A few days in NYC
 

I am just in the beginning stages of planning 4-5 days in NYC and I am wondering when the "off season" is. I prefer fall but I am flexible in my time schedule. Are hotels more reasonable during the week or on the weekends? I checked a few hotels for fall dates and it seemed that the weekend days are a bit more pricey. In other big cities I have experienced just the opposite so I am not sure if it is the time of year I picked.

Fall (meaning starting late September) is very popular in NY and hotels are very expensive.

Theoretically NYC also has cheaper weekend rates like other cities since business travel and conventions jack up weekday prices. But we have some weekends or holidays (like Thanksgiving) or events (like the NYC Marathon) that make specific weekends even more expensive. Hard to know why the dates you pick seem to have more expensive weekend prices.
September to mid December (and a couple days around New Years eve)is probably the time with the highest prices consistently.

Our true off season is January and February, sometimes into March. Spring and summer prices vary.

Sept through the holiday is high season with hotel rates rising steadily from early Sept until the week before Christmas, then a tiny dip and highest rates of all for Ne Year's Eve.

Low season is Jan or Feb - also the worst weather. Then prices rise to moderate by about St Patrick's day and stay there until end of Aug.

In Jan or Feb there are a lot of great deals. If you search you can find deals for most of the time from Mar to Aug - deals meaning a decent place for 2 for about $200.

As noted January and February are off-season.

Also try the week after Thanksgiving. Sometimes there is a lull that week.

Thank you all for your help. I think that I will have to plan NYC for 2014.

Jan-mid April will have the lowest hotel prices.