There are hotels in Jersey that are just 11 minutes away via car. You could always try using a cab instead of a bus/train. Some of the NJ hotels offer a shuttle to Times Square as well which isn't a far walk to the center. Or maybe even look into using the ferry.
Yeah, I was just trying to see if anyone knew of a closer hotel than 1 hour away that has a cheap weekly rate like $400 or less for the week. The 1 hour away hotels are like $250 for the week. Though the place I stayed at last year went way up in price this year for some reason.
I had been looking around closer to NYC that was less than 1 hour ride, but only ran across the obvious pricier hotels that I can't do.
I recall last year coming across a cheap weekly rate hotel in the Bronx. Maybe like $300 for the week, but read a review that it was right by a train, and so was noisy all night.
Also thought of trying to find one a cheap one in the NY area, as I think the subway runs 24/7 in NY. Maybe buses too. As I know NJ has a cut off on their buses, so you have to be at the Penn Station on the bus at a certain time or have to wait until morning when they start running again. I barely made it on the bus at Penn Station one night last year as it was the last bus out for the night to NJ and I was late getting there.