By Beaver County Business Staff
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You can’t toss a round of golf into your cart during a Costco run. No one in a hairnet is offering samples of Caribbean cruises. There’s no cheerful clerk asking if you’d like to try a forkful of Tuscany or a sip of Maui—“Just one taste, sir, it’s free, and it comes with a complimentary balcony.” The only hint that the retail juggernaut sells travel at all is a lonely rack of brochures near the exit, usually positioned between the fire extinguishers and the dawning realization that you forgot milk.
So it’s no surprise that Costco Travel remains one of the best-kept open secrets in American consumer life. Many seasoned travelers—people who can recite airline baggage policies the way others quote Scripture—have no clue you can book a Seabourn cruise, a Ritz-Carlton resort, or a European adventure through Costco.
What began 25 years ago as a cautious experiment has quietly become a serious force in the vacation business. Costco Travel now employs more than 800 in-house agents, works with a small army of buyers, and runs multiple call centers. Its glossy travel brochure—published three times a year—has swollen to nearly 80 pages, which is roughly the size of a respectable novella and far more enticing.
Costco, being Costco, doesn’t brag much. It skips the travel-industry rankings and reveals little about its scale. But executives let slip one eye-popping detail during a recent earnings call: U.S. members booked more than $100 million in travel in the five days after Thanksgiving alone. Annual bookings, they say, run into the billions—proof that turkey leftovers and credit limits can peacefully coexist.
This is not Expedia with a forklift. Costco stays selective, the same way it does with olive oil or tube socks. Airline tickets are sold only as part of packages, and not every airline makes the cut. Rental cars come from just four providers. Destinations are curated. Membership is mandatory.
“We know who we are,” says Chris Hendrix, a Costco Travel executive. What they are, it turns out, is very good at negotiating value for a customer base that likes to travel—and has the means to do it properly. Many packages toss in a Costco gift card, a clever device that ensures your vacation savings boomerang straight back to the warehouse, where you will immediately spend them on paper towels the size of bed rolls.
Among Costco veterans, the word is starting to spread. Hotel owners are noticing, too. Costco members, after all, tend to rent nicer cars, stay longer, and—most impressive of all—actually show up.
Costco’s real genius may be the humble rental car. The company has been a quiet force in car rentals for more than a decade. No credit card required at booking. No extra-driver fees. Just last week a friend saved $200 on a last-minute Phoenix rental. It’s the $1.50 hot dog of Costco Travel—cheap, reliable, and oddly satisfying, even when you’re not quite sure how they’re pulling it off.
When people hear this, they still ask the same question: “Costco does that?”
Yes. Yes, they do.
