Open since 1991, the East Village Bed & Coffee is now one of the area’s old-timers, but it’s still easy to walk past this guesthouse without even knowing what it is. There’s no sign—just two doors on the street, one painted bright red with the street number,the other one covered with stickers and graffiti but no handle.

The Mexican Room

Its 12 rooms, all of varying sizes but none of them enormous, are divided equally among three floors, with the top two reached by staircases narrow enough to be worthy of Amsterdam. The rooms, which have either queen or double beds, each have their own theme—for instance, the Mexico Room has Latin American knick-knacks on the wall, and that includes a sombrero that a guest mysteriously left there one day. Rooms all have their own air-conditioning—a must for late spring and summer in New York. All the bathrooms are shared—there’s one on every floor.

Obviously, it’s not the sort of place where you’ll get a mint on your pillow. What you will get are lots and lots of thoughtful touches to help you see as much of the city as possible. Every floor’s largish common area has a computer available for guest use, as well as free Wi-Fi and a dedicated phone line for receiving phone calls. Large subway maps are mounted on the walls to help with planning, and a long photocopied list of personally recommended restaurants is available for the taking.

Free-trade coffee and tea are available in the kitchens on every floor, as are filtered water and a refrigerator with food staples, for those who want to do a little cooking. There’s also a small backyard with a koi pond—this acts as the de facto smoking lounge when the weather’s good.

Rooms (double occupancy, with all taxes included) start at just $115 for the smallish “Dutch room” on up to $140 for larger front rooms that look out onto Avenue C.  With prices like that, it’s not unusual for many rooms to fill up as long as eight months in advance. (There’s a waiting list available on the website for cancellations.) All in all, this low-key guesthouse is a great place for feeling a little more like a temporary neighbor and less like someone just passing through town.

East Village Bed & Coffee; 110 Avenue C, New York

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Even though I am a bit of a hotel-alholic, as a friend of me once called me, I don’t always spent a lot of money on accomondation. I don’t mind sharing a cheap room in a Christian hostel just right of Union Square. But I always go for location, which is why Washington Square Hotel is one of my favourites.

It does get mentioned a lot, but is also the only hotel in the Greenwich Village close to Soho that is reasonably priced. It might not have the coolness and celeb clientele of the Soho hotels. But it has character and you really can’t beat the location right at the corner of Washington Square Park - in walking distance to Soho, Lower East Side and the Meatpacking District.

I always try to get a room with a view over the park, where men play chess, dog walkers take the pets out in playgrounds for small or big walks and the students from the surrounding university hang out.

Washington Square Hotel; 103 Waverly Place (north corner of Washington Square park)

Where to sleep? If I had a dime for every time some one have asked me for at tip on a great (cheap of course) hotel on Manhattan, I would be able to check my self into Mercer Hotel every time I go to New York.

There are loads of hotels in Midtown. But many people like myself are always looking for that bit of extra personality. That’s why I’m still dreaming of the time my husband and I spoiled ourselves with two nights at the stars’ favourite Soho hotel, The Mercer – staying at the same time as Anthony Kiedis from the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

Photo by Thomas Loof.

Our excuses were A) My husband just got a new job B) Our two-years old daughter was with us, so we had to spent more time in a hotel (why it better be good) C) As a journalist, research is part of the job.

Really, with the low dollar, you don’t need any excuses if you’re the kind of person who enjoys spending the night in a paradise of coolness. But at the Mercer, even the low dollar doesn’t mean room rates come cheap. Prices from 595 dollars.

You can’t beat room service when the delicious pizza with thin crust and the cheesecake come from the popular restaurant Mercer Kitchen.

The Mercer Hotel, 147 Mercer Street (between Houston and Spring Street).

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New York Living

An interesting way to be able to stay in New York for a while and get to know it better, (as it is hard to not fall in love with her, yes New York is a Her!) is to figure out a way to exchange your own apartment with a New Yorker's for a couple of weeks on craigslist.org.
In the summertime it is custom for most New Yorkers to leave their apartments and get out of the city, as it must be said..New York in the summertime can be unbearable and people tent to go crazy during the worst heatwaves. Air conditioners becomes your best friend.
Of course the concept of staying in a hotel in New York, with room service, endless amounts of towels, breakfast in bed,  long hot showers with the energy of the city buzzing outside on the streets, so much that the windows slowly shake out of their grip and slides out over the cityscape…and then you wake up.

