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Athens has been a huge tourist destination for a long time. This means that there's a huge reservoir of hotel rooms. In addition, Athens is a generally quite affordable city, so costs are typically reasonable.
Best of all for those who like their hotels gleamingly fresh, there's a relatively new stratum of hotels in Athens built or renovated in time for the 2004 Olympics. These places are quite stylish, and are mostly clustered in Plaka and Monastiraki. Their rates tend to cluster around €100 to €120 for a double, depending on season and demand.
Recently, though, tourist traffic to Athens has changed noticeably. Europeans are no longer flying to Athens prior to heading to one or another island. They're boarding charter flights that take them directly to their island destinations.
Of course, there's a still a steady mass of European tourists staying in Athens because they want to visit such a gloriously ancient city. What the advent of direct low-cost flights to islands means, in part, is that fewer people end up in Athens accidentally or merely in transit. It means that, these days, more visitors are in Athens to see the city, as opposed to simply passing through it en route to one or another island. It also means that the tourist base in Athens continues to migrate away from a European base, as travelers coming from farther afield can't count on direct flights to one or another island.
Other costs in Athens are also generally inexpensive. Restaurants, museums, and public transportation are all below European averages, without question.
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