Don't know about Priceline... but whenever I get undesirable rooms as a result of buying the room on Hotwire, I get the employee to say it on my phone. I forward the video to Hotwire and always gets $50 in "Hot Dollars"(which I apply to my next Hotwire booking) Sometimes if the hotel front desk wants to stick me in a tiny room(happens most often at 4-star Boston hotels), I immediately call Hotwire customer service and hand the phone to the front desk clerk. Problem solved. Hotwire will sometimes stop dealing with certain hotels(either temporarily or permanently) if enough customers complain.

This doesn't really always work. For example, the last 3 times I used Hotwire, I got Hyatt Place 3 times in two different cities. ($62, $53, $47) All rooms at Hyatt Place hotels are basically the same and there aren't any "undesirable" room.