50 sq ft room at Jane Hotel in NYC

How can you score a hotel room in Manhattan for less than $100 per night?

Check into one of New York City’s tiniest hotel rooms.

There’s really no such thing as a “spacious” hotel room in Manhattan, but micro-hotels like The Jane Hotel take scaling down to an extreme with rooms measuring as little as 50 square feet. Within those few feet, guests can expect to find a bed, a phone on the wall, and a shelf above the bed to store luggage. Personal hygiene must be taken care of in the communal bathroom down the hall. If you need a little more space and a bathroom of your own, The Jane offers 50 rooms that boast 250 square feet of lodging space for about double the price of the standard mini-room.

Across the island from The Jane’s Far West Village location, The Pod Hotel offers “pod rooms” in East Midtown with about 99 square feet of space for as little as $85 a night, a rate that includes free WiFi. You can get your own bathroom for just $10 more per night. While The Jane’s rooms tend to be decorated in dark paneling that could make the claustrophobic traveler feel like they were confined in the hull of a ship, The Pod’s decor is bright and modern, a better match for the “broke but hip” crowd.

The idea of micro-hotels might seem crazy, but it’s actually spreading. On April 15, the new Yotel Time Square will open in the famed tourist district and become the chain’s first micro-hotel in the United States. The Yotel rooms will be about 170 square feet and cost guests just over $200 per night. Yotel has enjoyed success with the pod-like rooms in its properties in Europe, including a location in London Heathrow’s Terminal 4.

Would you consider staying in a room with less than 100 square feet of space if it only cost you $85 per night to stay in Midtown Manhattan? I’ve certainly payed a lot more money for not much more usable space, and the size of my hotel room is rarely a major concern when I’m visiting The City That Never Sleeps.

Photos provided by NJFPR

New York City has spawned and exported many a wonderful brand across the Atlantic to Europe, but as far as hotels are concerned, it has mostly been the NYC hoteliers who have ‘borrowed’ inspiration from the Old World.

Trocadero Centre in London & Pod Hotel in New York

But not anymore. In a shocking concession to trendy American hotel brands, London is about to get it’s own version of New York’s most popular budget hotel – The Pod Hotel.

The landmark Trocadero Centre in London’s Piccadilly Circus is all set to be converted by Accor Hotels – which also runs the New York Pod - into a 495 room Pod clone offering tiny budget rooms.

The Hotel, tentatively named ‘The Piccadilly,’ will have 495 rooms, each 12 or 17 sq metres in size, all ensuite, and grouped around internal courtyards.

The Pod in New York, located in the Midtown East neighborhood, offers cheap bunk beds, and single and double ‘pods.’ They have a currently on-going summer special for $129. The dinky pods are great for tourists and visitors looking for ideally located cheap hotels in New York.

And the Piccadilly Hotel looks good to follow in the Pod’s footsteps as a cheap London hotel in a good location.

Photo credits:- Trocadero Centre by- markhillary; Pod Hotel by p_a_h