How Do You Find Your Hotel?

I read an interesting post today over at Aaron Dalrymple’s blog. It was about how the “average” traveler books hotels. I have a fondness for demographics and other such studies, so I read on:

I’m not sure how earth shattering this is, but this post from HotelMarketing.com refers to a study showing that most people searching for a hotel are using a search engine to find hotels rather than going directly to a hotel’s corporate site. No big surprise that the internet is helping to commoditize hotel rooms just as it assisted in pushing airline tickets that same direction.

For most people, I believe, hotel rooms are booked primarily — in this order — for their location (city & state), price, proximity to desired landmarks, amenities, and then brand loyalty. No real scientific data there, just my gut instinct on how the average person goes about finding a hotel room for a family vacation, weekend getaway, business trip, etc.

Hmm. I consider myself an “average” person, below-average sometimes, and above-average on rare occasions. How do I search for hotels? I don’t go running out to stay at hotels when we travel (we’ve only done it six or seven times in 15 years). I don’t like hotels very much. There’s something distasteful about sleeping in a bed that countless strangers have slept in. But for what it’s worth, I left a comment.

I use the Internet to search for hotels, but I always search through a hotel-finder search engine. I am an average traveler and for me I break down the importance like this:

Location
Price
Brand name
Online reviews and website of hotel
Amenities
Proximity to landmark (we drive)

Online reviews, like those from TripAdvisor, are very important. I give them great weight and might even try to contact the reviewer if possible. I know some are rigged, but not all.

Finally, I ALWAYS call the hotel directly. This is to test their customer service and to reassure myself that the phone number, location, and price are accurate. Phone numbers leading to real humans are very important. If I get a recording or no human, I move on. I always make reservations directly through the phone contact, too. And I tell them I am a travel blogger, to keep them on thier toes.

So how about you? I’d like to hear more from the “average” traveler. How do you search for a hotel? And what’s important to you?