I was one of the heavy priceline users when they first got started (back in the pre-BFT days when it was just a yahoo group). Granted, the $25/night AMEX discounts skewed things, but I would routinely stay in rooms for $25-$40/night, and even had a $1 night for a work trip in Des Moines, and several $10-$12 nights. An expensive stay was when I'd go to Boston for work, and pay $80-$110 for a $245 weeknight room in the financial district.

As the economy strengthened and my travel patterns changed, I pretty much stopped using PL as my first choice, and focused on getting status with two hotel chains (Hilton and first Starwood and now Hyatt) for award travel. For the last 3-4 years, I've probably successfully used PL 2-3x/year at most, as I'm usually looking for a deep discount to make up for the upgraded accomodations when staying at a property where I have top-tier status, and I've stopped using them for work because my responsibilities are different now and I have more changes which make PL unusable.

Property owners are also aggressively moving into offering reasonable non-refundable rates directly in certain situations. I'm going to the KC BBQ Do, and my choices are:

- Hyatt Crown $149/night refundable
- Sheraton Suites Plaza - Cash&Points, 2800 points plus $45, so worth about $115, refundable
- HGI $79/night nonrefundable but about a ten minute drive away

Realistically, I'd have to bid no more than $33 to make PL work over the HGI, where since I'm Diamond I get $12 worth of points (valued at $0.006/point), free full breakfast (so let's value this at the $7 I'd spend at Waffle House), and guaranteed free wifi. The Hyatt often comes up, but at a bid of $54-$56, and I'd have to pay for wifi.