How Long Is Too Long?

My family just got back to Boise after a (road) trip to Disneyland in LA.  We drove because of the budget, but knew that the 14 hours between the Treasure Valley and LA would be too much in one day for our 6 year-old.

For that reason, we made Vegas our stopover for a night on the way there and on the way back.

I'm cheap.  I always use Priceline and have really good luck 95% of the time getting a great deal and a decent or better hotel.  This time, we had a reservation for the Flamingo - recently renovated and looking like a good option.  Unfortunately, when we arrived, we found out the wait to check in was 2-2.5 HOURS.

We would have to stand in line with a 6 year-old who was tired from the drive, in a smoke-filled lobby (amazing how odd it was to have smoke inside the casinos), standing in line waiting for one of four desk attendants to check us in.  I spoke to someone from the hotel who told me it would take that long and there "was nothing he could do" to help move it faster. "This," he told me, "is Vegas."

We left, grabbed dinner, and returned later hoping it would be better.  It wasn't.  Still 2-2.5 hours.  We ended up buying a room at a different hotel and were able to check in within 3-5 minutes.

I approached Priceline to ask for a refund for the first room since the wait was so unusually high.  They told me no.  I asked for a supervisor.  She said the same thing.  I get the restrictions of Priceline and that you sometimes take a hit to offset the good deals you get however, 2-2.5 hours waiting to check in seems insane to me.

The supervisor assured me "that's actually not uncommon and not unfair for hotels in big cities."  I've only experienced the opposite.  So help me out...should I push further for the refund or is this "normal" and "fair?"