Dan and I are headed to LA weekend after next [for the 4th], so I've begun the process of finding someplace to stay.
Having never, ever used Priceline, I figured it's about time I gave it a shot.
Being a cheapskate, I wanted a "4 star" hotel somewhere near WeHo for, like, $40 a night [yeah, right]. Of course, I figured out how to tweak their system to keep bidding higher in hopes of finding something in that part of town exclusively: the greater LA region has 9 Priceline zones, only 3 of which have 4 star hotels... so you can just keep adding Priceline zones that don't have 4 star hotels in order to increase your bid. [You can't rebid without adding another zone, basically, so this is a necessary workaround.]
Alas, $57 didn't win either. I'll try again next week.
In the meantime, whew, using that site gives me the same horribly queasy giddy feeling that you're about to get ripped off in a big way that your average $1 slot machine gives you. Bleah. That's no fun at all.