Thanks for the No Uptime link - quite amusing to say the least.

I tend to host in the country at which the website is aimed at, mainly so I get categorized correctly in the SERPS, but also, so the chances of all servers going down at once are remote, so I'll always have a website up somewhere.

I have websites for 3 countries

UK - Compila.com - very good support, very friendly and no problems at all in 4 years of hosting. E-mail replies often within 10 minutes.

Ireland - Blacknight. Own 3 domains with them and 2 hosting packages. Again, brilliant support and seem to go out of their way to help me (sorry if I'm a nuisance ). Also advised me on IE domains names as I'm a UK citizen.

USA - Asmallorange - never had a problem, but haven't been hosting with them for long. In fact I haven't got the website live at the moment. Very low in price.

I tend to stick to smaller companies as the few extra £'s or €'s or $'s (if their are even any) on hosting is more than made up for in customer support.