Before the internet was invented, the only way you knew if a hotel was awful or not was to go inside & stay the evening.
There were not a ton of online reviews & posts letting all the people think what problems the hotel might have.
If it looked good, you stopped for the evening. I remember 1 time when I was a child when my mom & Mom made us sleep in an awful hotel. The people I was with and I were on the way lake house from going to see some family & my mom & Mom planned to stay at a hotel by the interstate. Unluckyly, it was completely booked & there was no vacancy. The people I was with and I had to stay in a weird hotel multiple miles down the road. The hotel seems nice on the outside, but inside it was a awful mess. The indoor air quality was exhausting due to the fact that dozens of people were standing in the lobby smoking cigarettes, however cigarette smoke filled the hallways & seeped under the doors & into our room. My mom & Mom opened the windows, but it didn’t absolutely help the odor & the indoor air quality. The hotel room didn’t have a central heating or air conditioner & opening the windows was the only way we could scrub the air. Outside the room, we could hear more than one men fighting in the street. They were yelling & screaming & cursing. I couldn’t sleep at all that evening. I am so absolutely thankful for online reviews & better accommodations these days. That kind of complication doesn’t need to happen with regular planning.