NYC Sticker Shock

And I thought London was unreasonable.

Friends are throwing a party in New York in late October, and we thought we'd go up. Best I can figure, the airfare -- FOR TWO -- will be cheaper than a single night in a Manhattan hotel.

A survey of the various websites reveals that just about any midtown hotel is going to run upwards of $300 per night. The Hampton Inn Times Square North is running a whopping $369 per night, according to SideStep. The trend Hotel Gansevoorst is a mind-boggling $772.

Good grief!

I resort next to the opaque sites -- Hotwire and Priceline -- where you find out post-booking exactly where you're staying. Their inventory was severly limited and just as disgustingly expensive.

The best deals I saw were on hotels.com, where you can actually book a room for under $200 -- but only if you book within the next 24 hours. It's a sale.

Got any reasonably-priced ideas for New York? Share them. At these prices, I can't even afford the Days Inn.