Finding Bargain Lodging in New York City Is Not an Impossible Dream : A consumer’s guide to 10 of the Big Apple’s most affordable hotels.

New York on a tight budget? Yes, it’s possible.

In the heart of Manhattan is a well-scrubbed, nicely refurbished hotel called the Pickwick Arms where single rooms go for just $40, and that’s every day of the week. A remarkable price, it is one of the best lodging bargains to be found in a city notorious for its hefty room rates. And there are a variety of other hotel bargains awaiting visitors.

Of course, there is one rather significant catch to the Pickwick Arms’ $40 rate. The hotel’s Spartan single rooms offer only a sink in place of a full bathroom. To use the toilet and shower, you must journey down the hall. Nevertheless, for students--or anyone on a limited budget--affordability can easily justify the inconvenience. Not surprisingly, the hotel is popular with tourists from Europe, where in-room baths still are not standard in some older hotels and inns.

I headed for New York recently to search out decent, well-located but modestly priced lodgings, and I found a group of 10 that easily qualified. Rates for two people range from $65 to no more than $145 a night. In all but two of these hotels--please note--the cheapest price actually does include a private bath. In a few, you are treated to a complimentary breakfast.

To compile my best-of-the-bargains list, I weeded out several lower-priced hotels that seemed dingy or were in questionable neighborhoods. They may not have been flophouses, but they certainly looked the part. Any hotel that furnishes its lobby with a soda pop machine was immediately rejected as aesthetically unappealing. So were hotels where the registration desk is protected by a glass or plastic shield. Too off-putting.

Instead, I chose hotels where the management seemed to show it cared by providing bright and inviting lobbies and guest rooms. All but one of the properties, the Jolly Madison Towers, has been redecorated recently, and it does not seem in dire need of it just yet. During my survey, I stayed in only one of the hotels, the Radisson Empire, but inspected all 10, which included a walk through a variety of guest rooms in each.

Two important factors should be kept in mind when booking a New York City hotel:

--Taxes. On a room renting for $100 a night or more, city and state taxes total 19.25%, plus an additional $2-a-night city occupancy tax. This brings the full tax on a $100-a-night room to $21.25. However, for rooms under $100, the combined city and state tax is just 14.25%, again plus the $2 city-occupancy tax. This brings the full tax on a $99 room to $16.10. The lower tax--a saving of at least $5 a night--is something to remember when choosing between two hotels at or near the $100 rate. Some mid-priced hotels keep their rates at $99 so guests can benefit from the lower tax.

--Weekend rates. Many of the fancier hotels slash their regular rates by 50% or even more on weekends--usually Friday and Saturday nights and sometimes Sunday nights. Rates also drop during slack seasons when business travel is light, such as midsummer, December and early January. At these special times, the posh hotels actually become price-competitive with the mid-priced hotels, a factor that keeps the cheaper hotels from raising rates. Indeed, one of the mid-priced hotels on my list lowered its rates slightly because of this competition.

New York offers dozens of low- and moderately priced hotels. These 10, which offer affordable rates throughout the week, are among the best of them:

MILFORD PLAZA Just one block west of Broadway on 45th Street, the huge and bustling Milford Plaza Hotel offers its own $99-a-night package, and it is available every night of the year. Called the “LullaBuy of Broadway,” the widely advertised package may be the best-known hotel promotion in New York. For the price, two guests get a room plus welcoming cocktails, continental breakfast and dinner (the daily special) at the Stage Door Canteen, which is on the premises. Sometimes the hotel drops dinner and the welcoming cocktail and offers the package for $75 a night.

Once a boarded-up eyesore, the 30-story hotel was thoroughly refurbished in 1980 and reopened as the first major project in the ongoing redevelopment of the Times Square area. Fourteen theaters are within a two-block walk, and the hotel has exercised a bit of theatrical whimsy to note this fact by painting a bright white star on the door of every one of its 1,310 guest rooms.

When I showed up, the expansive marble lobby was teeming with conventioneers and seemed as hectic as a big-city airline terminal. But maybe this should be taken as evidence of its popularity. Part of the crowd was headed for Mamma Leone’s, a moderately priced Italian restaurant just off the lobby that is a perennial favorite with matinee-goers.

In the past year, guest rooms have been redecorated in soft tones of gray and burgundy, a pleasing combination. And new lighting fixtures and television sets were installed, and the bathrooms redone. Right now the elevators are dingy-looking and slow, but they are next on management’s list of improvements.

Milford Plaza Hotel, 270 West 45th St., (800) 221-2690 or (212) 869-3600. Rates: $99 a night double, including welcoming cocktails, continental breakfast and dinner, with occasional specials of $75 a night double, including breakfast only.

