@Stuart ********
@Han *****
At one point in time (and may still be the case) the Chinese embassy in Thailand required Thai people to show hotel booking for their entire trip to China. So the Thai embassies in China started requiring the same thing from Chinese wanting to go to Thailand. I'm not sure if that's still the case, or if that would effect you or not.
But it's best to err on the side of easy/cheap and make a reasonable hotel booking and then if they want more they will e-mail you after you submit your application with what additional items they need..