The Chelsea Hotel

Rock n’ Roll and Art History Museum and Hotel with great bar in the basement and ghosts in the hallways.
“The Cheslea Hotel 180% Cool! Marcia Resnick too” - Hiroya
222 West 23rd Street, between Seventh and Eighth Avenues
www.hotelchelsea.com 

Rather expensive, but important to have tried it out...once in a lifetime.

The Gershwin Hotel

With flames of light by Finnish super designer and artist Stafan Lindfors going up the fire red building, built around the time George Gershwin composed classic music around the corner on Tin Pan Alley; it is a little pearl in a rather bland area of Manhattan. Each floor is used as permanent exhibition space for a variety of Pop Art and Warhol related artists. Many of the more fancy suites also have rather decent original art. The place had its glory days in the mid 90’s, when it hosted a gallery, cozy bar, live music, stand-up, a fashion agency floor, rooftop and theatre space.

After renting out the lobby to some shady characters that started a strip club in the back room, the whole lower floor has now been turned into one large area with a front desk and coffee bar. Expect no frills, but live cheap and take a walk down the stairs from the 13th floor instead of taking the unbelievably slow elevator as warm up to your street trekking.
Go to the weekly show hosted by Neke Carson and Michael Weiner in the back room performing space that might be one of the longest running off-off-off-off Broadway shows in New York’s history.
7 E. 27th St., between 5th and Madison Aves.
http://gershwinhotel.com/

Choose from cheap bunk beds or newly renovated suites with art. 

The Franklin

Being served breakfast and cappuccino’s could be enough for some to choose The Franklin, but it has also been nominated “New York’s Best Bed and Breakfast 2007” and said to be “one of the worlds most sexiest hotels” too. This is the spot for the romantic couple’s quick weekend to reconnect and charge up with New York energy so they can take another round the week after. It is pretty close to Central Park, so after breakfast start your walks downtown from within the park.
164 E. 87th St., between Lexington and 3rd Aves
www.franklinhotel.com

Very reasonable priced. 

Howard Johnson's Express Inn

Located on a perfect spot to get the best East Village and Lower East Side experience.You can also just stay in your room at night and watch bad TV, make your own coffee and do prank calls to the friendly New Yorkers late at night with the free local calls room phone. You can also just pretend that you are in any other Howard Johnson Motel on a highway somewhere in New Mexico and with that state of mind run out in the city and imagine that the people in the streets are invading aliens. Around Halloween you can also without any shame dress out in ANYTHING you want roaming the streets, without the jaded people of the city lifting an eyebrow.
135 E. Houston St., at Forsyth St.
www.hojo's E inn

Reasonable priced.

The Inn on 23rd

A Chelsea B&B nominated by the MICHELIN® Guide's "Top New York Hotel's" and serves a serious breakfast in the family library of this mom and pop run place. The couple who runs it has taken all their old furniture from some crazy big mansion out on Long Island and filled this old classic brownstone building with their collections of furniture and art, as the lady of the house used to be a gallery owner. This is the perfect place if you want to close to the gallery area of Chelsea, with a quick walk over to the Westside waterfront, West Village, Meat Packing District and at the same time indulge in New York townhouse living.
131 West 23rd Street
www.innon23rd.com

Reasonable priced.  

Second Home on Second Avenue

An experience for those that feel they belong more in the East Village state of mind and culture, the themed little inn in the heart of the village have their choice of: Modern, Caribbean, Peruvian, skylight, and tribal. The very small size of the rooms come close to what is called home for most people living in East Village, but it might actually be cheaper to live here than paying rent. Free of charge, you can also make all the necessary arrangements by phone to go climb the pyramids in Lima, where the owner of 2nd Home on 2nd Avenue can hook you up with a place to stay.
221 2nd Ave., between 13 and 14th St
www.secondhomesecondavenue.com

Reasonable priced.  

Maritime Hotel

This place might just be too cool for school.

The bar and restaurant are really not that bad at all, nor is it wrong to say that the regular Degenerate events held by Moby and his friends in the Hiro Ball Room in the basement are tight. The rooms are like you were in a ships cabin and the building would hold up a good fight between the transformed office building in “The Meaning of Life” by Monty Python on your battles around the world raiding financial districts in numerous big cities before falling off the edge of the world.
363 W. 16th St., at 9th Ave
www.themaritimehotel.com

Rather expensive, but not unreasonably so