How much time do you put into researching hotels when you book a trip?

My parents lived by the AAA guidebook hotel listings. I do some research, but I don't worry too much about the hotel; I've stayed in SO many, and as long as it's pretty good, I figure it'll be fine.

About a month

Very little we only stay at one of two hotels

Honestly, usually when we travel we are going to visit family, so we rarely stay in hotels. When we do, it is usually a hotel on a military base. I have been doing some research on hotels in Tokyo for a trip we are planning in a few months.

I don't spend more than an hour, but between the sites like hotwire and orbitz, you can compare prices and read reviews pretty quickly.

Growing up, my parents camped a lot, but when we stayed at hotels, my dad would always choose one he had been to before and liked. He still does it that way!

Not a lot. Maybe a few hours. With the way sites nowadays compare prices, there really is no reason to spend that long.

About a month

I don't know how they did it, it might have been easier without the Internet. I know I have spent a lot of time trying to get the most out of our money. In the past couple of weeks, I found out that some of the so-called discount sites (don't suppose I can name drop who they are here, but if you want to send me a private message, I'll tell you) are not that great. They are playing games with both the consumers and the hotels. You will find it is just as simple and just as reasonable to go directly to the hotel sites and book, some of them have "Internet Specials" that are about a dollar or two different than the discount sites. That's on hotels. Car rentals, you can still get a better deal from the discount site than a specific provider's site.

Hours. I also read reviews like crazy--keeping in mind Expedia also owns hotels.com, hotwire, etc. Not sure who owns Tripadvisor.