Recommended: Inexpensive Hotels in Manhattan

Recently on the Cleveland Park Listserv there was a query about where to stay in New York City that would be good for a visiting foreign student on a limited budget. Here are some recommendations for places that fit the bill and are centrally located.

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There’s the YMCA across from Lincoln Center where the rates are low and international guests abound. Our foreign students stay there all the time. There’s also the Hostelling International youth hostel  at Amsterdam Avenue at 102nd Street on the Upper West Side.

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For clean, reasonable, safe accommodations in a good location in Chelsea, I have always stayed at and loved the Leo House. It has an eight dollar breakfast that the Irish nuns used to prepare. It is along the lines of a "Let's Go Europe" pensione, at around $90 per night. It's in a very safe neighborhood. It is a four minute walk to subway. Lots of cultural things to do there.

I also recommend the Menno House -- close by if the Leo House is full.

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Mark and I stayed at the Chesea Pines Inn on 14th St last fall, when we had to stay several days in NYC. It was very reasonably priced and great fun. It's quirky, but very clean and the people are very sweet.


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A Room With a View: How to Get the Best Hotel Rooms (or at Least One That Doesn't Overlook the Garage)

I remember a trip we took to Jamaica in which we paid a bit extra for an ocean view. It wasn't. Or rather we had a bit of a disagreement with the hotel's management about the so-called ocean view. All we saw was the hotel's pool, no promised ocean view. Not so, said the hotel management: "If you go on to the balcony and crook your head around the corner, you will see the ocean."  Who can dispute that kind of logic?

Now there's Room 77 to the rescue. Room 77, http://www.room77.com, lets you see exactly what your view will be like at a particular hotel. So when you check into a hotel you can say, "I'd like room 1404" because you'll know that one looks over a meadow, while rooms on the other side of the hall have a view of the hotel's HVAC system. Hotel rooms that cost the same can have widely differing views and ambiance, so why get the worst room, when you can have the best? Room 77 gives you other useful information, too, including the distance from the elevator to your room -- too close and you'll hear elevator noise and chit-chat all night long.  Room 77's iPhone app (Android coming soon) will let you find the hotel in the area you want and then get the best room in that hotel.