Cutoff for Special Hotel ABA Room Rate This Monday!

Book Now to Receive $159/Night Rate & Great Package of Benefits

The special room rate for ABA member booksellers at this year's Hotel ABA -- the New York Marriott at the Brooklyn Bridge in Brooklyn -- which was lowered last week from $183 to $159 per night -- expires this Monday, May 4. ABA members who want to ensure they receive the special rate and the expanded package of benefits available to Hotel ABA guests must book by May 4 via the Marriott's dedicated reservation webpage for ABA members.

After May 4, booksellers who would like accommodations at Hotel ABA at the special rate will need to contact ABA's Sarah Rettger to be put on a waiting list. Booksellers with Hotel ABA reservations that they no longer need are also asked to contact Rettger to cancel their reservations, so the rooms stay in the ABA block and can be filled by waiting booksellers on a first-come, first-served basis.

Benefits available to booksellers staying at Hotel ABA include:

• Extra Free BEA Badge: In addition to the free badge offer available to ABA member stores, each ABA-member bookseller registered as a guest at Hotel ABA is entitled to one extra complimentary badge for admission to BEA (from Thursday, May 28 - Sunday, May 31, at the Javits Convention Center). Yes, that's per bookstore employee, not per bookstore. To claim a free Hotel ABA guest badge, send an e-mail request to ABA's Kristen Gilligan.

• Complimentary MetroCard: Complimentary New York City MetroCards, sponsored by John Wiley & Sons, will be available to ABA-member booksellers staying at Hotel ABA. Each card covers four rides to help Hotel ABA guests avoid New York City rush-hour traffic on Thursday and Friday during BEA. MetroCards will be available for pick-up at the Hotel ABA Welcome Desk in the Marriott Lobby. (One MetroCard per bookseller while supplies last.)
  
  And to help make sure that your subway trip from the hotel to the Convention Center goes without a hitch, ABA has reprised "Brooklyn's Hotel ABA to Manhattan's Javits Convention Center: A Photo Journey," which proved so useful to Hotel ABA guests during the 2007 trade show. (BEA is providing shuttle buses between the hotel and the convention center, but they're prone to delays during NYC rush hour on Thursday and Friday.)

• Limited Free Theatre-Seating at BEA Author Breakfasts & Lunch: Enjoy the authors, not the food. Complimentary theatre-seating tickets at BEA's meal functions are available upon request on a first-come, first-served basis. One free ticket per ABA-member bookseller staying at Hotel ABA, while supplies last. To request a ticket, e-mail Sarah Rettger.

• Morning Coffee: Grab a cuppa joe to go or sit, chat, and plan your day... Located just beyond ABA's Welcome Desk and next to the hotel's bar on Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday mornings from 6:30 a.m. - 9:00 a.m.
  
  There will also be a special Saturday morning "Tea-and-Crumpets Breakfast" sponsored by Little, Brown and Company Books for Young Readers in celebration of the publication of The Julie Andrews Collection.

• Evening Parties: Just show up on Wednesday and Thursday nights from 9:00 p.m. to midnight! Wednesday night's party in the Marriott's Grand Ballroom is brought to you by BEA and Random House. Thursday's An Evening in Honor of Avin Mark Domnitz (in the Legends Ballroom) is brought to you by ABA, BEA, Hachette Book Group, HarperCollins, Harry N. Abrams, Hyperion, Ingram Book Company, Macmillan, Penguin Group USA, Random House, Simon & Schuster, and Workman. Supporting sponsors are Grove/Atlantic and Scholastic.

• In-Hotel BEA Badge Pick-Up: Convenient, quick, and located right at ABA's Welcome Desk in the hotel lobby.

• Author-Guided Walking Tour of the Brooklyn Bridge: Author and New York City expert Kevin Baker (Striver's Row) will walk with a limited number of ABA-member booksellers across the legendary and iconic Brooklyn Bridge -- just like the elephants did all those years ago. (Go on the tour and find out what that means.) The tour is scheduled for Wednesday, May 27, at 4:00 p.m. To sign-up for the tour, send an e-mail request to Sarah Rettger.

• Chance to Win a Full Scholarship to the 2010 ABA Winter Institute in San Jose, California: It just keeps getting better and better, doesn't it? All ABA member booksellers staying at Hotel ABA will automatically be entered into the scholarship drawing, which will take place after BEA when ABA receives the final rooming list from the Brooklyn Marriott.