Plush romantic beach holiday?
You go for a five-star place.
Budget city crash pad?
A two- or three-star joint.
Simple, right?
Not anymore.
For many travelers, user-generated online reviews have become the go-to source for information when booking hotels.
Down with love: World's least-romantic hotels
TripAdvisor says more than 150 million reviews and opinions are posted on its pages, with 2,800 new topics added every day to the site's forums.
Review sites such as Hotels.com, Bookings.com, Expedia and others mean travelers are awash with information about hotels.
Many sites use their own "star" or points-based rating systems based on user reviews.
So where does this leave legacy star ratings?
Do they have a future?