Can anyone recommend a good hotel near the New York neighborhood areas of TriBeca and Little Italy? Will be there in early September.

I haven't stayed there but the SoHo Grand is supposed to hip and very nice. they also have a sister property in the neighborhood but I can't recall the name.

The other hotel Owen is thinking of is the Tribeca Grand. Both of these hotels are in the $350 range. You could try the Marriott World Trade Center. They often have rooms for around $150 a night. If you can afford the Grand hotels, go for it. They're both really cool. The Soho Grand would be my choice.

The Hilton at the World Trade Center often has weekend rates of around $120, because it's filled with businessfolk during the week and empties out on the weekends. It's new and nice. The Mercer is another expensive, trendy, nice, Soho-area property.

The Tribeca Grand is fantastic if you can afford it and the neighborhood is great - bars & restaurants. Very cool! Otherwise, the Millennium Hilton is really really nice (that's the one at the World Trade Center). I got married near there last month and we stayed there that night. We woke up to the most AMAZING view. I can't recommend it more. The service is wonderful and the hotel is just great. Not at all what I expected. It doesn't seem like a business hotel.

thanks everyone for the hotel advice. I'm going to price them all.

Don't hesitate to angle for a better price and negotiate. I have it on good authority that occupancy at some of the trendy hotels in NYC is significantly lower right now than it was in previous years (not sure what the status is of the two that were discussed). It may be in part due to the economy but is more likely due to the fact that several new facilities have opened within the past year - all in the "hip/trendy" niche. These include the Muse (Times square area), the Hudson (near Columbus Circle and quite large at 1,000 rooms) and the Giraffe (IIRC it's just down from MurraHill in the east 20's near Park or Lex). Also - note that both the Hilton and the Millenium often have very competitive rates for weekends, as their mainstay clientele is weekday business travelers.