What do you look for when you are booking a hotel room?

Availability

Hilton or Marriott properties primarily - and I probably stay 50+ nights a year.

Requirements:
Doors on the inside of the facility.
Safe part of town
Quality restaurants nearby - preferably within walking distance and no more than 1-mile away.

X2 Here

ALWAYS check the sheets. With staffing problems, cleaning staff will skip changing bed linens.

Since COVID most are crap unless you want to spend some money. I stay close to 75-80 nights per year and since 2020 it’s rare to walk in and say wow this is nice. I stayed in one last night outside of Memphis, it was 165 per night and an absolute dump.Even with my status they would let me cancel the room.

I look for an hourly rate.

Do not book on cost alone!! I have done that a couple of times and each time they were so sub-par and I am not real snooty when it comes to accommodations. But, clean, non-smoking not smelling like smoke, and the sheets actually staying on the bed are important to me. I, also, prefer a hotel to a motel. I prefer to stay at Wyndham properties if I can, Holiday Inn properties are the next preference because I get points with each but have been a La Quinta patron for years because they are dog friendly (they were bought by Wyndham). I, too, try to look for the best area myself, especially if I am travelling my myself.

A couple other points to keep in mind. The bedspreads/comforters might be washed quarterly according so a friend of mine who used to manage a motel. Lots of younger folks do not even use a top sheet, they just use the comforter and sleep on top of the flat sheet.

I, also, tend to look for the ones that include a free breakfast.

Depending on how long I am staying somewhere, I tend to look at Air BnB or VRBO places as most of those have owners with a little more skin in the game to keep good reviews.

We usually book with a minimum of 3/4 stars with a lot of reviews.

I prefer to stay at a Drury Inn and Suite when I can. Those two meals, and a full real breakfast make a huge difference. Plus, if you have a suite you can get some separation from the wife and kids if they are traveling with you.

I stay in hotels a lot, both for business and travel. I usually stay in Hilton properties, mainly for the points. But I will also stay at some inexpensive motels when budget travelling on my motorcycle. Lots of these have been bought by creative people, and renovated and are quite nice and quirky. The benefit to a lot of these are that you can pull your motorcycle right up to the front door of your room. You just have to be very selective and read a lot of reviews on these types of motels.

I mainly stay in Hilton Garden Inns, but sometimes right now I will stay at a Hampton. The "free breakfast" is just sort of a pre-fabricated affair, but it's free, it's filling, and it's never made me sick, and the coffee ain't bad. As far as cleanliness, I have never had an issue with a Hilton property.

I agree with what others have said about getting one in a decent part of town. If it's a place you have never been, you can use Google street view and take a few minutes to "virtually" drive up and down the streets in the area, and get a pretty good idea if it's a decent area. In other words, if you see a bunch of "buy here, pay here" car lots, pawn shops and title pawn places, you might want to book a hotel elsewhere.

I was actually working at a motel a while back and a guy came in and rented 3 hours. We thought he was by himself then my co-worker noticed the Hispanic girl in the back seat of his SUV. He wouldn't even let his dirty whore ride up front with him.
And no I was neither renting a room or a motel employee. Contractor doing communication install.
When I'm traveling for work I generally stay in the same places I have stayed at before. I cover a pretty small area and have a pattern.

Never stay without looking at "TRIP ADVISOR"!!! Read the reviews and they are usually very helpful. Tripadvisor also has a traveler ranking system based on reviews and if looking in a certain area you can select the order of listed hotels by this ranking and it will list them #1 on down which makes it easy to see the top places. The reviews can be really good about location, cleanliness, staff etc.

This but make make sure the filter is set to traveler ranked Not best value! Mine defaults to best value.

Very True It used to default to traveler ranked but now defaults to best value which is worthless.

One additional note: most good hotels will have reviews within the last few days so you are getting timely reviews not something months or years old!

Hilton brand

They’re consistently good, clean, convenient plus I’m a Diamond member

I hate them all because I travel around 150 nights a year. Just thinking about traveling again next week is making me mad. On a side note, I have found that the most consistent brand as far as cleanliness, safety and comfort is the Hilton brand.

A bed with no homeless people in it

Thankfully i dont stay at hotels much anymore - use to all time w work - at home most every nite now unless we hav a sales meeting

Clean and safe

Hilton and I also use to do holiday inn for points

Depends on if I'm traveling alone or with a woman. If with a woman... read reviews, and typically stay at the upper end staples or if its rural, I still look for the older mom and pop hotels, they always seem to be clean even if dated.

If I'm alone, I look for the cheapest thing around and preferably a true road motel with exterior rooms, ground level so I can back my truck right up to my room. I have stayed in some dumps. :D, but I've also stayed in some cheap ones that were pleasantly surprising. I'm a tight wad and cant stand paying the prices they want for a place I'm likely only spending 6 hrs in.

Mirrors on the ceiling and a coin operated vibrating bed are always a good sign.