STORY:
Wall Street Hotel Closed to Revelers

Instead of champagne, it's caffeine in hotel's 'celebration-free zone'

The Holiday Inn Wall Street, one of New York's most wired hotel, has announced that it is completely sold out for the millennium to 10 Wall Street firms which will house a total of 138 Y2K troubleshooters for 2 to 3 nights in the hotel.

Businesses including the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, Morgan Stanley, Credit Suisse First Boston, Solomon Smith Barney and Merrill Lynch have booked rooms for their "techies" who will be on call and in the immediate area if Y2K affects any computer systems. Many of the techies will be "hot-bunking" as they will be working 12-hour shifts and housekeeping will be changing beds at 3:00 AM.

"Due to our prime location in the financial district near Silicon Alley and our hi-tech amenities, we have closed our doors to revelers and have created a `celebration-free zone' for our Y2K troubleshooting guests," said Director of Sales Marketing Mark O'Day in a press release.

Under a program called NY2K, the Holiday Inn Wall Street offers it Millennium Eve working guests a few items they will need to get through the night of December 31, 1999. A bottle of champagne, a bottle of aspirin, a carafe of fresh coffee, $25 in "mad money" to be used toward the in-room mini bar and a free phone card to call home are included in the $450 per night room rate.

"Since most firms have asked us to strike the champagne section out of the contract," continued O'Day, "we are fortifying their techies with bags of Starbuck's coffee and $25 in `mad money' so they can raid the mini bar while working through the night."

Source: Holiday Inn Press Release

DATE:12/6/99

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