Most ruined first nights are not a bad hotel. They are an airport hour with no plan: a closed desk, a queue that does not move, a taxi rank you are too tired to evaluate. The country can wait until morning. The transfer cannot.
In France that hour is usually Charles de Gaulle or Orly, which are not the same problem. In Japan it is a working phone and an IC card before you even look for the train. In the United States it is often a domestic connection after a long-haul, and a car you should have booked before you landed, not at the counter with a queue behind you.
If you only do one practical thing before you fly, decide how you leave the airport. Walk the rest of the week. The first hour is the trip because it is the only hour you cannot postpone.
