is worth remembering the next time a business looks certain because its timing looks perfect.
Written 3 November 2026 from the research behind the archive's 2026 updates (checked 30 September, re-verified 3 November 2026). Sources are linked in the text.