New York City Hotels

I had good luck using AppleCore hotels, a group of 5 hotels in central Manhattan that offer reasonable prices. I'd also check Booking.com.

Trivago is not a booking site; it compares hotel rates across various online booking sites and transfers you to the best priced site. A lot of us will use Trivago to get the names of hotels but book directly with the hotel; you often get a better rate. I use booking.com for most of my hotel searches.

You don't need to spend $300 a night - that is just way too much (wait until you see how much entertainment and nice restaurants cost in NYC - better to not spend a fortune on hotels). Try any of the Pod hotels...they are quite affordable by NYC standards. Although the rooms are compact, they are very well designed, modern, and have excellent locations. Yes, Pod 39 has bunk beds as one option but NYC is expensive, so if you're open to that option, check it out. It's a great hotel, I would definitely stay there again - it's a few steps from Grand Central Station. I cannot think of any areas in NYC that do not have easy access to the subway lines - everything is within reach.

Pod 39
http://www.booking.com/Share-GcKQm4
Pod 51
http://www.booking.com/Share-ZFZipz

If your budget is more ample, then I also recommend Club Quarters Hotel near the 9/11 Memorial, World Trade Center, and Wall Street. There are several locations in the city...I stayed at the one right next door to the 9/11 Memorial.
Club Quarters Hotel World Trade Center
http://www.booking.com/Share-vsf5Je

Alternatively, you can try Airbnb or hotels in Long Island City (Queens) or Brooklyn...the are a short subway ride away from Manhattan. PM me if you need ideas from those two boroughs.

I'm headed to NYC in two weeks and we are staying at NYLO New York City on the upper west side just a few blocks off the park. It's close to a subway stop and in a great neighborhood. It's within your budget and gets great reviews...it's more than I usually pay for a hotel but wanted to splurge a little for the week we're there. I'm also paranoid about bed bugs (have several friends who have had expensive, nightmarish experiences getting rid of them after bringing them home from hotels in NYC) and this hotel hasn't had a problem with that from what I can find. So many places do now...yuck. I'll let you know how it is once we get back early August!

October is a very expensive time to visit NYC. Know that in advance.

Try Quikbook.com or any other sites that work for you.

Come up with choices that interest you and share them here. Locals and those who travel to NYC often can give you recommendations & feedback w/r/t subway access and neighborhoods.

I'm also paranoid about bed bugs (have several friends who have had
expensive, nightmarish experiences getting rid of them after bringing
them home from hotels in NYC) and this hotel hasn't had a problem with
that from what I can find. So many places do now...yuck. I'll let you
know how it is once we get back early August!

I'm with you about being concerned about bed bugs. Any hotel can have them; it all depends upon who stayed in the room before you did. Housekeeping doesn't flip mattresses to look for bed bugs regardless if it's a 2* or 5* hotel. You should check the beds including looking under the mattresses no matter where you go whether it's NYC, a small village in Austria, or Des Moines. NYLO is about a 10 minute walk to Central Park. It's in a lovely neighborhood. If you would like restaurant recommendations, Anita, PM me.

Thank you all so much for the suggestions. This site never ceases to amaze me. Responses are so fast and helpful. Working on all of them. Heard about the bed bug problem and it is scary. We are checking out bed bug sites. One says to wrap luggage in plastic and put it in the bathtub and vacuum your luggage as soon as you get home. Crazy !!! Reviews on NYLO do look good. I would really appreciate feed back on your return. My ignorance is showing but I don't know what pm means and surely don't know how to do it. Would like to be enlightened. Thanks!

PM translates to "private message". Instead of replying to everyone on the thread, you can simply click on someone's name (next to "Posted by") and you will see an option for sending him/her a private note that will go directly to their e-mail address. It's just like an e-mail (but with the actual e-mail addresses withheld on this forum for privacy/security reasons).

