There's some affordable hostels right in manhattan.
https://www.kayak.com/ is good for finding cheapest hotel options. I ususally filter by my max price I'm willing to pay, then pick stuff out on the map view
I bought this one for a trip to Costa Rica in May of this year, and used it during the sunnier moments at GovBall:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005BVYV7Q/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o09_s00?ie=UTF8
It does the job, and if the cord is too goobery for your tastes, I'm fairly sure you can remove it.