Can anyone recommend a nice hotel with decent rates in NYC?

Probably a little less than you’re looking for, but my gf and I found The Pod Hotel, aka Pickwick Arms, to be wholly adequate and pretty darn cool. We went mainly on price/value. Very modernist aesthetics. One stop away from Grand Central.

pickwickarms.com

Pickwick Arms is great, but it used to be a lot cheaper. You can also try the Hotel 17 and the Hotel 31. Not luxurious, but clean and quiet, although I’ve only been in the single rooms.

Nice and inexpensive does not exist in NYC. You might be able to find “decent and inexpensive” try Fodors.com or expedia.com

You may want to consider those ‘zone-based’ booking services. Essentially you pick the region and star-rating of the hotel you want and you’re given a listing of hotels with their amenities but not the actual hotel name until you book. This allows hotels to ‘bleed’ off excess room capacity without compromising their advertised rates.

2 well-known sites:
www.hotwire.com
The easier one to use: you just indicate the city and it returns a list of hotels with star level, region, amenities, and room rate. Just book and the hotel will be revealed.

www.priceline.com
Priceline gets you the better deal sometimes but is more involved. You indicate the region and star-level you want and commit to a price. If there’s a match at your given price you’re booked for that hotel (you can’t refuse).

I used Hotwire once for Boston and got the Intercontinental for $140 a night instead of the standard $340 so it works. With each site there’s a lot of tricks and techniques to squeeze more value from their system(s). Forums (like betterbidding.com) match hotels that use the service and give tips on getting the best deal.