December 20, 2005

New Year's Eve in New York: guides, guides, guides

Still more than a week away, a number of media outlets have come up with guides to making the most of New Year's Eve. Several are worth checking out:

New York Post New Year’s Eve guide
New York Times New Year’s Eve guide
FreeNYC New Year’s Eve Survival Guide
Gothamist's low-crowd options
OpenTable.com for restaurants open New Year’s Eve
New Year’s Eve hotel packages found at HotelChatter.com

NOO.com, a New Year’s Eve planning site that sells tickets to a number of events, is starting its second year in New York City.

Noo.com launched last year under a similar format as NYCNYE.com with 26 venues. This year it lists more than 50 events in 10 categories so far, though NOO.com founder Mahdad Taheri said he hopes to have 100 events before 2006 arrives.

Based on last year, the busiest days for the site will be December 26 through the 30th, with clubs and cruises selling out first – and some venues raise their prices closer to New Year's Eve, he said. Last year Spirit Cruises and Ruby Falls were the most popular bookings.

NYCNYE did have a problem with an event at one restaurant last year, which Taheri said was the fault of a promoter who oversold the event. NYCNYE had to refund 15 tickets as a result, Taheri said. NOO "will keep a strict policy going forward with promoters who oversell events. We do not have someone on call on NYE to handle problems because there isn't too much we can do if venues oversell an event, and hopefully we will avoid such a situation. When it comes to new relationships I will stop sales early if I feel that the venue runs a high risk of overselling," Taheri said via e-mail.

The events currently listed at NOO.com include the New York Philharmonic's New Year’s Eve Italian Opera Gala, Bateaux New York, Tribeca Rooftop and Rock Candy nightclub.

Corrected: This entry has been updated to clarify that Mahdad Taheri was the co-founder of NYCNYE but the sole founder of NOO.com.

Earlier: New site aims to ease New Year's planning, ticketing

Update: More New Year's Eve links ...

Slavic-related New Year’s Eve parties (Slavs of New York)
Affordable NYC Hotels for New Years (Gadling)
NYC NYE Roundup (Gridskipper)
New Year's Eve Parties (Murph Guide)

December 20, 2005 11:35 AM in Etceterology

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