I can save several hundred dollars on an Alaskan cruise by booking through Hotwire but a friend tells me it is a risk. I have used them twice before for hotels and everything was OK. Doed anyone have any advice here?

Personally I would not have any problem using www.hotwire.com. It's a well established booking travel agency.

OTOH, I would also look at www.vacationstogo.com for cruise prices. You can save up to 75% on some cruises.

Why does your friend think it's a risk to book on Hotwire? As AA mentioned, it's a very well established travel site. No different than booking on Expedia, Orbitz, etc. except that you're likely able to save a little bit of $$.

Do you know anything about booking.com ?? Reliable? Established?

Thanks,
Deb

Yes to both questions.

Hotwire is a pre-paid service that you don't know the hotel name before your pay. And there's no refund.

That's their business model. You can try to figure out which hotel it may be by using the database on betterbidding.com, but that database if far from complete, and they can always add new hotels. So, that's "risk" number one.

Number two "risk" is that if you can't make the trip, you can't get a refund.

Those are "risks" that you will be taking when you use Hotwire to get those great rates. But the company is very reputable.

Anyways, I have not used them for cruises. Only car and hotel, many many times.