So do you trust your host's uptime stats or go for the third-party source to get reliable figures about your site's uptime?
I heard some hosts may even hard-coded their uptime stats tool not to let people know about downtime.

I do trust, but use the third-party sources as well.

I am not quite sure about the Host Uptime as things can change and the uptime can change any time. I use third party sources to check host's uptime.

Can you tell us which one?

Sometimes uptime monitoring services are offered by reviews sites, one of the most trustable is webhostingstuff.com, and if a company site wears a "Uptime Checked by Webhostingstuff.com" badge like HostWW.net, it definitely speaks of the quality services.

I see no reasons not to trust my web host stats. WebHostGiant.com offers many features for uptime monitoring the web site. 24/7 Server Monitoring and Notification is the feature included into their plans.

Definatley not !!

Before getting a server I use a download file, then ping(usually post it on the forum anв ask people from different places to ping) this is what I have done signing with Hqhost.net, and when I sign I alwasy use third-party services, one of my favourite is Pingdom.com.

I trust more the companies that has WebHostingStuff.com badge on their web site as it guarantees the real uptime of this hosting company. HostWW.net has it on their web site.

bremen, You can check this link: http://www.tophosts.com/

You can find reviews in Google about a particular host. Also I take help from my friends. I have a friend who provides me Hosting service. You can also find Host's reviews in various sites, blogs or forums.