Is Times Square Safe? Hotel Location Guide
Crime here is mostly theft from bags and pockets, rarely violence, and the block matters more than the hour. 10 hotels from the plazas to Eighth Avenue.
Neighborhood vibe map: hoodmaps.com (reference only, not safety data)
Neighborhood overview
Most crime in Times Square is theft from bags and pockets, and where you stay matters more than when you’re out: the adverse reporting concentrates on the Eighth Avenue side toward Port Authority.
Times Square is not a square. It is the X made where Broadway cuts diagonally across Seventh Avenue, leaving two opposed triangles, and the pedestrian plazas filling them are a specific piece of infrastructure rather than a mood: Snøhetta’s rebuild ran from 2010 to 2017, covers Broadway between 42nd and 47th Streets, removed the curbs, and carved out about 2.5 acres of pedestrian-only space. The density number is the one worth carrying around. The Times Square Alliance’s own market research puts between 200,000 and 250,000 pedestrians a day through a district that is “0.1% of NYC’s land area.” Everything else about the area follows from that.
The crime picture is specific, and it is not the one most people arrive expecting. We pulled NYPD complaint records for the first half of 2026 from NYC Open Data for Midtown South, the precinct that covers Times Square. Theft of some kind accounts for 3,033 of 6,776 reported complaints, about 45% of everything. Robbery, felony assault, murder and rape together come to 410, about 6%. This is overwhelmingly a place where things get taken from bags and pockets, not a place where people get hurt. Two caveats matter and neither is small: these are raw counts for a precinct with a daytime population of hundreds of thousands and almost no residents, so they cannot be compared against a residential precinct’s totals or read as a ranking. And the hours are counterintuitive. Of the 396 robberies and felony assaults recorded in Midtown South in that period, 145 fell between 18:00 and midnight and only 38 between 03:00 and 08:00. Before reading that as “the small hours are fine,” note there is no footfall denominator: far fewer people are out at 04:00, so the risk per person is very probably higher then than the raw counts suggest.
What actually varies here is the block, more than the hour. The plazas themselves are patrolled by the Alliance’s own public safety officers 24 hours a day, and the commercial activity in them, the costumed characters and the rest, is legally zoned into marked areas by city rules. The theatre side streets in the West 40s run on curtain times rather than on the plazas: quiet mid-afternoon, then a hard surge around 19:45 and again when the houses empty around 22:15. The streets east of Broadway run toward Bryant Park and the library and calm down as the office blocks empty. The Eighth Avenue corridor toward the Port Authority is where the adverse reporting concentrates, in amNewYork in July 2026 and in Gothamist in May 2025, which found discarded needles “especially on the fringes of Times Square between Eighth and Ninth avenue.” Gothamist also supplies the fairest summary of the last decade here, and it is two things at once: violent crime in 2024 was close to half what it was in 2015, while 311 complaints for the Times Square ZIP rose sharply over a comparable window, sanitation by more than 200%, homeless services by 92%, police by 73%. Falling violence and rising disorder are both true.
One more thing about the Eighth Avenue end: the Port Authority Bus Terminal is being replaced, and construction is already underway. Anyone booking near Eighth and 40th to 42nd is booking beside an active megaproject for years.
The hustles are real, officially acknowledged and long-running. The clearest account we could verify is an Associated Press report describing costumed characters working the plazas for tips and peddlers aggressively hawking homemade CDs, met by NYPD plainclothes officers and a dedicated Times Square unit. The enforcement numbers that circulate alongside this come from a news outlet that no longer exists and could not be re-sourced, so they are not repeated here. Treat the pattern as zoned, policed and still present.
The subway deserves its own note, because the intuition is backwards. Times Square-42nd Street is the busiest station in the system. Analysis published by Vital City puts felony assaults at roughly one every 2.3 million rides and makes the point that the stations with the most incidents have them because of volume, while the genuinely elevated risk is late at night at small, quiet stations. That is precisely not this one. A practical detail instead: the free passageway east to Bryant Park closes at midnight, so a late transfer that works at 22:00 does not exist at 01:00.
