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3 points regarding your situation:

1. I have used Priceline for hotels regularly for at least 2 years. Priceline’s terms of service clearly indicate that if you want more than one bed (or if you have other special requests) in your Priceline-booked hotel room, you will need to call the hotel directly and request it after you finish your Priceline transaction. Sometimes the hotel will want to charge an extra $10 to guarantee an extra bed, but in about 75% of those cases they “forget” to charge you the extra amount when the time comes.

Just in case, however, our kids always have sleeping bags squirreled away in the luggage.

2. You complained that Priceline’s “Name your own price” rate was more than the hotel’s advertised price on their website. My question to you is why you “named a price” greater than what the hotel was charging on their website? When I name a price I usually get the room at about 50% of their advertised rate on their website.

3. I think you don’t know how to use Priceline. To maximize savings on Priceline hotels you can review the information available on BiddingForTravel.com. Their Hotel FAQ is a great summary of how to use Priceline.

Thanks for your suggestions. Actually I’ve used PL about 6 times before, so I’m familiar with the process. My first bid was for $110 and then I bid up againt for hotels in this beach city. All the bids were rejected until I raised it to $150. Then my bid was accepted at the rate that is higher than the hotel’s own listed price. This has happened before when I used Hotwire and they quickly refunded me the difference. Priceline just read me the contract over and over and over again...

You complained that Priceline’s “Name your own price” rate was more than the hotel’s advertised price on their website. My question to you is why you “named a price” greater than what the hotel was charging on their website? When I name a price I usually get the room at about 50% of their advertised rate on their website.

I hear that. On a road trip through New England three years ago, I got an ultra-nice room in a 4-star hotel in New Haven, CT for ~$60 (can't remember exactly what my name-your-price price was), which had a standard list price somewhere in the neighbourhood of $150, through Priceline.

I'm thinking Priceline is as useful as you make it be.

I wondered the same thing. I think this was a case of user error, resulting in hurt pride. I know. I was young once.