Booking Travel Through Costco Might Be About to Get More Expensive
byDaniel McCarthy/
Costco Travel, which has long been a thorn in the side of travel advisors, might very well be getting more expensive for its clients.
据上个月公司最新收益电话会议上发表的高级副总裁鲍勃·尼尔森(Bob Nelson)在五年以上的会员价格上发表了讲话,时钟可能会增加Costco购物和书籍旅行费用的增加
纳尔逊说:“从历史上看,我们每五到六年就每增加一次费用,最后三个增加到五年半的时间范围,而我们的最后一次增加将于6月份出现。2017年。”如果公司遵循与以前相同的时间表,这使得Costco将提高Costco的下一个合理时间,这使得这使得Costco将提高会员价格。Costco上次提高会员价格,2017年6月,他们增加了5美元和10美元,具体取决于消费者的会员水平。
Nelson added that the team had “nothing more specific to report in terms of timing” and that announcing any increase right now, with inflation at a high, “is not the right time.”
“Given the current macro environment, the historically high inflation, and the burden it's having on our members and all consumers in general, we think increasing our membership fee today ahead of our typical timing is not the right time,” Nelson said.
Still, if Costco does follow its usual timeline, it could soon get more expensive to be a member at Costco and to book vacations through its travel division, which, again according to Nelson, is seeing heavy consumer interest coming out of the pandemic.
他说:“每个人都被压抑了两年,而没有旅行,是的,这种生意像疯了一样起飞。”
Costco Travel, like so much of the industry during those early stages of COVID-19, suffered trying to keep up with the volume of customer calls as consumers tried to rebook or cancel vacations. The company’s travel division's Twitter account has not been updated since March 2020,a time when clients took to social media to complain about seven-hour hold wait times and poor communications at the company’s call center.
Since then, the company has continued to attract vacationers, in spite of customer service complaints, because of its lower prices—its travel department works just like the rest of its offerings in that it offers pre-negotiated discounted rates to its members. And while it continues to beat some direct and OTA pricing, there are more things to consider, even outside of the customer service.
For one,according to the Washington Post, those prices might not always be the best, especially for flights—one Costco member speaking to Washington Post said that airfare was cheaper booked separately, and another said that, even with the cost savings, not being able to upgrade airline seats because they were purchased as part of a package was a negative for him.