The 10 hotels below are sorted by how close they sit to the plazas, starting on them. They run from the Broadway frontages through the theatre side streets to the Port Authority corridor and the Hell’s Kitchen edge, and each card says which of those it is on, because in this district that matters more than the street address suggests. Two honest notes. Nothing here is on Restaurant Row itself, the block of West 46th between Eighth and Ninth: no hotel sits on it, and the nearest are a block east. And the price tiers are relative to this set, captured on one soft September Sunday night: a one-symbol room here was still $169 to $198, so “budget” in Times Square is not budget anywhere else. Across all ten, the recurring complaint in guest reviews is noise rather than crime, and the recurring resolution is a room on a high floor or facing away from the street. For the wider city, see the New York city page.
Hotel locations in this guide
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The 10 hotels, street by street
Hotel 1 of 10. New York Marriott Marquis
On the Times Square plazas, New York
$$$$Top tier
Best for: Travelers who want to be on Times Square itself and sleep above it
Daytime
1535 Broadway sits on the plaza between West 45th and West 46th, with the Minskoff Theatre in the building's base. TripAdvisor counts 633 restaurants and 467 attractions within 0.3 miles, the densest surroundings of any hotel in this list. The lobby is on the eighth floor, which sounds like a quirk and functions as a location feature: arriving guests are lifted out of the crowd rather than checking in at street level.
After dark
The plaza frontage is lit and busy at every hour the plaza is, and the Minskoff means a full theatre empties onto this block around 22:15 on performance nights. The consistent theme across guest reviews is that the street is loud and the room is not: three separate 2026 reviews describe rooms as quiet, and TripAdvisor's own noise tag for the property reads Quiet. One guest left the drapes open and reported the billboard glow lighting the walls all night, which is the honest trade for this address.
- Transit: 49th Street and 50th Street
- Short walk
- Transit: Times Square–42nd Street
- ~3 blocks
- Landmark: Times Square plaza
- Steps away
- Busiest hotel frontage in the district
- Street loud, rooms reported quiet
Nearby: The hotel is roughly three blocks north of the Times Square-42nd Street subway complex, with 49th Street and 50th Street closer still. TripAdvisor's own walk times omit the Times Square complex entirely for this property, which is a listing artefact rather than a real distance, so treat its figures with care. Midtown South Precinct is the NYPD command covering Times Square.
Sources: TripAdvisor reviews (rating, review count, proximity data), NYPD Midtown South Precinct
Hotel 2 of 10. The Knickerbocker
Times Square at 42nd Street, New York
$$$$Upper mid
Best for: Travelers who want the subway underneath them and Bryant Park on the other side
Daytime
6 Times Square is the southeast corner of 42nd Street and Broadway, which is the hinge of the area: the plaza's southern mouth, the main subway entrances, and the turn east toward Bryant Park and the New York Public Library. TripAdvisor gives it a Location subscore of 4.9, the joint highest here, and lists Bryant Park and the library at 5 and 6 minutes.
After dark
The 42nd Street corner is the busiest pedestrian approach to the subway at all hours, so the block itself does not empty. The eastward walk toward Bryant Park is a different matter and thins out considerably once the park closes. Worth stating plainly: across the reviews we checked, no guest describes this street after dark or the walk back late, so there is nothing first-hand to report either way. What the page does carry is an aggregate note that city noise reaches the rooms surprisingly little, and blackout shades as a recurring mention.
- Transit: Times Square–42nd Street
- 1 min
- Landmark: Times Square plaza
- Steps away
- The pivot point of the whole district
- Corner stays busy; no guest night reports
Nearby: The hotel sits directly above the Times Square-42nd Street entrances, and TripAdvisor's one-minute figure is plausible here in a way it is not for the properties further north. The free subway passageway east to Bryant Park runs only until midnight. Midtown South Precinct is the NYPD command covering Times Square.
Sources: TripAdvisor reviews (rating, review count, proximity data), NYPD Midtown South Precinct
Hotel 3 of 10. W New York - Times Square
Duffy Square, New York
$$$$Upper mid
Best for: Travelers who want the brightest part of the plaza outside the window
Daytime
1567 Broadway faces Duffy Square and the TKTS red steps, so the block in front carries a standing ticket queue for much of the day beneath the densest billboard wall in the district. This is the northern triangle of the bow tie, and it is the part of the plaza system that is most continuously occupied.
