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I am coming to new-york for my 50th birthday on may5th. I am going to stay for 1 day. I am on a fixed income and i have to save for 4 months to bring myself, boyfriend and 2 teenage kids with me. I am not cheap and i would not mind spending 200.00 a night. Thats if i could afford to. My boyfriend is trying to get his ss/d and has not worked in a year. He supported me for 3 years. while i waited to get my ss/d. so i am doing the same for him. If he got his ss/d. Then we would beable to spend 200.00 a night. The most i would pay is 150.00 a night. It is only to sleep, change and take a shower.
I'd say check out some hostels. Just google "hostel search" and then use the sites to look in New York. Most of them have private double rooms under $100, but for four people you'll probably have to sleep in a dorm-style room with other people, and even then it might be over $100. I've never stayed in a hostel in NYC, so I can't vouch for any of them as far as location/safety/comfort, but I've stayed in some hostels and very low-budget hotels in Europe and Africa and enjoyed the experience. Most are not fancy at all--mostly bunk beds--but they meet your basic needs and can be fun if you're adventurous. My mom is 53, and she could totally handle it.
BE SURE to check the reviews and ratings online, and it might be wise to make a reservation because those places can fill up. Also, they tend to exaggerate their convenience, so look it up on a map before you decide.
If you're REALLY feeling adventurous (or cheap), you can try couch surfing, CouchSurfing - Participate in Creating a Better World, One Couch At A Time. Basically, you contact people who live in NY and they let you sleep for free on their spare bed/couch/floor. You can search by city and number of surfers (4 for you). There's all sorts of safety built in to the system so you (hopefully) don't get murdered, but it's still kind of a risk.
We once hosted a cross-country biker in rural Arkansas. It was nice.
If you are looking for a hostel, The Broadway Hotel/Hostel is a good choice on the UWS. They have dormitory-style rooms from 4-6-8 people, with associated decreased cost as the number of travelers increases. It's very near the subway. International students I know have stayed there and liked it.
The other suggestion I have is to try a site like Hotwire, Priceline, Orbitz, Travelocity, or Hotels.com to see if you can find a good deal. The better deals, however, are not going to be in Manhattan, but JFK and Newark airports are a bit off the beaten path for a Manhattan vacation. You can also stay in nicer areas of Northern New Jersey on the outskirts of the city and take NJTransit to Manhattan, but it doesn't give the city experience. Some budet-priced alternatives may pop up in parts of The Bronx, but some of these are not the greatest, either in terms of convenience to transportation or neighborhood.
If you are driving to NYC, I would suggest looking at a couple of places in NNJ. There's a Days Inn in North Bergen, NJ, bacically 4 miles or so from Manhattan, between the Turnpike and the Lincoln Tunnel. The downside to this hotel is that it's a little remote for transportation, so you'd have to drive into Manhattan and find an inexpensive parking sport on the westside. However, if you stay somewhere near The Meadowlands, about 6 miles out, say at the Fairfield Marriott Meadowlands, some of these are directly on bus routes to the city as there is more in the way of transportation to/from Manhattan via NJTransit bus.
With any hotel, however, be sure to check some of the sites for reviews. And, while not everyone will love a particular hotel, some of them are very clear-cut in terms of what to expect, despite some of them having a near-ideal location. Hostels fit this bill more than hotels, but some of the hostels are named hotels in NYC.
Given that this is a birthday trip, I'm guessing you'd rather stay in a clean bed in a private room rather than on someone's couch or with strangers.
So I would bid on hotels on Priceline rather than doing the hostel route. Go to biddingfortravel.com and look up the New York City forum. There you'll see bids that worked and didn't work for people wanting to stay in New York City soon. (Here's a direct link...I don't think this would be considered a city data competitor: New York State - New York City - USA Hotels - BiddingForTravel.com - Message Board - Yuku) Just from a quick glance, I'm seeing people who stayed in the Hilton in Times Square for around $110, the Sheraton near Times Square for $95, and Beekman Tower in Midtown East for $85. I've personally gotten a room at the Roosevelt near Grand Central for $100 a night.
The catch is that you can't choose your specific hotel. You do choose, however, the neighborhood and the number of stars (four star hotel, three star, etc). They also have bidding advice on there. From my experience, you might have better luck once you get a little bit closer to May and the hotels start to know what inventory they're going to have to get rid of.
just be aware it's pretty much like sleeping in a walkin closet
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