I have discovered a website that I love called Room 77.  What Room77 does is allow you to see what kind of hotel room you are going to get and the view from that room.  So you type in the city and name of the hotel where you are staying and it will show you the view from that specific room.  Because we all know that not all hotel rooms are created equal.  Who wants to look at a Wall when you could look at a park.  What I have done is write down the rooms I like before arriving.  This way prior to the Front Desk employee giving me the key I can suggest the rooms I would prefer.  Usually they will assume I have been to the hotel before and will provide better service anyways.