New York is known in some circles as “The City that Never Sleeps,” and that might be just as well when you start looking at the extraordinarily high rates for hotels in this amazing city. You might feel compelled to stay up all night just to avoid paying for an expensive hotel room! Rooms are especially costly when you are trying to stay in Manhattan itself rather than one of the boroughs further away from the center. So while you may not find many cheap hotels in New York, you can certainly learn a few things to help you pay less than you otherwise might.
You have a few choices if you are looking for cheap hotels in New York – you can take your chances with hotels that offer good deals in one of the boroughs, or you can give up on the city altogether and stay across the Hudson in New Jersey. In both cases, hotel rates will be lower. But in the former situation, unless you know the neighborhood well before you book, you may end up in a dodgy area and an even dodgier hotel. And wherever you decide to stay, if you are not right in the center, you also have to factor in the costs of daily transportation to get into Manhattan.
On the other hand, if you really want to stay in Manhattan, some of the neighborhoods which are not as upscale (and therefore have a higher proportion of budget hotels) are the East Village, Chinatown, the Chelsea Garment District, Gramercy Park, and the Theater District (especially around Times Square). People who know will generally steer you away from the Times Square area, although that is probably where the highest concentration of cheap New York City hotels actually is. Do not worry that this area is dangerous, however – there just is not much there aside from Times Square and Broadway, so it is usually better to try to stay elsewhere if you can afford it.
One of the more famous hotels in New York is the Chelsea Hotel, where many currently famous musicians and other artists stayed when they were not-so-famous. It is not always a cheap option, even if you will go home with some stories. Both the Plaza Hotel and the Waldorf-Astoria are internationally known, probably as much for their high prices as their top-level service! If you can get a deal on a room in either of those hotels, be sure to let me know how.
Click through to read more specific information on cheap hotels in Manhattan, too.