Anyone Ever used price line?

I have used Travelocity for airline tickets, but only for exact dates and times.

I also used Hotwire once, got a cheap rate on a car, but got the one car I didn't want....LOL

I've used it a couple of times. I found it to be 'hit or miss'. I went to San Diego once using the 'Name Your Price' for a 4-star hotel. They actually put me in the same hotel I was going to book through normal channels, but for $20/night less. I tried it again for a Ft. Lauderdale hotel, and the place ended up being a dump on the opposite side of town I wanted to stay in.

I've never tried to do it for the airfare. A co-worker used it just a couple weeks ago, and he put his price in for airfare from San Antonio to LA. On the way to LA, they put him on a 6:30 AM flight out, with a stop in Phoenix. He had a 3 HOUR layover before continuing to LA. The flight back wasn't much better. He said that he did save around $200 on the flight, and he just bided his time in the airport surfing the Net on his laptop.

I've used Priceline several times to bid for hotel rooms. You choose the star rating of the hotel, so you usually don't have to worry about getting a bad hotel. I used it to get the Marriott Tucson for $30 a night and The Hyatt Scottsdale Resort for $25 a night. That was in February and April respectively. I never select hotels less than 3 stars and so I always get name brand hotels. It is hit and miss, but just raise your price by $5 if you don't get it on the first try.

Don't you pay a bunch of hidden fees when you book through places like them? My aunt owns a travelodge and she told me booking directly through the hotel is always the cheapest way to go. The deal sites look like the best price, but you end up paying more in the end.

Nope. No hidden charges or fees.
My wife uses Hotwire so often, that she even gets a dedicated concierge when she calls them. She uses the Hotwire rate to negotiate a special rate directly with the hotel after she gets there. The Hotel is usually happy to cut out the middle man. If you need to know exactly where you will be staying, I suggest using Priceline.com. The rate is usually a little higher, but sometimes it's worth it to know where you are staying.

Oh. maybe travelodge is different. They make sure that their own company website is actually cheaper than the deal sites. I do know that they charge you a processing fee to use those kind of sites though.

Definitely call the hotel directly. hotels pay a lot of commission to the deal sites, so they'd rather cut them out all together.

Going anywhere exciting?

It's not uncommon for my wife to drop several hundred in a single Hotwire transaction for a hotel.  After you use the sites a while, you learn what to watch for and can spot the upscale hotels easily.  It's not very common to end up in a dump that has at least 3 stars on Hotwire.  If you use the service very often, you can (unofficially) cancel booked rooms even though the website says you can't.  We have cancelled rooms after finding that the hotel is not pet friendly.  The only fee my wife has ever paid after booking a room through hotwire was parking....the same parking fee that every guest pays.  After negotiating with the hotel for future stays, she can often get that removed as well. 

Hotwire "prebuys" X amount of rooms for a specified rate.  This is like free money for hotels because the hotel gets paid whether the room is filled or not.  It only irks the hotel owner when someone actually wants to stay in one so they see it as a missed opportunity to charge the regular rate...overlooking the 14 other rooms that are vacant, but paid up by Hotwire at a discounted rate.  A couple weeks ago, we stayed at a golf resort in Arizona for $49 a night.  The people next to us paid $169 for the same room.