Cheap Hotels

This is a picture of the famous Plaza Hotel on Central Park South and Fifth Avenue, a New York City landmark and one of the world's finest hotels. Isn't it beautiful? Well, you're NOT staying there! It's closed until 2007 for renovations, but even if it were open, at four figures per night, only your rich uncle could afford a room there. As Manhattan is generally not cheap, the budget-minded traveller has to do a little work.

There are a lot of nice places to stay in Manhattan, from luxury to bargain basement, and a lot of travel sites promising great deals on accomodations like Expedia, Travelocity, Orbitz, or Hotels.com. Finding a hotel that's clean, cheap and in the right neighborhood, however, can be a bit of a challenge. Suggestion: in addition to checking out the popular travel sites and reading their summaries or going directly to a hotel's website, look for and read all the customer reviews you can find on any place you are seriously considering. Sites like Epinions.com are good for this. Although you'll run into the occasional guy venting about a particularly unlucky, bad experience, on the whole you will get a good feel for what a place has to offer, from a generally unbiased perspective.

That said, I've dug up a few decent options for those wanting to stay in New York City on the cheap. Beyond their being affordable, other important criteria were that they also are clean, safe, friendly and convenient. Here ya go:

Chelsea Star Hotel
If you're coming to NYC to party, then this is the place. The rooms are small, but many are waaay cool, with various themes -- like the Star Trek room or the Buddha room. There's the option of going the dorm-style route with a shared bath or getting an entirely private room. It's also just a block away from Penn Station, which means it's very convenient to the buses and trains. Dorm rates start at $25, private rooms at $75. Not bad at all for Manhattan.

Hostelling International
Uptown on the west side, near Central Park and Columbia University, this one also offers dorm style or private rooms, along with laundry facilities and big lockers. There's good local ethnic food in the area, and it's convenient to the subway. Beds start at $29.

Jazz on the Park
They're hostels, but good ones. They actually have three different locations now, at Central Park West and 106th street, "Jazz on the Town" on the lower east side (E. 14th st.), and "Jazz on Harlem" on the upper east side at 128th st. All are convenient to the subways, are clean and friendly and have good facilities like lockers, a lounge, and linens included. Beds start at $22, and the Central Park location offers private rooms too. Group rates are available as well.

Wherever you choose to stay, make reservations as well in advance as possible. This may be common sense to some, but the good places can fill up months ahead of time, especially during busy periods. You don't want to get stuck in some overpriced, rat-infested, droopy-mattressed hell hole -- which can happen if you're not careful.