Ever since I found this forum, I rely quite a lot on the opinions and feedback here, despite the often diverse opinions presented, the really good hotels often have a consensus of overall positive assessment. Most of the regulars in this forum are often much more well travelled than myself. I also use hotel websites and read their room specs. And for independent hotel photos, I mainly use Flickr.

I also read TA reviews but took them with a healthy dose of skepticism, esp the short or overtly glowing reviews. Only those reviewers that are well travelled in their profile have some credibility to me. I myself often post TA reviews and catalog hotel photos on Flicrk too.

I almost never trust travel magazines reviews. They are usually just "advertorial" and never point out things that are actually disatisfactory about the hotel. Most of the writers of these articles don't even actually stayed at the hotel and some hotels, esp the chains are regulars advertisers in these magazines, I doubt they can maintain impartiality.