>>2794859
hotels.com only if you use it enough to get status
platinum can give you up to 50% off, or something like that and you get free drinks, breakfast, etc.,
(I got free cerulean lounge access bc I had spent like 5k or whatever on hotels.com when I stayed)
but if you aren't going to use one site enough to get status then booking locally is probably the best
as for finding hotels, id just find stuff you wanna do or the area you wanna be, then load up the hotels.com map or booking.com (basically same thing) or whatever map and shop around
in Japan a 3 star is nice, you get a bag of goodies and treated well