After dark
Reviews contradict each other, which is itself the finding: one 2026 guest writes that the buzzing sounds can disrupt sleep, while another calls the hotel super quiet given its location. Treat it as room-dependent and ask accordingly. One verified detail that is unique to this property in our set: sirens appear as a recurring mention on its reviews, which no other hotel here shows. A guest also notes a 24-hour 7-Eleven on the same block, which is a fair proxy for how late this stretch stays awake.
- Transit: 49th Street, N/R/W
- 2 blocks
- Transit: Times Square–42nd Street
- ~5 blocks
- Landmark: Duffy Square and the TKTS steps
- Across the street
- Facing the TKTS steps and the billboard wall
- Guests disagree sharply; sirens a recurring mention
Nearby: 49th Street (N/R/W) is the nearest entrance at two blocks north. TripAdvisor omits the Times Square-42nd Street complex for this property despite it being about five blocks south, so its walk times understate the options. Midtown South Precinct is the NYPD command covering Times Square.
Sources: TripAdvisor reviews (rating, review count, proximity data), NYPD Midtown South Precinct
Hotel 4 of 10. Casablanca Hotel by Library Hotel Collection
Theater District, W 43rd, New York
$$$$Top tier
Best for: Theatergoers who want somewhere calm to come back to
Daytime
147 West 43rd sits between Broadway and Sixth, the transitional street between the plaza and the Bryant Park office district, with Tony's Di Napoli and the Brooklyn Diner as immediate neighbours. It is materially calmer than any block west of Broadway while still being one block from the plaza. TripAdvisor ranks it 9th of 526 New York hotels, the highest-ranked property in this list, with a 4.9 Location subscore.
After dark
The block's own tenants are restaurants that serve the theatre crowd, so it stays lit and occupied through the post-show window and then quiets as the Sixth Avenue side empties. Multiple guests specifically mention returning here after evening shows, and the dominant framing across reviews is that the outside is Times Square and the inside is not. Note the limit of that evidence: street noise appears as a recurring mention on the page, and no review we found describes West 43rd itself after dark.
- Transit: Times Square–42nd Street
- 2 min
- Landmark: Times Square plaza
- 1 block
- Landmark: Bryant Park and the Public Library
- 5–6 min
- Calmer block one street east of Broadway
- Restaurants keep it lit through the post-show window
Nearby: Times Square-42nd Street is about two minutes on foot, one block west and one south, and TripAdvisor's figure agrees with the geography here. Bryant Park and the New York Public Library are five to six minutes east. Midtown South Precinct is the NYPD command covering Times Square.
Sources: TripAdvisor reviews (rating, review count, proximity data), NYPD Midtown South Precinct
Hotel 5 of 10. Hyatt Centric Times Square New York
Theater District, W 45th, New York
$$$$Upper mid
Best for: Travelers who want Midtown proper as much as Broadway
Daytime
135 West 45th runs between Sixth and Seventh, one street east of the theatre core, and the hotel's natural orientation is east rather than into the plaza: Booking.com's own distance list puts 42nd Street-Bryant Park at 400m and Rockefeller Center at 450m. It is an office-and-restaurant block rather than a theatre one.
After dark
This property has the most specific block-level night evidence in the set, because TripAdvisor's street-noise review filter actually worked here. One guest halfway up the building overlooking 45th Street reports hearing noise at night and treats it as the price of the location rather than a hotel fault; another was moved to a high floor specifically to get away from street noise, which is the mitigation guests here consistently describe. The block itself goes genuinely quiet later as the office side empties.
- Transit: 42nd Street–Bryant Park
- ~4 min
- Transit: 47–50 Streets–Rockefeller Center
- ~4 min
- Landmark: Times Square plaza
- 2 blocks
- Landmark: Rockefeller Center
- ~450 m
- Office and restaurant block facing east
- Street noise real; guests say take a high floor
Nearby: 42nd Street-Bryant Park and 47-50 Streets-Rockefeller Center are both about four minutes, and this is the one hotel in this list where TripAdvisor's subway picks match the geography. Note a disclosed destination fee of $40 per night on top of the room rate. Midtown North Precinct covers the Theater District; Midtown South covers Times Square itself.