EDISON

An Art Deco delight, the 22-story Hotel Edison seems intent on reclaiming the original glamour of its theater district opening in 1931. To honor the decade of its birth, the hotel has just redecorated its massive lobby, and the highlight is a series of eight huge new wall murals depicting New York City at its most enthusiastic in the ‘30s.

In these impressive surroundings, you might think you have stepped into one of the city’s ritzier establishments. But the 1,000-room hotel is strictly “no frills,” says manager Gerald Barad, and the room rates reflect this. A single is $80 a night, every day of the week. In the current slow economy, the rates dropped $10 a night about six months ago.

For the price, guests are lodged in good-sized rooms, most of which have been redecorated in the past two years in a pleasing array of soft grays and pinks. And the bathrooms also have been redone, giving them a fresh appearance. In contrast, the outside hallways are dim, but they are to be tackled next.

Hotel Edison, 228 West 4th St., (800) 637-7070. Rates: $80 a night single, $90 double.

PRESIDENT

Yet another star of the theater district is the 400-room President Hotel, the flagship property in the chain of six Chatwal Hotels in New York--each charging less than $100 a night for a room for two. At the President, the current promotional rate, called the “Presidential Deal,” is $69 a night for two people, any day of the week. Another package, this one dubbed “Best Buy of Broadway,” is $98 a night for two and includes a continental breakfast and either lunch or dinner at one of several affiliated restaurants.

Chatwal Hotels was founded in 1984 by Sant Singh Chatwal, who also heads the Bombay Palace restaurant chain. He acquired the six city properties inexpensively, and was therefore able to renovate them as budget-priced, no-frills hotels, says marketing director Ezzat Aziz.

At the President, room furnishings are modest--about what you might expect in a roadside motel--but the color schemes are tasteful and the flowered bedspreads cheerful. The guest rooms, bathrooms, public rooms and hallways all have just been refurbished.

President Hotel, 234 West 48th St., (800) 826-4667. Current special rates are $69 a night double and $98 a night double, the latter including two meals.

PICKWICK ARMS

A budget-priced little charmer, the 14-story, 400-room Pickwick Arms Hotel greets arriving guests in a gleaming white marble lobby worthy of any of the upper-crust apartment houses in the surrounding East Side neighborhood. This attention to bright and appealing appearances is maintained in the hallways and guest rooms.

The hotel’s rate of $40 a night for a single room without bath qualifies as the best lodging bargain I could find in New York. I’ve stayed in many hotels in Europe where the bathroom was down the hall, and I wish they had looked as inviting as the Pickwick Arms.

The rooms, especially the single ones, tend to be small. But rates have not changed in the past four years, says manager Robert Burke. His is among the no-frills hotels drawing an increasing percentage of business travelers “yielding to the corporate economy.” In addition, the hotel is popular with international travelers on temporary assignment to the nearby United Nations.

Pickwick Arms Hotel, 230 East 51st St., (800) 742-5945. Rates: $40 a night single without bath, $50 single for a room sharing a bath with one other room, $60 for a single room with bath, $80 double for a standard room with bath, $95 double for a larger room or studio.

BROADWAY AMERICAN

A sparkling new hotel in an older building, the 430-room Broadway American Hotel on the Upper West Side is also featuring rooms with a shared bath at a budget rate. A single is $45 a night, a double $65. With private bath, the rates begin at $79. Each of the 12 floors also has a small communal kitchen for do-it-yourself meals, popular with young backpackers.

Rooms are modest in size and quite Spartan--although each contains a small refrigerator and good reading lights. And they are nicely--and somewhat whimsically--decorated in shades of black, silver and gray.

The combination is highlighted by framed black-and-white photos of New York hanging on the wall and the image of King Kong grinning from the headboard of each bed. The lobby is a dramatic splash of many colors, both on the walls and in the weave of the carpeting.

To be sure, the kitchens do give the hotel something of the ambience of a youth hostel or a college dorm, and indeed the Broadway American is seeking an international clientele, presumably younger travelers. Its location at Broadway and 77th Street puts it about a dozen blocks north of Lincoln Center in a neighborhood of small restaurants and shops. Bus, subway and taxi service are readily available.

Broadway American Hotel, 2178 Broadway, (212) 362-1100 . Rates for rooms without baths: $45 a night single, $65 double, $75 triple; rooms with private bath: $79 single, $89 double, $99 triple.

SALISBURY

The 320-room Salisbury Hotel is one of the two hotels on this list that can truthfully be described as possessing a certain tony elegance. (The other is the Radisson Empire, below.) The Salisbury’s guest rooms are the largest of the hotels I toured, and it is excellently situated just across the street from Carnegie Hall and the Russian Tea Room, only a short walk from Central Park. The drawback is that its regular midweek rates are at the top of the mid-price range for properties in this article.

