Young couple travelling to NY to attend Met and Yankee games. Will be in NY May 24-May 29. Would appreciate suggestions on CLEAN, SAFE and AFFORDABLE hotels. Trying to keep expenses low as possible. Also, easy access to subway for traveling to Yankee Stadium and Mets Stadium.

Anywhere in midtown Manhattan will be equally accessible to both Yankee and Shea Stadium.
(#7 train from Times Square or Grand Central to Shea, trains on both east and west side will get you to Yankee Stadium)
How much can you spend? Will Priceline work for you?

Keep in mind that is a holiday week (Memorial Day) so rates might be high. When are college graduations in NYC?

NYU graduation is May 15 and Columbia is May 21st, so those won't be factors.
Memorial Day weekend is busy with tourists, but business trips are down, so rates may actually be lower than average.
NCris wants "affordable" so as soon as we all know what dollar amount that is,I'm sure more suggestions will be forthcoming.

we are looking to spend at most $150 a night.

Nice looking name brand hotels in midtown are showing up for about $250--quite low for NYC! Taxes are another 13% or so
To get much lower, you need to consider Priceline, or a room with a shared bath.
Comfort Inn Long Island City (often recommended as a budget alternative by Doug, one of the editors here)shows up at about $180 plus taxes. It would be fairly convenient for Shea, a little less so for Yankee Stadium

when you mention priceline are you referring to using their feature where you can name your price or just searching on priceline?

I meant the "Name your own Price" --the other section pretty much looks like Expedia or any other site with
regular prices!
If you want more info on Priceline bidding, there's lots of info at www.biddingfortravel.com or www.betterbidding.com

Or, once you could ask more question here specific to a Priceline bid.
Good luck (and "way to go!" on getting both Mets and Yankees tickets for that week!)

It will be like looking for a needle in a haystack to get a hotel at that price. Trying name your own price on priceline might work, but 5-night stays are hard to get. Hotwire has some options, but they're all at airport locations at your price.

$150 is pretty low for hotels in NYC, though I've gotten rooms for less than that on Priceline. You might want to look into The Pod hotel. With a shared bath and bunk beds you might get something for $150-ish

Hotwire is showing most decent hotels in the $250 range, which is a good deal.

when you say you got rooms for cheaper than $150 on priceline was that using the "name your price" feature?

NCris, if you are willing to go up in price, or at least book a cancellable backup reservation, keep checking deals on Travelzoo.
http://hotels.travelzoo.com/new-york-hotels

Right now it shows a deal at the Beekman Tower hotel, $199 per night for part of your stay, 229 for the other days (plus taxes). These are very reasonable for NYC at that time in a hotel of that level.

Yep. Without the "Name Your Price" feature, priceline is almost identical to Expedia/Orbitz/Travelocity/etc. On this forum in general, whenever someone refers to priceline, they mean the name your price feature.

I'd book something cancelable now that you can live with, and look in to bidding on priceline. Make sure you know what you're doing with priceline though, as some 3* hotels on priceline in NYC are less than desirable. $150 is an absolute steal for New York at any time of year. I think the average room is $300-ish. I'd look into the Eastgate Tower - their rates are usually reasonable, and it's an all suite hotel, so you can save some money by using the kitchen and not eating out.

$150 is VERY low for NYC (without taxes that is only about $130) even with Priceline except for Jan/Feb. You can look and see what people are getting (if anything for that price).

You might check out Long Island City chain hotels (but it will make the trips to the stadia a trek) and the area is semi-industrial and quite dreary at night.

Or - you might have a look at the Hotel Newton on the upper west side - which has some rooms with shared bath at low prices - but I don't know about that low. Also, check out the Pod hotel rooms with bunk beds and shared bath.

Also - have you checked if travelzoo has any special deals?

But really, I think you will have to go to $250 to find anything decent.

You could stay in Queens near Shea stadium and pay a lot less, use the subway to get in/out of Manhattan. It's a hassle for getting to Yankee stadium from there though. Do you know which dates you're going to which stadium at this point? If yes, post.

I do often recommend the Comfort Inn LI City, and in this case it's a particularly convenient hotel. It's right by the 7 train to Shea Stadium, and it's also near the N/R/W trains to Manhattan, where you can connect to go to Yankee Stadium.

Doug, I did remember that the Comfort Inn LIC is one of your recommendations--and I noted it above. It sounds like a reasonable deal for some people at certain times, and it's always good to note it.

But for the dates NCris is looking at, I found rates of $180 per night at that hotel. Travelzoo has some Manhattan hotels in that range that are probably nicer. Also, if Priceline is a possibility for him/her, then surely something more upscale and convenient could be found for $180 when "regular" rates are less than $300

I agree, nyer. If NCris can get any Midtown hotel on Priceline for around $150 or $175, then that's a better deal and well worth the additional added expense. But $150 a night is unlikely except for the cheapest room at the Pod Hotel.

There are some cheap places like Union Square Inn or Chelsea Inn or the Larchmont (some of them with shared baths). I think they should also check out On the Avenue Hotel, but I'm not hopeful they'll find anyting this late at that price point.

If you are going to have a car, I was wondering if it would make sense to stay at a hotel at LaGuardia Airport. That is 5 minutes from Shea Stadium & about 20 minutes from Yankee Stadium just by going over the Triboro Bridge.

Please make sure you have your tickets ahead of time. As this is the last year for games at both Yankee Stadium and Shea, tickets are going to be a hot commodity this year.

I checked for Yankee tickets to a game against KC in May and they were already down to single seats.