I always stay in the city when I go to New York just because I really want to "experience" the city and not have to go back to Jersey after a long day of shopping, etc. However, this is just my humble opinion, and yes, you can get good hotel deals in NYC. I just went there 2 months ago and stayed at a supernice Holiday Inn Express for $125 a night AND free continental breakfast. It was 4 blocks from AGPNY on 5th avenue. I found the deal by searching on travelzoo.com under NY hotel deals. Also, go on each vendor's (ie-Hilton, Holiday Inn, etc) website -- a lot of times they have deals that are exclusive to their website and aren't on the big travel websites like Expedia.