citizenM New York Times Square — Booking 8.8, Best-Value Hotel at Times Square

Anyone who has searched for a New York hotel knows the pattern: good location means expensive, budget means a long subway commute or a room that looks nothing like the photos. citizenM Times Square breaks that formula in a way that 3,489 Booking reviewers have confirmed. The address is 218 W 50th St, Hell's Kitchen, on the western edge of Midtown — a neighborhood that is well-lit, safe, and walkable to Broadway (5 minutes), Rockefeller Center (8 minutes), and the south entrance to Central Park (10 minutes). The Times Square–42nd St subway station is a 2-minute walk, connecting the 1/2/3/N/Q/R/W/S lines — essentially the whole island from this one stop. The Booking score of 8.8/10 is the highest in the under-$180 bracket for Midtown, and guests are specific about why: the location delivers exactly what it promises.

The rooms are deliberately compact — citizenM's entire model is built around that trade-off. A King Cabin runs $137–220 per night, a King Superior Cabin $165–260. At around 14–18 sqm, the space is tight by any measure. But the design is genuinely clever: the King bed takes up most of the floor, which means a proper wide mattress with no complaints across reviews. A MoodPad tablet controls lights, blinds, air-con, and the television from a single point. The full-height window pulls the city in rather than leaving you staring at a wall. Self check-in and check-out are handled via lobby kiosks — no queue, no waiting for a receptionist. Several guests specifically mention how much time this saves on arrival after a long flight.

The amenity guests talk about most is the cloudM rooftop bar on the 21st floor — open to all hotel guests at no extra charge, with panoramic Midtown Manhattan views and a full cocktail and beer menu. At sunset or after dark when the city lights up, this is genuinely one of the better free inclusions of any hotel in this price range in New York. On the ground floor, CanteenM operates 24 hours, which matters when you get back to the hotel at 2am after a show or a late dinner and do not want to wander the streets looking for food. The self-service format keeps the experience quick and the prices, by New York standards, reasonable.

For World Cup 2026 visitors: MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey — the main World Cup venue for the New York metro area — is not close. From Times Square, plan on 45–60 minutes by NJ Transit or Uber on a normal day. On match days, allow closer to 90 minutes each way, as traffic and transit fill up across the whole metro. The citizenM location is, however, ideal as a base for everything else New York offers between matches: the standard tourist circuit is all within easy reach from this subway hub.

A few things worth saying plainly before you book. The rooms are small — this is the single most consistent point in all 3,489 reviews. If you are travelling with oversized luggage or multiple large bags, it will be tight. Many reviews specifically advise packing a medium bag and leaving the large suitcase at home. There is no parking at the hotel; nearby parking houses charge $60 or more per night, which needs to be factored in if you are travelling by car. These are not hidden flaws — they are the direct consequence of how citizenM is priced and designed — but they are worth knowing clearly before arrival.

The honest summary: citizenM Times Square is the best-value hotel at this Manhattan postcode. A Booking score of 8.8 from nearly 3,500 real reviews, a rooftop bar with a proper skyline view that is free to use, a 24-hour restaurant downstairs, and a 2-minute walk to one of the city's most connected subway stations — all from $137 per night. For solo travellers, couples, or a group of friends who plan to spend their time exploring the city rather than sitting in a hotel room, this is an easy recommendation. If you need more floor space or are bringing the kind of luggage that fills a wardrobe, compare the other options in our New York list.