The best budget hotels in New York, from stylish Brooklyn lofts to nightclub-inspired crash pads

According to its owners, this former flophouse is New York’s oldest hotel. It is now a fashionable budget option in the regenerated Bowery, with its reclaimed chandeliers, zebra-print furniture, and bold purple-and-yellow accents in the lobby, to the bare brick walls. Boho-chic never looked so good. Rooms of exposed brick offset by soft yellow tones come in five categories, the best being ‘Regency plus’, which sleep up to five people on designer Therapedic mattresses. The highlight of the property is Randolph Beer, a terrific craft beer saloon on the ground floor.

Budget-friendly and boutique, Aloft features a rainbow of bright hues like teal, magenta, goldenrod, and violet. Expect plenty of comfy lounge seating and colour photographs of nearby attractions on the walls. The 128-room property has smallish, modern quarters with the essentials including televisions, hairdryers, desks, coffee makers, safes, and bottled water on the house. Some rooms on higher floors afford scenic city views. Since Aloft Financial District doesn’t offer on-site dining, you can choose from appetisers, salads, sandwiches, and pasta from Butler, an outside service.

This snazzy hotel with a nightclub-like atmosphere overflows with style and creativity. Anticipate rustic interiors and earthy materials mingled with chic. Public spaces are well thought-out, comfortable, hip, and inviting. Subway tile and wide-plank blonde wood boards cover floors and walls. Select from bunk rooms that sleep four, Queen and King rooms, as well as ‘crash pads’ appropriate for doing what the name implies. All rooms here are small, even by New York standards. But pillow-top mattresses are super comfy, and you’ll find essential amenities such as a safe, television, and Muk hair and body products.

From the guestrooms to the public spaces, this hotel takes pride in its health and wellness theme. Seating vignettes on the ground floor provide plenty of space to relax, work and mingle. A wooden room divider in the open floor-plan stores books and games. A two-storey athletic studio stocked with ample equipment, yoga and spin classes, as well as group runs to Brooklyn Bridge Park, make working out while travelling a no-brainer. After exercise, chill out on the seventh-floor terrace, and be sure to experience the chic, bricked courtyard alongside the bar. A rarity for any hotel in New York, the outdoor space is a retreat far removed from city life.

Nu Hotel Brooklyn sits within an apartment block on Smith Street, in a spot which gives guests easy access to neighbourhoods including Cobble Hill, Boerum Hill, Park Slope and Prospect Heights. The style is basic-boutique. The unassuming entrance leads to a small lobby with grey booth seating and an open kitchen where breakfast and drinks are served. In summer, seating spills over onto the pavement. The loft-inspired rooms are simple, comfortable and yet polished: think hardwood floors, mid-century-style chairs and, if you book a Nu Perspective category room, unique artwork in the form of wall murals, from the pretty to the political to the prosaic.