Amanaddicted - I tend to like cities/cultural sites more - with just a few days at a resort or on the beach at the end so I expect my way of travelling is a bit different than most on here. For our forthcoming trip we're going to KL, Penang, Singapore, Sydney, Queensland, Phnom Penh, Siem Reap, Langkawi and Bangkok in that order over 6 and a half weeks. We choose the locations first then we looked at hotels.
We also love road trips and one we took in May was from Miami down to Key West - not one hotel really worthy of this forum on that trip but we did enjoy the Casa Marina in Key West which is right on the beach - one of my criteria when choosing a beach hotel. Other beach resorts I've stayed at recently which I like are Shutters in Santa Monica, Le Touessrok in Mauritius and the IC in Bali - I know many will turn their noses up at this one but we had a very nice suite within yards of Jimbaran Beach with wrap around balconies and absolutely fantastic service - quiet too as it was in low season but the Club section there is always quitter than the main hotel. I tend to like older properties with a sense of history so city hotels I like are The MO HK, Oriental Bangkok, Metropole Hanoi, George V Paris, US Grant San Diego etc but I do like some modern hotels such as the MO SF and the Canyon Suites at the Phoenician in Scottsdale. Many more but I just picked out the ones that immediately spring to mind.