How to find the perfect hotel online

By Ed Hewitt

updated 11:41 a.m. ET Nov. 3, 2009

Before a recent stay in a hotel near Boston, William Campbell wanted to map out some alternate local driving routes to and from the hotel so he would not be late for events during his stay. What he found in his search prompted a call to the hotel that greatly improved his stay there.

Specifically, Campbell was staying at the Crowne Plaza Newton, which, as he discovered when he looked closely, just happens to straddle the Massachusetts Pike. That is, the road goes directly under the hotel — and under most of the hotel windows. Campbell called the hotel to ask if they could guarantee a room on one of the upper floors (it's a 12-story building) to minimize noise from cars and trucks barreling down the road below.

When booking travel, you more or less know what you are going to get when you book a flight or a car — the legacy airlines aren't really so different from one another, and an economy car is an economy car whether the rental car sign is yellow, white or green. But a bad or poorly located hotel can ruin a trip. It's the one booking item about which you will want to sleep well — literally.

Campbell's research saved him a few noisy nights, but there are other critical pieces of the hotel puzzle you can find out with 15 to 20 minutes of research before booking. For instance, are there any restaurants within a very short walking distance? Is the neighborhood walkable and are the streets near the hotel safe and accessible? Do rooms on one side of the hotel have a better view? Is the hotel clean, up to date and in working order? Do you need a car or is the hotel close to useful public transportation? You get the idea.

The big problem with Web research is that the sheer abundance of stuff out there can make the research more daunting than the travel. After a few hours of reading mixed reviews, no one could blame you for simply giving in and taking your chances on the easiest/cheapest/closest hotel. To reduce the time, effort and enthusiasm you spend on hotel research, I'll share my relatively straightforward method for looking beyond price and availability, finding the right property, and getting the best room in the place.

Location, location, location
The old realtor's mantra applies directly to hotels; if you have to “live” there, you want to be in a safe, attractive location with easy access to restaurants, coffee shops, attractions, maybe a small park.

It’s A Snap! See the latest entries See the amazing images sent by msnbc.com readers and submit your own for next week!

I suggest using Google Earth for this one — among all the competing mapping applications, it seems to have the most complete quick snapshot of an immediate area available. The checkbox “Layers” option allows you to toggle various amenities on and off: coffee shops, restaurants by type of food, banks/ATM's, gas stations, grocery stores, pharmacies, parks, malls, churches and many more.

Where available, the Street View option offers 360-degree snapshots of the neighborhood, which can tell you a lot: whether it's clean or grubby, busy or quiet, populated or more like a strip mall zone. These are things that just a couple of years ago you had to take on faith, and didn't really know until you arrived.

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