Normal midweek rates start at $124 single, $134 double.

The rooms have been redecorated recently, and the bathrooms redone. But the lobby and hallways are beginning to look a little shabby. They are to be renovated this year. Meanwhile, the hotel is installing in-room safes, coffee makers and a voice-mail telephone message system.

Salisbury Hotel, 123 West 57th St., (800) 223-0680. Midweek rates: $124-$134 a night single, $134-$144 double, $144-$174 for suites; weekend rates: $95 for a single or double in a standard room, $125 for a suite.

RADISSON EMPIRE

Elegance in the 375-room Radisson Empire Hotel begins in the lobby, which is graced with beautiful Oriental rugs and looks like the sitting room of a palatial home in the British countryside. The effect is reinforced on the mezzanine, which sports a formal billiards room.

Conveniently located just across the street from Lincoln Center, the hotel attracts many guests attending performances, and it caters to them by providing a compact disc player in each room and a music library from which to select discs. Unfortunately, the lower-priced rooms that qualify the hotel for this article are tiny--almost claustrophobically so.

An inside room, facing what is dubiously called “the courtyard,” is $120 a night double during midweek and $125 a night on weekends. The higher weekend price reflects the demand from concert- and opera-goers. The inside rooms are furnished with a double bed, which leaves just enough space to squeeze past the small desk. The courtyard is a dark pit sheltering some of the building’s mechanical innards and assorted trash. Despite these grumbles, the Empire really is a lovely place.

Radisson Empire Hotel, 44 West 63rd St., (212) 265-7400 . Rates for an inside room: $120 a night double on weekdays, $125 on weekends; outside rooms begin at $170 a night double.

IROQUOIS

The smallest of the group, the 12-story, 85-room Hotel Iroquois conveys a distinct feeling of easygoing friendliness. The enthusiastic welcome one gets can be credited to manager Eileen O’Brien, who is apt to drop whatever she’s doing to chat with a guest. She will also negotiate room rates when she knows the hotel isn’t going to be full. “We practice very flexible pricing,” she says.

Normally, singles start at $75 and doubles at $85, but see if she might be willing to cut the price a little. In slack periods, a two-room suite can be had for as little as $99, the rate that was in effect throughout November and December.

The rooms, which are good-sized, have all been redecorated in the past five years and still look pleasingly bright and clean--although the lobby has begun to show wear and could use some new paint. The single elevator is tiny and poky. The Iroquois is located just half a block from the shops of Fifth Avenue and two doors from its famous literary neighbor, the Algonquin.

Hotel Iroquois, 49 West 44th St., (800) 332-7220 or (212) 840-3080. Rates: $75-$85 a night single, $85-$95 double, $120-$170 a night for a suite . But lower rates are available during slow periods.

WELLINGTON

Opened in 1901, the venerable Wellington Hotel has always operated under the same name, but there have been a lot of changes through the years. Most recently, the 27-story property has undergone a major renovation that included the installation of a fire sprinkler system in all 620 guest rooms. (New York hotels are required to have sprinklers only in the hallways and public rooms.) At the same time, all the rooms were redecorated, and many now have beautiful new white marble bathrooms.

The Wellington caters primarily to tourists since it has no banquet or meeting facilities to attract conventions. As a result, its lobby escapes the hubbub of name-tagged throngs scurrying to get to the next seminar. The hotel is a block from Carnegie Hall and a short walk from Central Park to the north and Rockefeller Center to the south.

Wellington Hotel, Seventh Avenue at 55th Street, (800) 652-1212. Rates: $89 - $99 single, $99 - $109 double.

JOLLY MADISON TOWERS

The name may be a puzzler unless you have traveled extensively in Italy. Jolly is a prominent Italian hotel chain, and it recently acquired the Madison Towers as its first U.S. property. Soon it will undertake a complete renovation of the 246-room, 18-story hotel in the Murray Hill section of the city. Meanwhile, the Madison Towers is still a pleasant-looking place, although the lobby area looks slightly old-fashioned in its red plaid and polished brass decor.

The Lord & Taylor department store is just one block away and Macy’s is a comfortable 10-minute walk. En route you pass the Empire State Building.

Jolly Madison Towers, Madison Avenue at 38th Street, (800) 225-4340. Weekday rates: $115 per night single, $130 double; weekend rates: $98 single or double, including full breakfast.

For more information:

--A free brochure listing New York City hotels along with street addresses, reservation numbers and daily rates for singles, doubles and suites is available from the New York Convention & Visitors Bureau, 2 Columbus Circle, New York 10019, (212) 397-8222. Ask for “The New York Hotel Guide.”