BAR (Best Available Rate)
The publicly-available rate a hotel publishes on its own website and OTAs — almost never the cheapest rate the hotel is willing to accept.
BAR — Best Available Rate — is the baseline public price hotels publish to consumers. Despite the name, it's rarely the lowest rate available. It sits at the top of a rate hierarchy that includes consortia rates (10–25% below BAR), wholesale rates (30–45% below BAR), and corporate contracted rates.
Hotels use BAR as a reference price for revenue-management decisions. When BAR drops, so do all the other rate tiers beneath it — but the gap between BAR and wholesale remains structurally consistent on most nights.
Booking.com, Expedia, Hotels.com, and hotel direct booking pages all display BAR (or a slightly-discounted variant labeled "member rate" or "Genius"). Travel Club member rates sit beneath this public layer.