NYC On the Cheap

November 6, 2005 9:11 AM

My family (wife, teen daughter, and myself) wish to visit nyc early next summer. Cheapest place to stay?

We will do the usual tourist stuff, such as a few shows, maybe a Yankee game, sight seeing, etc, and just want the cheapest "safe" place to stay, for a week, that we can get that will be manageable for these aims. I am a bit nervous about it, having never been to a big east coast city.

posted by Danf to travel & transportation (12 comments total)

I just got back from NYC with spouse and son. If you don't need a real hotel, check with craigslist. We found excellent apartment accomodations for half the price of mid-to-low-end hotels ($200/night for our aparment).
posted by ldenneau at 9:26 AM on November 6, 2005

I actually stayed at the Holiday Inn that's right on the edge of Chinatown/Little Italy. Completely touristy, I know, but it was easy to get to, inexpensive compared to other hotels in the area, great rooms, and the location was perfect for exploring.
posted by Liosliath at 9:43 AM on November 6, 2005

I don't have any recommendations for a specific place, but I think you will find that NYC is very safe in most areas. There is a large police presence on the streets (uniformed and plainclothed), and citizens are always out on the street, every hour of every day. The city is more overwhelming (loud, bright, busy, crowded) than dangerous, but that is part of its charm...

My other general piece of advice is that you will really, really want to be centrally located, which in NY means Midtown (57-ish and below, even far downtown, like the previous poster who was in Chinatown). NYC is expensive everywhere worthwhile, and you would do yourself a disservice by looking for bargains at the Airport Sheraton or the Yonkers Holiday Inn, or similar peripheral locations.
posted by Admiral Haddock at 9:52 AM on November 6, 2005

The Belvedere
Research others on Tripadvisor
Tips for using Priceline on Biddingfortravel
posted by johnny7 at 10:15 AM on November 6, 2005

If you're up for hostelling, the Chelsea International Hostel on West 20th Street is nice quite and very centrally located (and safe - there's a police precinct across the street).
posted by nicwolff at 10:24 AM on November 6, 2005

A bunch of threads.
posted by fionab at 10:25 AM on November 6, 2005

I just read in th NYTimes that the Manhattan average rate of hotel rooms for the first six months of 2005 was around $220. $180 is apparently a decent price.

So considering the sublet idea:
Say... 5 days, that would be $900. CL links, 1, 2, 3, 4. How quickly can you cancel a reservation without being penalized? And how much is the penalty? If you arranged the sublet and reserved a room, if there was drama or problems with the sublet, you take the room. If the sublet works out, you eat the penalty, but maybe end up saving a bunch anyway.

Definately not the easy route, but the payoff is great, IMHO. If you have a NYer friend to ask about neighborhoods and stuff, that would be good.
posted by Jack Karaoke at 12:06 PM on November 6, 2005

We stayed at the Americana Inn last X-mas. It's basically right in the middle of the action! Rooms are clean, tiny, and minimalist. Each hallway has a few bathrooms to share - you don't get one in your room. We paid 75$ a night. At Xmas. 2 inches from Times Square.
posted by glenwood at 1:39 PM on November 6, 2005

Priceline using these instructions.
posted by JPowers at 2:28 PM on November 6, 2005

I agree with Priceline. I just got back from NYC about 3 hours ago. In late September I tried getting a hotel using the normal routes and being the weekend of the NY Marathon, I thought I was out of luck. Everything was sold out. I tried Priceline on a lark and I got Swissotel The Drake for $150 a night. On the back of the door of the room it said that it normally goes for $600 a night. I LOOOVE Priceline.
posted by SheIsMighty at 6:58 PM on November 6, 2005

My concern with Priceline has always been that you need to book ar room sorta at the last mintute. So with a family in tow, that puts a lot of pressure one the one who is responsible for finding the hotel, or flight, or whatever.

There is always the chance of failing to find something and then being SOL. Or do I not understand how it works?
posted by Danf at 7:59 PM on November 6, 2005

One thing that helped us enormously when we put our feet down in NYC was Big Apple Greeters. They are locals who volunteer their time to give you and your family/friends a private tour of NY. You need to book in advance through their website. They'll show you how to use the subway and all sorts of handy NY things.

You might also want to try taking a look at virtualtourist.com/. I used it to plan our recent 'round the world.

In New York we stayed cheaply at the manhattan inn hostel. Our double had a tiny ensuite bathroom, air-con and TV with more stations than we have in Australia. It's right by madison sq gardens and Penn station which meant it was great for getting places, but there wasn't so much to in the immediate area.trav.com has cheap deals there.

hotelsclub.net, expedia and trav.com were the 3 places I used to book all our accommodation worldwide and it all worked very well.

On the safety front, we felt safe everywhere we went in New York. Where ever we travel we don't carry any more in baggage than locals and are always try to be friendly, polite and a little bit quieter than we are at home.

I just want to say: Dammit, you New Yorkers are a friendly, helpful, great bunch. We can't wait to get back
posted by mule at 5:07 AM on November 7, 2005