New York: Spread the word, not your dough

— -- To paraphrase Ol' Blue Eyes, if you can make it on an autumn weekend in New York for $500, you can make it anywhere. The city is on track for another record tourism year — and despite the tumbles on Wall Street, Manhattan's hotel rates remain loftier than its skyline. Here's how USA TODAY's Laura Bly carved a budget-sized bite out of the Big Apple:

Lodging:

With average room rates topping $325 a night, I knew my biggest challenge would be finding a place in Manhattan for less than $150 that didn't involve bunk beds or roaches and stained mattresses as amenities. I triumphed. Twice.

Founded as a haven for German-Catholic immigrants in 1889, the Leo House on West 23rd Street in Chelsea is still run by the Sisters of St. Agnes but now shelters budget travelers of all faiths. Though it's typically booked solid months in advance, I got a last-minute cancellation on a $100 single room with private bath (shared-bath singles are $90, and a handful of family rooms with private baths are $190). Decidedly no-frills but clean and friendly, Leo House accommodations include use of a reading lounge, chapel and garden, plus access to a $9 buffet breakfast with fresh fruit, cereal, eggs and scrumptious banana bread.

If staying at the Leo House is akin to spending the night at an elderly aunt's, renting a room at The Jane is like bunking with your tattooed Gen-Y cousin. A work in progress aimed at young travelers with "more dash than cash," The Jane opened last month in a century-old West Village landmark that once housed surviving crew from the Titanic. Its handsomely renovated, 50-square-foot single "cabins" cost $99 per night, complete with Frette linens and flat-screen TVs. The catch: You share a communal bathroom (spiffily redone with '40s-style tile floors, marble vanities and rainfall showerheads in two private stalls) with residents of The Jane's former incarnation, the single-room-occupancy Hotel Riverview. My sojourn was uneventful — though it did give me pause when the front-desk clerk noted that white bleach stains on the newly installed hallway carpet were calling cards from a disgruntled tenant.