From the outside, the Skyline Hotel bears resemblance to a highway-side motor lodge. Inside, the atmosphere is unmistakably that of a big city hotel.

The lobby décor at the 300-room Hampton Inn Times Square is surprisingly contemporary for a midrange chain hotel.

Located at the north end of Times Square, the three-star Night Hotel offers 210 small but stylish rooms in the thick of the action.

The sleek, uber-modern Yotel offers a highly unique "affordable luxury" option in Hell's Kitchen.

Stylish, cozy boutique hotels do exist in bustling, chain-hotel-dominated Midtown. The three-star Hotel 414 is one of them—and it's affordable, to boot.

The 120-room Milburn, located in the thick of the Upper West Side, is an interesting midrange property with a number of features that set it apart from the pack.

The only US branch of the French Novotel chain is perched above Times Square in the middle of Midtown Manhattan, offering friendly service, spacious rooms and stellar views.

The 79-room Broadway @ Times Square Hotel eschews the bright lights and and blaring marquees of nearby Times Square in favor of more traditional décor.

The Ameritania, a three-star hotel ideally located at 54th and Broadway, offers reasonably priced rooms with a boutique style.

Located on a quiet Harlem side-street in a gorgeous brownstone, 102 Brownstone's six rooms comprise a homey Uptown nest.

The ethos is communal, funky, and friendly. There are bikes, umbrellas, and museum passes on offer, all free for guests.

Run by the Evangelical Lutheran Church as a sanctuary for sailors, the Seafarers and International House is a real budget-friendly find.

We think the world of the Larchmont, a 66-room hotel in the West Village, which feels much more like a London budget bed & breakfast than a Manhattan inn.

The Chelsea Lodge has been run as a guesthouse since 1999, when it was radically re-engineered from a decrepit boarding house into a cozy inn.