I think the Times Square/Theater District would be perfect for you and your daughter. We have had very good luck using Priceline.com for rooms in this area of NYC. We have scored 4 star hotels on 4 occasions, with bids ranging from 85 to 125 USD. Hard to beat!

The hotels have been the Marriott Marquis, which is a madhouse, but might be a lot of fun for you and your young teenager, and the Hilton. Priceline got us rooms in each of these hotels twice.

About airport transportation: I know of no hotel in NYC that provides airport transportation. If you are flying out of Newark, I would suggest the train, as the traffic has been horrible and cab fare is very expensive. You will want to book your train tickets ahead of time and leave plenty of time to get to the train.

If it is LaGuardia of JFK, you might consider the bus service from Port Authority, as there are bus lanes at least part of the way. Everyone tells me that getting out of midtown during the day is really gettting to be a problem. My daughter and my brother were in a cab at 11:15, leaving from 27 St and going to JFK, and the cab ride took one hour and 15 minutes!

Leave lots of time to get to the airport! Hope this helps, Debbie in Pittsburgh (with two trips to NYC coming up quickly)