Try the Salisbury Hotel across from Carnegie Hall - great location, walking distance to Central Park and many sites. We enjoyed our stay there and would go back. The guestrooms are larger than other Midtown Manhattan hotels I've stayed in, which might be more comfortable for a 7-10 day stay. And you should be able to stay within your budget depending on the type of room/suite. Reserve well in advance as it's a popular hotel for repeat guests. http://www.nycsalisbury.com

I have family that lives in Brooklyn and Queens, but every now and then I just want to stay in Manhattan or I just want my own space with a real bed and don't want to be sleeping on a pull out sofa or futon in their "home office/guest room". When I do look for Manhattan lodging, I'll use something like Booking.com or Trivago to get a sense of what rates are out there, but I rarely book the room through one of those services as I almost always can get the same deal (sometimes better) direct with the hotel.

7 to 10 nights in Manhattan can be painful to your wallet for sure. And depending where you are from, what you get in terms of room size for that money can be a bit of "culture shock" to some - especially when trying to keep it at $300 or lower. But if you are comfortable with the idea of not spending much time in the hotel room other than to sleep and shower, there are some deals that can be found. I've gotten really great rates under $300/night with a few of the Kimpton Hotels locations. They (and some other hotel chains) tend to offer additional discounts for stays that stretch beyond 3 nights, so do check to see if you can take advantage of something like that. If you know you are definitely locked in and committed to traveling for very specific dates, you can also look at possibly taking a discount in exchange for booking a "non-refundable" rate. Citizen M Hotel also sometimes has rates under $300.

If you don't mind being in an exceedingly small room and using shared bathroom facilities, there's The Jane Hotel. They do have a 250 square foot room with a private bathroom that's still under your budget, but you are paying more for that private bathroom and bigger space. The real "deals" are their single occupancy rooms that are 50 square feet, and a bunk bed room (also 50 square feet) for really cheap rates.

Hostels may also be a good option for you if you can snag a private room for just the 2 of you. Hostels have the added bonus of having plenty of communal lounge areas to spread out (great if you don't want to always be bumping into your daughter in a tiny hotel room), access to kitchen facilities (saving you money by not having to eat out all the time) and access to laundry facilities (you can pack lighter and do a load of laundry half way through your week). Read reviews carefully at websites like hostelworld.com just as you'd want to consult reviews about any hotel rooms on sites like booking.com (TripAdvisor and Yelp reviews while sometimes helpful can just as often be fake reviews as you don't have to prove you actually booked a room to leave a review).

But for a stay 7-10 nights at your budget, to really get some room to spread out, I'd suggest you remain open to renting an apartment through VRBO or Airbnb and also contemplate getting out of Manhattan but staying somewhere that has easy access to the MTA subway or a regional rail line.

Personally, I'd suggest looking for a VRBO or Airbnb in Brooklyn. The Park Slope section of Brooklyn, for instance, is a really nice area that's quite safe for 2 women with a lot of great restaurants and shops, nice park nearby and, depending where your rental is, convenient access to both the #2 and #3 subway lines that leave frequently and will get you to Times Square within 45 minutes. Brooklyn Heights is also another good area for a possible rental. At least read the neighborhood descriptions - Airbnb's description of Park Slope where some of my family resides is spot on and I've seen 2 bedroom units advertised around $200/night and studio and 1 bedroom units for even less.

I would recommend the area from 23rd and 34th Sts, between 8th and 6th Ave. This is central to everything and has easy access to subways. There are many reasonably priced (for Manhattan) hotels in the area. Under $300 in October should not be a problem.

I am thinking of booking Affinia Fifty NYC. Address is 155 E 50 St. Reviews look really good. Any comments on hotel or area? Thank you all for your feedback.

Midtown East is a nice area, no worries. If you ever want to check out an area, then use Google Street View and do a virtual drive by.

The Affinia is one block from the 6 train which goes up/down the east side. It is 2 blocks from the E & M trains too which take you to the westside. If you're arriving at LGA, you can take the Q70 bus to the E train which is the 1st stop off airport property. Take the E into Manhattan to Lexington Ave/53rd St which is the 1st stop in Manhattan. Sit in the back of the train to exit at 3rd Ave and walk 2 blocks to the Affinia. If you're arriving at JFK, you can take the Airtran to Jamaica and get the E to the hotel. This will work for you.

There is another Affinia about 7th and 34. Check both and decide what is best for you.

