Venere is a good place to find accommodation in a whole lot of cities - I don't know how good it is on New York, but it was very useful when we went to Venice.

The thing we liked was that as well as information and booking links and all it feedback from customers - unfavourable as well as favourable, and reading through these was great fun. Especially comparing how people's reactions varied, and different nationalities too.   

I mean you'd get one person writing about how it was great the way the staff kept out of the way and didn't make their presence felt, and te next one would complain about the very same thing. And the couple who commented that a place was pretty, apart from the bedbugs...

Any time I was going to New York I think Venere might be my first online port of call. Apart from the Mudcat of course.