Hotel Indigo's cheery rooms are comfortable and well-equipped, perfect for fans who drag their significant other along.

Hotels in this story

Price Dates

Hotel Hayden

The New Yorker a Wyndham Hotel

Stewart Hotel

Ace Hotel New York

Hotel Pennsylvania

In just a few short weeks, the sixteen college basketball teams that make up the Big East conference will converge in New York City to duke it out for the title of champion. From March 9 through 13, Madison Square Garden will swell with fans, which means some 20,000 people are about to need hotel rooms — and here comes zzdtravel with some late-game heroics! Whether you’re a fan of Villanova or Syracuse, Notre Dame or Georgetown, the hotels below — all close to Madison Square Garden — are all solid choices. But each has its own special appeal, which we’ve detailed for you.

Rooms at The New Yorker are clean and recently-renovated, but you may feel like you’re sleeping in a dorm room.

Best Hotel for Recreating Your College Dorm Experience: The New Yorker Hotel

Do you miss being in college? Probably. Do you miss sleeping in a 10’x10′ bedroom? Probably not. But if you do miss it for some reason, you’ll feel right at home here. The standard rooms are a bit “cozy” – even by NYC standards (135 to 150 square feet if you only have one bed). Joking aside, this hotel, which dates back to 1930, is in an iconic Art Deco building right next to the Garden and has the 24-hour Tick Tock Diner off the lobby. And though rooms are tiny, they’re also bright, clean, and recently-renovated. Read the full review.

Best Hotel for Drinking Your Sorrows Away When Your Team Loses: Affinia Manhattan

If your team’s not likely to win (we won’t mention any names…), consider the Affinia Manhattan. Just steps from MSG, it has a fashionable bar and restaurant called Niles that offers a good time to all. Plus, staying here means you’re just around the corner from popular MSG watering holes like Stout NYC and Blarney Rock Pub (both boast a more-than-necessary amount of TVs). Comfy beds, a great gym, and full-kitchens (in most rooms) add to the hotel’s appeal. Read the full review.

Ballers staying at the Ace Hotel get a turntable and records in their rooms.

Best Hotel for Imagining What Your College Dorm Room Experience Should Have Been: Ace Hotel

There aren’t many hip hotels near Madison Square Garden, which is why it’s worth going a few extra blocks for this meticulously curated, vintage-inspired hotel that opened in 2009. Some rooms have bunkbeds, turntables, and Smeg fridges — suggesting a Hollywood version of the ultimate college dorm room. Plus, the new, hyped Breslin restaurant is on-site, and there’s free Wi-Fi throughout the place (like at the popular lobby bar). Rates are higher than at the other hotels on our list, but still fair for NYC. And, you’re still only four blocks from the Garden. Read the full review.

Best Hotel for Poor College Students: Hotel Pennsylvania

The service is generally slow — checking in could take forever, so don’t arrive late for your game — and the bathrooms aren’t the cleanest, but the prices here are unbeatable. And we assume that college students used to living in beer-drenched fraternity houses can handle a few scuff marks on the wall. The good news? You can’t get closer to sleeping inside Madison Square Garden; there’s a well-equipped fitness center; and guest rooms are spacious enough for a few extra frat brothers to crash on the floor. Read the full review.

Best for Big East Super Fans (and/or stalkers): Affinia Dumont

One of our reporters stayed at this hotel last year during the Big East championship and found himself riding the elevator with a 6’10” Notre Dame player (dressed for success in blue and gold). Our reporter wasn’t too surprised because he had read a TripAdvisor post from a traveler who bumped into the NBA’s Milwaukee Bucks during his stay. When he checked out, he asked the woman at the front desk whether they got a lot of celebrities. “I’m not really allowed to say,” she responded coyly, “but we do get a lot of groups.” (We gotcha, lady. Wink wink, nudge nudge.) Sure, it may take ten minutes to get to the Garden (it’s a straight shot across 34th Street), but you may catch a glimpse of the players. Read the full review.

Bibimbap at KumGangSan

Best Hotel If You Don’t Want To Subsist on MSG Nachos: Radisson Martinque on Broadway

This mid-size, mid-range business hotel is just a few blocks from the Garden and sits on the edge of delicious Koreatown. The hotel is next to affiliated restaurant KumGangSan, which serves a mean bibimbap (a traditional dish of veggies, chili paste, and egg over rice). The entire block is crammed with Koren BBQ joints, dumpling houses, and take-out lunch spots. Plus for a fair price, you get a clean, comfortable room in a building with history, character, and a decent gym and spa. Read the full review.

Best Hotel If You’re Dragging Your Significant Other Along : Hotel Indigo

A gem among a lot of mediocre midtown business hotels, Hotel Indigo will appeal to couples with its practical approach — stylish but not relentlessly styled, elegant but filled with fun splashes of color, intimate but outfitted with high-grade amenities. Indigo hotels are InterContinental’s answer to Starwood’s stylish W chain, and as such this new (as of October 2009) 122-room boutique hotel offers supremely comfortable, colorful rooms, excellent views of midtown, a gym, a business center, an elegant restaurant and lounge, and a soon-to-open 19th-floor rooftop bar. Just four blocks from the tournament, it’s classy but also convenient — and the prices are very fair for what you get. Read the full review.