A typical review on tripadvisor says "Schmutzig, ungepflegt, aber günstig und zentral” (along the lines of "Dirty, unkempt but cheap and centrally located).
Use the Riverside Hotel at W 80th and Riverside Dr.
Your friends experience is not the norm.
99.99% of the people who have a good deal on an apartment are a holdover from the good old rent control days, or are a long term resident of a rent stabilized apartment. The other .01% are people who happened to luck into a good deal for one reason or another.
There was an article a while back in the New Yorker (I think) that took a sample building, interviewed all the tenants and listed their rents and rental situation (length of time in apartment, rent at beginning of tenancy, controlled, deregulated, etc) along with the registration records for the building. The rent variance for identical apartments was quite a bit (as in thousands per month).
Wait, if that is the way we are doing it I will let you stay on my pull out couch for the low, low price of $75 per night. I will even throw in a free off broadway show. 
I’m secretly hoping to get you guys down to $1, and you’ll throw in a massage.
You know, I have always been in love with NYC. I go there all the time, and I never really feel the financial weight that people talk about in the city (except for parking at the nightclubs. Nightclub fee is the same as upstate, but upstate, parking is free or five bucks; NYC parking is 30 bucks).
Everyone that I personally know there seem to be able to get by just fine. But on this board, I often hear people saying it is impossible to live comfortably there. You know what I am beginning to think? I think I just WANT to believe NYC isn’t as expensive as it seems, because that feeds my fantasy of dropping everything and moving there one day. As a visitor, one is much more likely to come across some lucky deals that could mislead one into thinking things aren’t as pricey as they seem, I guess.
I get by here just fine too, and I don’t make 200k a year. It can be done. Locals take advantage of everything they can get, like HPD housing lotteries, the dept. of parks and recreation, etc. You would be amazed at what this city gives away. I’m not going to pay to sweat it out in a class somewhere when I can get free waterfront yoga with a city instructor.
People here don’t brag about how much they paid (unless they are on a reality show), they brag about what a deal they got. Native NYC’ers are into deals. You know how much I pay to see Broadway shows? $3.00. I’m on a list to do what is called “dress the house”. Show up extra early, look good, laugh, cry, make nice with the tourists seated next to me, and applaud in all the right places. I see everything. Concerts too. I’m not afraid or embarrased to negotiate almost anything. I split cabs with strangers all the time. I go to Jack’s 99 cent store (the best in the city) once a week. I buy all my jewelry wholesale.
99% of the people who say things like this think “New York City” means the same thing as “Manhattan.” There are plenty of nice places to live at reasonable cost in the Boroughs.
www.hotwire.com gives you a bit more control than priceline, though for a few dollars more. You can see what amenities your hotel has etc.
I have used it in Dublin, San Francisco and Rome and been very happy with it.
pdts
When I was there about a month ago for my honeymoon, my husband and I stayed at the Park Central Hotel. It’s on the corner of 56th and 7th. It’s only a few blocks south of Central Park, within a short walk of Times Square and surrounded by decent eateries. Carnegie Deli is amazing and it’s just across 55th St from it. Go there for bagels and lox for breakfast. It was, quite possibly, the best meal I had when we were there. We got it for about $100 per night, which isn’t bad for its location.
That is what it commonly refers to, so yes. When someone is in Queens and says they are “going into the city”, they mean Manhattan. If they are going to Brooklyn, they say “I’m going to Brooklyn”. Same with all the other outer boros.
Yeah, but it’s not the city.
Yes but Nzinga said
.
NYC = New York City = All Five Boroughs.
I live in Manhattan and I get along just fine. 
Lots of people like to talk about how expensive it is here but in my experience the higher cost of rent is more than offset by the lower cost of transportation and higher wages that generally come with living in the city.
Yeah, I realize that.
But when I say I want to move to NYC, I always mean Manhattan/Harlem!
I love Brooklyn, the Bronx and Queens (not Staten Island, though. Don’t like it. Feels like upstate to me) and I go there a lot. But I always mean Manhattan/Harlem when I say NYC.
ETA: pbbth, everyone I know that lives there says the same thing. That does keep me dreaming of one day explaining to my mom that she is going to have to accept it…I’m out of this podunk town!
Well, damn, then I take it all back.
Yeah, I asked my wife and she remembers $120. Sorry.
I might just take the train there on Saturday morning and back on Saturday night instead of staying over, but that would make for a long day.
My biggest concern was getting from Penn Station to where I have to be, and how I would navigate the subway, or how much a cab would cost. So I looked it up on Google Maps. Directions from Penn Station: Walk 0.1 miles south on 7th Ave.
Doesn’t get much easier than that.
A bit of a hijack… I grew up just north of NYC, so I was familiar with the area. My Dad grew up in Queens and on occasion he’d be talking about when he was growing up when he would “go out to the Island” or “go to Long Island” or how there wasn’t any mass transit “between the city and the Island”. Growing up I always figured that meant Queens wasn’t on Long Island so I was stunned to learn it is. He basically considered Queens to be part of the city and you weren’t on Long Island until you left Queens (other then going to Brooklyn, of course).
Where are you coming from? I used to go from Trenton to Baltimore and DC and back in one day. Trains are so much more relaxing than flying or driving that I never was very exhausted from doing it. You’d also have the benefit of not having to shlep baggage around.
I don’t know how well you know New York, but people are being a bit loose about the definition of downtown. Union Square hasn’t been downtown for 100 years or so. Everything in lower Manhattan is fairly close, but there are neighborhoods.
The last time I stayed, which was about 5 years ago, we were in the Holiday Inn on 57th Street, and it was only $150 a night. The reviews were mixed, but the room we got was just redone and was great, and the location was perfect.
We got a good deal on some travel site or other, not priceline.
I grew up in Queens, and the Island started at the Nassau County border, and the City was Manhattan. Queens was Queens, or more specifically, your part of Queens as appeared in your address. My address said Bayside, NY. not NY, NY or Queens, NY. There was a recent GQ thread on this.
I’m coming from Boston. The thing is, the event I’m going to runs from 11:30 to 6:00 or later. The only trains or buses that accomodate that leave at something like 5:30am and come back at midnight. That’s a hugely long day and doesn’t leave me much time to eat.