I find that it varies a lot. Sometimes I get the best rates through hotels.com, sometimes it's best booking direct. Sometimes the AAA or AARP rate is best, sometimes it's not.
For a real-time example, here are some notes I made this morning when I realized we should stay in a hotel for a few days at Christmas because MIL's house will be full and we would end up on an air mattress if we stayed there. We haven't decided whether to stay 2 or 3 nights, so I looked at both.
These rates are for a Kimpton (IHG) hotel we like that's in walking distance to MIL's place. All these rates have free cancellation up to 2 days in advance.
Nightly Rates | 3-night stay | 2-night stay |
Best available rate | $116 | $171 |
AAA | $139 | $140 |
Senior | $140 | $143 |
AARP | $139 | $140 |
Member | $169 | $171 |
Parking Pkg | $192 | $194 |
hotels.com | $155 ($172) | $157 ($174) |
Parking $65/day or $55/day if booked at the same time as the room on IHG's site
Hotels.com rebates 10% of the nightly rate in the form of a credit for a future booking, so I subtract 10% from their rates for my comparisons.
Amazon credit card has 15% in rewards right now, max reward of $69 -- must add offer to card via chaseoffers email and pay by 12/31/2022. Hotels.com booking qualifies for this rebate as long as we pay at the hotel.
So, it turns out that if we are going to stay 3 nights, we should book on the IHG website using the best available rate and add parking. If we decide to stay 2 nights, we should book on the IHG website using the Parking Package rate. In neither case is the senior, aarp or aaa rate the best deal.