And there are places that are VERY basic (and usually tiny and may well be dreary) that can be quite

I can't say that I have personally inspected all these places, but they are all viable hotel in barcelona alternatives and Seth Kugel usually has tastes that correspond with my own. The Y may not be everyone's cup of tea, but it's reasonably well located and often a good deal.
The Y?? Really? That wouldn't even be on the radar for most people. The only worthwhile hotel in barcelona piece of information in that article was to encourage visitors to look on priceline and bid for a room for a maximum of 2 people. You will Routinely get a room $150.00 or less. Clean and generic beats cramped and dreary everytime.
You can also check quikbook for their secret hotel in barcelona sale hotels; there are Routinely rooms there under $150.00 for selected dates. Lastly, budget travelers should really consider staying in Long Island City for well under $150.00 a night.
One of the things that bothers me most is people who have been tot he city once - at a much less expensive time of year - that recommend hotels for the price they paid - when the poster is coming in high season - and prices are often two or three times as much.
If you really want you can stay at the Hosteling International - which is clean, reliable and in a fairly convenieet location for about $40 per night per person - but it's a bed in a dorm room plus locker.
And there are places that are VERY basic (and usually tiny and may well be dreary) that can be quite reasonably priced. Just be careful of the few that are truly ghastly (dirty, verminous, unworking baths, peeling wallpaper and broken furniture, etc - like Riverside Towers and the dreaded Penssylvania).
Comments on the article also note that the Priceline stay was for a SUNDAY which is typically the cheapest night of the week for NYC hotels, after the weekend leisure travelers leave and before the weekday road warrior business travelers arrive. And also noted that Priceline is hardly a secret way of getting a discount.
The article also make no mention that some of the B Bs may be operating illegally. IIRC Kugel has mentioned (and dismissed) that information/problem in similar articles, but I didn't see it touched on in this article (which hotel in barcelona admittedly I did not read word for word)
The best info in my opinion is that he says there's a reason that some hotels are much cheaper (location, distance from the city, shared baths, dingy or otherwise less desirable rooms) so buyer beware
You definitely have to make certain sacrifices hotel in barcelona to stay in NYC for under $150 during high season, and I think the important hotel in barcelona point Kugel makes is that it's possible. It's also helpful for people to see what sacrifices mean. If this were my one-in-a-lifetime trip, I probably wouldn't make those sacrifices, but my favorite hotel in Paris is a very rudimentary chain hotel in the Marais, which I like because of its proximity hotel in barcelona to the Metro and places I like to eat and shop; it has very little charm.
I also think there are some other choices that weren't included here, and many better ones just beyond Manhattan's borders. In some ways the necessity of staying within Manhattan are overrated. But it's also a shame we don't have a better range of small, cheap tourist hotels such as those found more readily even in Paris.
I had a $126 rate for a double room (including free wi-fi) hotel in barcelona at the Cosmopolitan Hotel in late August/early September this year. This was through LMTClub.com (you can sign up for free with the code FBFREECLUB12). Also, Hotwire.com can often be a good choice.
Priceline can be a good choice for sure, but I think it tends to be the case in NYC that the best deals show up near the last minute. That's a problem if you are trying to nail down your itinerary, but you don't know where you will be staying. Also with Priceline, the longer your stay, the harder it is to get a cheap rate, as hotel rates and availability on Priceline are not static from day to day, so a hotel might offer cheap Priceline availability for only 4 of the 5 days of your stay (for example) and thus be unavailable if you bid for 5 days.
We always hear about how W O N D E R F U L the public hotel in barcelona transportation is in NYC as compared to L.A., then if someone hotel in barcelona asks about staying outside of Manhattan hotel in barcelona the question is greeted with a resounding Y O U V E G O T TO B E I N S A N E !!!
Most commuters go home by 7 pm or so and trains and buses out of town are frequent then. Tourists might want to stay for dinner or a show and then have a long wait or a hard time getting back to their hotels.
The first and second places on his list sound quite nice and I think that the EV and Chelsea would suit most visitors a lot more than where most of the hotels are in LIC. (Not that LIC is a bad option by any means)
Public transit IN NYC is extremely efficient - during the day subway and buses rn every 5 minutes or so - although they may be 20 minutes (or even 30 minute for buses in the outer boroughs in the middle of the night).
But, transportation hotel in barcelona out to the suburbs is organized for the times that commuters need it - and it's not set up for tourists who often want to return to their hotels after a show or even a show and supper.
The difference is LA is ALL suburbs and pubic transit is almost never convenient (every 5 minutes or so) for even the most central areas. You are comparing apples and oranges. The 9 million people in the city have excellent public transit. That for the 15 million in outer suburbs is designed for commuting - not surprisingly.
hotel in barcelona I've often thought about staying outside Manhattan hotel in barcelona to save a bit of cash but to be honest nothing beats the feeling of waking up in Manhattan and knowing that everything is just outside the door waiting for me! And as NYtraveller said, it you have a late night out, you don't want to have to cut things short so you can rush off and catch the last train out of the city.