I've been regularly bidding on priceline hotels since it started. I'm actually a little DISAPPOINTED this year because I thought the deals would be better than they are given the economy. My experience is, of course, anecdotal -- about 50 or 60 separate bids a year -- but I'm really not getting better prices than I did last year. My guess is that there are some cities with more availability (NY, Vegas), but overall I would keep one's expectations reasonable.

Ironically, one of the area's where priceline HAS improved for me is with car rentals. Rental prices seem to have been jacked up of late (I guess the agencies are cutting their fleets), so priceline is better than the discount codes in more situations (still no more than 25% of the time).

I typically am not a "last minute" hotel bidder, but I'm keeping my options open this year as many situations are a "buyer's market" for hotels. I do think there are more non-opaque promos that usual. It is also worth watching the hotel deals section of mileagerun for "dollar off" promos at some of the online agencies. That can work out better than priceline, especially at non-luxury hotels.

One thing this economy is doing is reducing the cost of overseas travel, so I'm taking more int'l trips and fewer domestic trips. Priceline is less useful overseas than in the US with hotels, although there are some bargain destinations.