Sources: TripAdvisor reviews (rating, review count, street-noise reviews), Booking.com listing (distances and destination fee), NYPD Midtown North Precinct
Hotel 6 of 10. Hotel Edison Times Square
Theater District, W 47th, New York
$$$$Mid-range
Best for: Theatergoers who want to walk out of the lobby and into a show
Daytime
228 West 47th sits between Broadway and Eighth, directly opposite the Ethel Barrymore Theatre, with restaurants attached to the hotel itself. It is a working theatre block: stage doors, a Broadway house across the street, quieter than the plaza one block east but not quiet. The Art Deco building opened in 1931 and carries over 18,000 TripAdvisor reviews, one of the largest review bases in the district.
After dark
The Barrymore opposite means a full theatre empties onto this block around 22:15 on performance nights, after which it returns to side-street levels. West of the hotel, 47th continues to Eighth Avenue and the character changes with it. Street noise appears as a recurring mention on the property's reviews, which is a verified signal about this block. Being precise about the limit: we could not surface the individual reviews behind that mention, and none of the reviews we did read describes the street after the theatres empty.
- Transit: 49th Street, N/R/W
- 2 blocks
- Transit: Times Square–42nd Street
- ~5 blocks
- Landmark: Times Square plaza
- 1 block
- Landmark: Ethel Barrymore Theatre
- Across the street
- Working theatre block, stage doors opposite
- Street noise a recurring mention
Nearby: 49th Street (N/R/W) is two blocks north; the Times Square-42nd Street complex is about five blocks south and is omitted from TripAdvisor's list for this property. One guest account worth knowing about for solo travelers concerns the hotel's own security staff rather than the street. Midtown North Precinct covers the Theater District.
Sources: TripAdvisor reviews (rating, review count, proximity data), NYPD Midtown North Precinct
Hotel 7 of 10. Paramount Times Square
Theater District, W 46th, New York
$$$$Budget
Best for: Travelers prioritising the address over the room
Daytime
235 West 46th runs between Broadway and Eighth, a theatre block with bars and restaurants along it, three minutes from the plaza. Restaurant Row is the next block west across Eighth, not this one. The hotel trades as both Paramount Times Square and, on some listings, Paramount Hotel; TripAdvisor now files it as a Generator hotel.
After dark
TripAdvisor's aggregate summary for this property states that noise from street traffic and the hotel's own systems is a frequent complaint, and its noise tag reads Noisy, the worst in this list. A guest mentions crossing to a bar directly opposite, which tells you the block has late frontage. Being honest about the limit: no review we read describes West 46th after dark or the walk back, so the night picture here is an aggregate signal rather than a first-hand account. This is also the weakest-rated property in the set, ranked 486th of 526 New York hotels, and the complaints are about the rooms rather than the street.
- Transit: 49th Street
- ~4 min
- Transit: Times Square–42nd Street
- ~4 blocks
- Landmark: Times Square plaza
- 3 min
- Landmark: Restaurant Row
- Short walk
- Mid-density theatre block with bars
- Noise is the dominant complaint
Nearby: 49th Street is about four minutes north; Times Square-42nd Street is roughly four blocks south. Walking west from here crosses Eighth into Restaurant Row, which stays lit and staffed later than most blocks on that side. Midtown North Precinct covers the Theater District.
Sources: TripAdvisor reviews (rating, review count, noise summary), Restaurant Row (Times Square Alliance)
Hotel 8 of 10. CIVILIAN Hotel
Theater District, west of Eighth, New York
$$$$Mid-range
Best for: Theatergoers who want the district without the plaza outside the window
Daytime
305 West 48th sits between Eighth and Ninth, which puts it on the Hell's Kitchen-facing side of the Theater District: lower footfall, more residential, fewer chain storefronts than anything east of Eighth. The hotel's own description calls this a quiet block, and that phrase is worth attributing rather than repeating, because it is marketing copy and not a third-party assessment.
After dark
The strongest objective signal is the sleep-quality subscore of 4.8, the highest in this list, and one guest confirming that the only noise reaching the room is other guests in the hallway rather than the street. The property's own late-night draw is internal, a rooftop bar and a cocktail room, which matters on a block where the street's own late options are thinner than east of Eighth. The gap worth stating: no review we found describes West 48th west of Eighth after dark, and that is exactly the block where first-hand night detail would be most useful.
