Is it a much better deal? Any other reasons to book through them? |
Sometimes yes, sometimes no. Like anything, you have to comparison shop. It is definitely not always the best deal. |
They excel with offering Costco credit and resort/cruise credits, although the actual price might be the same. That's what you want to compare. |
Costco travel is never the most expensive. Thus, if you're looking for a one-stop shop and don't have time to comparison shop, it's pretty good. Sometimes it will be the least expensive. Usually, it's on the lower end of the price spectrum.
What Costco often does is it sells something slightly nicer but then price it at lower level (e.g., Suppose there's a hotel with ocean view rooms and standard view rooms. Costco will give you the ocean view room for the standard room price). It's brilliant because it's a way to upsell and then hook people in. For example, I used to use Ragu pasta sauce, but then I started bought Raos at Costco a couple times when it was on sale. Now, I'm hooked on Raos. |
I have used them. It worked out well, if you call the 800 number, there is more flexibility you can get over the phone vs on the app (for example, I wanted to stay at Costco-booked hotels for some days on my trip and at an airbnb for other days and they could arrange that over the phone). |
We booked our spring break trip to Europe through them. They got us a price that was less than what I could find for airfare alone, for everything. And having the ground transportation taken care of is also very convenient. |
Didn’t book through them, but took their hotel suggestions (for Italy) and they were all fabulous and perfectly located. Medium sized boutique hotels with great service. |
I used them to book a weekend in NYC last year. Their cost for the Marriott Marquis for the weekend plus round trip transfer from JFK was way less than booking through Marriott for the same room.
We didn't actually need the transfer since we were driving to NYC, so I just called Costco and let them know, and they were really easy to work with. |
PP here. I also used Costco to book a package with a hotel near Disneyland and rental car at LAX last year. The price of the hotel+minivan for a week was just $100 more than the hotel alone if booked through Marriott.
Note, however, that if you book through Costco, I don't think you can earn nights/points from Marriott or whatever chain you book through. |
We used it when we booked a Disney cruise. We got a $1,200 cash card a few weeks after our cruise which was great since we were moving. I'm type A and wouldn't use a TA anyways, so it made sense for us. They've got great customer service as well! |
I booked a trip with Costco and did it for the simplicity. It was a package deal to Universal and included flights, rental car, hotel, and tickets to the park with express passes. I did not have the bandwidth to figure out all the moving parts. I might have paid more than if I had bargain shopped each piece or used points, but to me the package price seemed reasonable and it was right for me at the time. Everything worked out perfectly, no problems with anything. The package price counted towards our annual rebate (or whatever they call it) and included two Costco gift cards. I would definitely use them again.
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Hard to beat their rental car deals |
People were on hold for hours when the pandemic travel cancellation started. Never ever use Costco travel! |
Yes I no longer bother searching other sites for rental cars. |
I regularly beat their rental car deals using Autoslash. |