The real question is not distance but how rushed the next morning becomes
Many travellers choose the final-night hotel mainly by whether they still want to see the city. In practice, the bigger issue is often how complicated the next morning becomes once luggage, wake-up speed and group coordination are added.
The strongest final-night choice is the one that makes the departure morning feel predictable, not the one that looks shortest on a map.
Early flights, more luggage and mixed-age groups usually favour the airport area
When departure comes early, the value of an airport-area stay is not only a shorter ride. It is the reduction of uncertainty: less cross-city traffic risk, less coordination pressure and less chance that one slow step disrupts the whole group.
For family groups, a calm ending is often worth more than squeezing in one more slice of city time.
City stays make sense only when later flights create real usable time
If the flight is in the afternoon or evening and the group will truly use the city for a meal, light shopping, meeting friends or an easy half-day plan, then a city stay can be justified.
But it needs to create meaningful value. Otherwise it simply pushes departure stress into the next day.
The weakest setup is trying to keep both full city time and a pressure-free morning
Problems usually start when the plan assumes you can stay in the city, wake slowly, avoid traffic risk and still leave effortlessly. Those goals often conflict.
A stronger approach is to choose the real priority first: protect a calm departure morning or preserve worthwhile city time.