I think you are out of luck. There are always people who have managed to get a refund, but they are a rare case and got a lucky exception. Think about it...your low hotwire/priceline price is due to the fact that it is a non-refundable advanced purchase reservation. If you book a hotel room through the hotel chain they often offer you two choices 1.) a lower rate but non-refundable or 2.) a higher refundable rate. That is the choice you make while booking.
Things happen that force vacations to be cancelled. That is why they sell travel insurance. The travel industry hears so many sad stories but they can't afford to give everybody refunds...they would go out of business. People think the hotels are heartless and should understand, but they would be totally taken advantage of by people making up stories to save a few bucks. Lots of people think "I'm healthy, I won't have any problems". But there are always sicknesses, accidents, etc., so I always get travel insurance when making big ticket non-refundable travel purchases.