Online Travel Booking and Bidding Agencies - Qeuestion about Priceline for hotels

I have never used it because I always want a specific hotel, or one of several specific hotels. Is there a way to use it for one specific hotel, or perhaps specify any of certain hotels (Hilton, Hyatt, Mariott, etc.).

No.

Yep, that's a definite no. Their whole business model consists of opaque selling, where you're willing to forgo choosing a brand and exact location in exchange for paying less money. Choosing a hotel chain would defeat the purpose of bidding on Priceline.

While you can never specify a hotel or chain, you can get an idea of who is 'winning' the business in a certain city by going to Sheryl's Board, www.biddingfortravel.com (http://www.biddingfortravel.com)

I have generally gotten what I expected based on research on her board. Of course, there are no guarantees.

You won't get an exact hotel, but you do specify certain criteria -- specifically, a location and hotel class (5 star system) -- so when you bid, you will have an idea of the hotels that you could get.