www.tripadvisor.com a list of comments on every hotel and resort possible by people who have visited them! gives a very honest review of the hotel, i use it every time i book a holiday to make sure that the hotel is decent then book it!

Some years ago when I worked for a library, we had a copy of the Hotel Gazeteer which gave details of loads of hotels all over the world, and I mean loads. I found many of my holiday destinations in there and used it to choose a hotel. It gave the travel agents opinions of the hotels etc rather than the brochures versions. You could ask at your local library or main reference library to see if they still have them or ask if your travel agent has such a publication.