I love getting a deal! That’s why I like getting great deals on hotels at Priceline.com. The name your own price feature is great, but I recently ran into a situation where I had to shell out some “stupid tax” all in the name of getting a deal.

For our 13th anniversary, my wife and I decided to stay in a nice hotel in downtown Salt Lake City while our kids stayed with my parents. While the Grand America sounded nice as the only 5-start hotel in Utah, I didn’t want to pay $300 for just one night, so I opted for a 4-star hotel.

I ended up going to Priceline and using the name your own price feature for a 4-star hotel and ended up getting a room at the Sheraton. I paid $81 for the room.

All seemed great until we showed up to check into our room that night. All they had left were cheap rooms surrounding the hotel with two double beds. That’s just not right for an anniversary stay.

There wasn’t anything the hotel could do for us and they couldn’t offer us a refund. So we drove up the street to the Little America hotel, which we both love and paid full price – $200.

We loved the room and enjoyed our stay, but I can say now that I will never again look for a deal on Priceline for a special occasion such as this because it ended up costing $81 extra plus time & frustration. For as much as we spent we couldn’t have just stayed in the Grand America for the first time. Doh! Maybe next year.