I was under the impression that AirBNB and any short term (under 30 days) rental apartments were now illegal in the 5 boroughs of NYC?
Is this the case?
I wouldn't want the OP to get into a fix if they rented an apartment illegally.

If the OP were to use AirBNB in NYC, the only "fix" she would have is having to find a hotel last minute in one of the most expensive cities in the world. The illegality targets the "host", not the client.

It also doesn't help AirBNB hosts that those activists against AirBNB's (namely hotels) are funding a hotline in which tenants can blow the whistle on their neighbors. http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/new-hotline-nyc-tenants-report-illegal-airbnb-rentals-article-1.3242142

I am really confused by the last two replies. I went to booking.com looking at hotels. I was never looking for an apartment in New York City. My daughter decided to book with a hotel directly.

I went to NYC last December and got a great hotel deal on Travelzoo. You might want to look there. We got a nice place in midtown Manhatten for $159/night.

Agnes, I'm glad to know about Pod Hotel, thank you. I put in a date and the price difference between 39 and 51 for is $60 per night. Do you know how the two hotels differ? Is location the reason for the difference in price?

Hi Susan,
I think one reason may be that Pod 51 has the option of shared bathrooms, whereas (to my knowledge) Pod 39 has private bathrooms for all their rooms. Other reasons may just be the difference in room layouts/square footage, amenities, age of the two hotels, location, and just pure yield management factors that cause some rooms to be discounted. Even chain hotels like Hilton don't have uniform pricing in the same city for "like" rooms that are not identical. I only stayed at Pod 39 and really loved it (it was off season, so with all taxes it came out to just a tad over $100, and it fit two people comfortably enough - on the small side but very well arranged and quite generous and modern bathroom, although zero counter space). They are both similar in that they are of the "micro hotel" model...rooms are small but very ergonomic (although I've stayed in "normal" hotel rooms in NYC and they're very small and often odd in general)

Thanks Agnes, really helpful info!

I grew up in New York and two years ago I went back for a week-long visit. I stayed at the Chelsea Pines Inn. It is within your price range and it is in a great location in Chelsea, one of New York's coolest neighborhoods, has an excellent breakfast (included), tremendously friendly staff, and impeccably clean and attractively decorated rooms, all with a Hollywood theme. It's one block from the subway.

I loved staying there. It's probably my favorite hotel I've ever stayed at anywhere.

Heads up on surprise pricing of many hotels including where I am booked at Fifty NYC. Many of the hotels that offer wifi are charging $25-$30 dollars a day that you are surprised with when you check out. Ouch! I was aware of that and when I booked directly with the hotel and made sure that would not happen and that wifi was including in the out the door price. Also the price that was quoted on line was $150 less for the eight nights than was quoted over the phone and did specify no extra daily charge for wifi. Of course they agreed to the on line price and conditions. They also have a great cancellation policy. What did sell me on the hotel besides the reviews was that it offers hyper allergenic bedding (no down or feathers) and a choice of 12 pillow types. This was extremely important to me because my daughter has severe dust mite allergies. We have to bring a special mattress encasing and they said that it would be no problem for them to put it on the mattress when we arrived. If they follow through, the hotel will be well worth the high (for me) cost.
Thank you to all of you who sent suggestions. I did check out each one of them. The costs sky rocketed because of an October booking and the need for two beds and some breathing space in the room. You are the best and of course now that the booking is completed I will be back to ask for tour suggestions.

There's a high correlation between how expensive, luxurious, or geared toward business travelers a hotel is and whether they charge for wifi or super speed wifi (like upscale Hilton or Westin brands). This is almost unheard of with hotels where the patrons are at least somewhat price sensitive or if a third party (i.e. work) is not paying the bill. Most people no longer expect these money grabs because they're pure profit drivers where the fees are out of line with actual costs (like the $5 bottles of water). At any rare, there shouldn't be surprises because most hotels are very eager to advertise "free wifi" before you book - if there's no such claim in writing, then you have to wonder.

Is there such a thing as 12 pillow types? If you don't mind sharing, what is the nightly fee at this hotel?