In 2005 my husband went on Priceline.com and booked and paid for a room at a Hilton Garden Inn in Carslbad, CA. I sat next to him and watched him enter everything and it all looked ok. They charged us $129.00 per room per night (3 nights) for two rooms ( one for his parents) , a total of $774. When we got to the Hotel, the manager asked my husband for his Federal Government employee I.D. card. My husband said he was not a Government employee. He said priceline gave us the Government employee rate and without an I.D. we had to pay $199.00 per room. I showed him the confirmation sheet we had printed, which had no mention of this. He left and came right back with a fax from Priceline that had a line that said I have read and agreed to abide by the terms and conditions and privacy policy with my husband's typed initials in a box.

At that point we knew we had been scammed but had no choice but to pay the $199. rate, which came to $420. more than originally quoted.

I sent a letter to Consumer Protection and all they did was send a letter to Priceline, who of course denied any wrongdoing and claimed my husband stated he was a government employee---he did no such thing! We received a letter back from Consumer Protection saying we had the option of contacting an attorney.

I don't know if Hilton is involved in this scam also but suspect they are-- they seemed too ready with a response when we questioned them about Priceline. I would not recommend going through Priceline or staying at Hilton to anyone.