Cutting Costs At Goldman Means Bunking at Embassy Suites

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB12368169927460244…

Hilarious article in today's Wall Street Journal:

"One night recently, a dozen Goldman employees from the Chicago office were yucking it up at happy hour, which starts at 5:30 sharp. The group was huddled around three tables in a cafeterialike room overlooking the headquarters of Merrill Lynch & Co., now owned by Bank of America, drinking free Budweiser out of plastic cups and eating pretzels and tortilla chips. Another evening, topics of conversation around the bar ranged from Bermuda reinsurers to hedge-fund fraud........

.....Life was grander back in 2007, when Goldman booked record earnings of $11.6 billion. If visiting a Midtown client, employees could stay at New York's Plaza Athenee, which features "luxurious European fabrics in a French contemporary décor," according to the hotel Web site. Its quoted nightly rate is $795. The Carlyle's current, undiscounted room rate is $755. Those who wanted to be near Goldman's headquarters at 85 Broad St. near Wall Street, could bed down at the downtown Ritz-Carlton, where rooms typically cost $495 a night. (Corporations sometimes negotiate lower room rates at all these hotels.) "Thank goodness, other companies are still appreciating European luxury," said a spokeswoman for the Plaza Athenee, who said that other investment banks -- she wouldn't say which ones -- are still using the hotel."