I'll be heading there a week after you, rooms in central Manhattan are indeed pricy! I had the same issues looking for a place that was within our budget, yet not beng dodgy for my family to get around.
From what I've read, I perceived your key criteria to be (in order of importance)
a) price is within budget
b) "strategic" location
c) safety
Some of the previous posts have mentioned very good tips which I've used myself. As a summary, I could recommend these places which may fit within your requirements:
Hilton Garden Inn New York Long Island City/Manhattan View from hilton.com
2 QUEEN BEDS, Rate Details: AAA STAY AND SAVE (RAC WA is OK) total USD 794.30
New York Hilton Midtown (
LOOKS GREAT, good location!)from hilton.com
CLASSIC ROOM ONE BED, Rate Details: AAA STAY AND SAVE (RAC WA is OK) total USD 1,073.14
Z Hotel New York from zhotelny.com (nice photos too!)
Superior Queen total incl tax USD $954.92
**
Somehow the Australian website for hotels.com gives you non-refundable rate for the Superior Queen above for AUD 984.00 all-in. I would highly recommend this and I personally have booked it for 1 week, and managed to snag A$1200 even with the 5th Sept public holiday ***
Are you a member of an Automobile Association (RACV, NRMA etc)? If so you can book Hilton chain properties - that are on cancellable rates for reasonable prices. For example Hilton Fashion District, on 26th Street, for about $1400 AUD cancellable up to day prior.
I like your thinking with cancellable rates too, from my experience in the last few weeks before stay the prices can move both up and down depending on demand (I've seen properties drop from $240/night to $150/night in a matter of days). A cancellable rate has you covered.
On Hotels.com you can get lots of hotels in that price range (fully cancellable). My pick would be Sixty LES (including outdoor pool) for US$918 which is less than half price. It's across the road from a subway station that will have you in Times Square in 15 minutes.
Without getting into the airbnb debate we've chosen to go standard hotels for various reasons (2am arrival being one of them!). Hilton (AAA rate), SPG (AAA) and hotels.com were the websites that I used. Overall, I've found the Hotels.com iOS app an awesome tool to use, and here's how you can use it to search for other locations meeting your criteria (adjust accordingly if I got it wrong):
a) Enter
New York as destination, dates (
check in 24 Aug, check out 28 Aug) and
2 adults, and search
b) From the ginormous list, click on the "So
rt and filter" button below. Here's where it gets interesting...
c) Click
3+ for "Guest rating" = no dodgy locations hopefully?
and Neighbourhoods = just tick off "Br
oadway - Times Square", "Central Park", "Madison Sq Garden", "Midtown West", "SoHo - TriBeCa" just to limit the search radius slightly
d) Click Do
ne
e) Voila you now have "
YOTEL New York at Times Square, AUD1250", "
Staybridge Suites AUD1504" among others.
f) These are sorted by Best Sellers (good option to start from here), then you can sort by Price Low -> High and expand search accordingly.
Hope my simple tips are of use