- Transit: 50th Street, C/E and 1
- 3–4 min
- Transit: Times Square–42nd Street
- 8–10 min
- Landmark: Times Square plaza
- ~3 blocks
- Lower-footfall block on the Hell's Kitchen side
- Best sleep scores here; no independent night reports
Nearby: Two separate 50th Street stations are about three to four minutes away, the C/E at Eighth and the 1 at Broadway. Times Square-42nd Street is a genuine eight to ten minute walk, further than guests tend to assume: one review calls the plaza one block away when it is about three. Midtown North Precinct covers the Theater District.
Sources: TripAdvisor reviews (rating, subscores, property description), NYPD Midtown North Precinct
Hotel 9 of 10. Row NYC
Eighth Avenue by Port Authority, New York
$$$$Budget
Best for: Travelers who want a low rate and are comfortable on an avenue
Daytime
700 Eighth Avenue occupies the block face at West 45th, on a wide and heavily trafficked avenue with a constant stream toward and from the Port Authority Bus Terminal three blocks south. TripAdvisor counts 682 restaurants within 0.3 miles, the highest of any hotel here, reflecting the Eighth and Ninth Avenue food density.
After dark
Read anything written about this hotel before 2026 with care, because it describes a different operation. The building was the first and largest New York hotel converted to housing for migrants from October 2022, and it reopened as a hotel in May 2026 after a full renovation of its roughly 1,300 rooms. Its review count has been reset accordingly. That leaves a real gap rather than a verdict: with only a few hundred reviews, all from the first months of operation, no guest has yet described Eighth Avenue at night, the walk back, or the Port Authority end. The avenue itself stays lit and trafficked all night, and it is also the corridor where the area's adverse street reporting concentrates.
- Transit: 42nd Street–Port Authority
- 3 min
- Transit: Times Square–42nd Street
- 5 min
- Wide avenue, constant Port Authority traffic
- Reopened 2026; no night reviews exist yet
Nearby: TripAdvisor puts 42nd Street-Port Authority at three minutes and Times Square-42nd Street at five. The Port Authority replacement project is under construction nearby and will be for years. Midtown North Precinct covers the Theater District; Midtown South covers Times Square itself.
Sources: TripAdvisor reviews (post-reopening rating and review base), Hotel Dive: Row NYC reopening, renovation and prior use
Hotel 10 of 10. YOTEL New York Times Square
Hell's Kitchen edge, New York
$$$$Budget
Best for: Travelers trading proximity for rate who do not mind the walk
Daytime
570 Tenth Avenue at West 42nd is three avenue blocks west of the plaza, and the density drop is measurable rather than a matter of opinion: TripAdvisor counts 318 restaurants and 97 attractions within 0.3 miles here, against 600 to 680 restaurants and 372 to 490 attractions for every hotel east of Eighth. Its listed neighbours are Hell's Kitchen institutions rather than Broadway theatres, which is a fair description of where it actually is. Its Location subscore of 4.4 is the lowest in this list, and that gap is the honest signal.
After dark
West 42nd beyond Ninth is a wide crosstown street with far less foot traffic at night than the theatre blocks, and the walk back from the plaza runs over ten minutes along it. One 2026 guest returning at night reported people sleeping in the hotel lobby, which is the only direct late-return observation we found for any property in this list; the rest of that review is about the room and is strongly negative, so weigh it as one account. Guests disagree on the distance to Times Square, from one calling it the same street to another counting ten minutes on foot.
- Transit: 42nd Street–Port Authority
- ~7 min
- Transit: 34th Street–Hudson Yards
- ~9 min
- Landmark: Times Square plaza
- ~10 min
- Measurably thinner surroundings than the district
- Long walk back along 42nd after dark
Nearby: 42nd Street-Port Authority is about seven minutes and 34th Street-Hudson Yards about nine, the longest walk times of any hotel here and the most realistic-looking. Midtown South Precinct is the NYPD command covering Times Square.
Sources: TripAdvisor reviews (rating, subscores, proximity data), NYPD Midtown South Precinct
