After giving up my apartment in Williamsburg to my daughter, I now have to stay in a hotel when I'm in the city (about a week a month). I've been staying lately at the Box House Hotel, in Greenpoint.
Advantages:
- Very reasonably priced -- I'm staying this week for about $100/night (before taxes and fees) through Hotwire
- A very good hotel for the money; not "luxury," but certainly very clean and comfortable
- Not a chain hotel; much more of a boutique feel
- Not directly next to the subway, but still an easy walk; plus, the hotel provides free transportation within a one-mile radius, including to the subway
- Not at all a touristy neighborhood; located in a real (and safe) residential area
- In Greenpoint, a not-yet-gentrified (as much as the developers are trying) neighborhood that's a mix of residential and industrial; it once was a heavily Polish neighborhood, and there still are many Polish businesses, and you frequently hear Polish spoken on the streets
- Close to many great neighborhood restaurants and bars in Greenpoint and nearby Long Island City and Williamsburg
- Although in Brooklyn, it's a quick subway ride into Manhattan
Disadvantages:
- Not in Manhattan (this is an advantage for me, and for those who want to experience "real" New York, but perhaps a disadvantage for tourists coming to see the sites)
- Not directly adjacent to the subway (it's close to the subway by objective standards, but not by New Yorker standards -- I complained when my dry cleaner, which used to be in the lobby of my building, moved a block away!)