Why Use A Booking Agent?

[JamesJ]

As an agent I get a lot of questions regarding just why someone should use me and my services. So I thought, would go ahead and post a few answers to common questions. Basically I provide a service to make choosing and planning your hunt a whole lot easier.

1. How much do you charge?
My services are free, the outfitters pay me directly and regardless if you book through me or the outfitters the prices are the same.

2. Can I get a better deal going direct?
Generally no, I send dozens of clients hunting every year and usually outfitters give me very good rates because of volume.

3. Do you handle permits and licenses?
Yes, I take care of all my clients permits and licensing.

4. Outfitter X is trying to sell me his hunt, but it's not what I am looking for, what can you do?
I don't work with just one safari or hunting company in an area, I work with many. When you call me looking for a particular style of hunt, accommodations or level of difficulty, I try to match clients with exactly what they want. Outfitters generally have one hunt to sell, it may or may not fit your needs.

5. Are you local?
Yes and no, I'm here in the states (Texas) and you can call me anytime, I'm always available to chat. I'm pretty easy to get a hold of and I'm always up for talking about hunting.

6. What else do you do?
I help sort out your flights, make sure you are taking the right firearms and ammo, the right clothes for the trip, vaccinations and making sure you have all the right medicine for a given area. My job is to help your hunt be as worry and hassle free as it can be. You should enjoy your hunt… it's supposed to be a vacation.

7. What kind of experience do you have?
I've been guiding and hunting since I was a kid and booking International hunting trips for over 10 years.

8. Are you a good dancer?
Not really.

 

[ScottG]

Really good info. These are some of the questions that I had in my mind.

 

[KWALATA SAFARIS]

Wahahaha! Well put I can't dance either!
Seems to be spot on!

 

[ActionBob]

I can attest to James' ability to make it simple. Especially for a first timers... All sounds accurate as to my experience, except the dancing part, no knowledge either way to give you a reference.... But his little daughter is a sweetheart when she is in the background adding in her 2 cents when your on the phone!

 

[JamesJ]

Thanks Bob,

It was great to see you in Dallas.

 

[Jacques.strauss]

Awesome post James!

 

[ArmyGrunt]

Great post, James. You answered several question I'd yet to send your way. Though dancing wasn't one of those, I'm glad you addressed it. I'm not sure I could do business with a guy who can dance better than my seizure simulations!

 

[JamesJ]

Thanks guys, I'm here to help. My dancing does get slightly better after a couple sundowners.

 

[ChrisT]

Hi James,

I have a question...

Some clients seem to be of the opinion that by booking through (and paying money to) an Agent, they cover themselves in case things with the Outfitter goes bad...

Eg. You as Agent has an arrangement with an Outfitter to sell hunts on his behalf... You trust the Outfitter to deliver on his services / promises and take money from clients for a hunt - which you pay over to the Outfitter ... But it turns out later that he doesn't deliver as promised... (Bad areas, trophies not getting home etc...)

Where do you stand in such a situation - especially as far as refunds are concerned?

Best,

Chris

 

[JamesJ]

Hi Chris,

You raised a very good point. Of course number one priority is to have good working and trusting relationships with my outfitters. We go back 10-12 years with some of our outfitters, so we know they run a good operation, but occasionally things do go wrong.

I handle things two ways depending on the outfitter.
1. If we have a legitimate problem and I call an outfitter on it, there is usually no question The outfitter makes it right, whether its a full refund, partial refund or another hunt. We try our best to make sure the client feels like they were treated fairly and not ignored.
2. With many of my outfitters I pay them the deposit and hold the remainder of the funds in an escrow account until the hunt takes place. If there is a legitimate problem the clients are refunded the money I have on account for them.

Outfitters try very hard to keep their reputation clean and their image trustworthy, its in all our best interest to make sure clients are treated fairly and if there is a problem, we handle it straight away.
Now of course it needs to be a legitimate problem, if the beer is slightly too warm or too cold for your taste, or you really preferred pringles instead of lays chips, then we have a hard time justifying a refund.
But if the outfitter was dishonest and you really had a bad hunt then yes, I think you should deserve some reimbursement.

Here are two examples, these are both 100% true.
Alaska bear hunt:
Client arrives weather is poor, its raining and miserable. That's Alaska weather unfortunately, day 3 of a 12 day hunt he leaves. The day after he leaves the weather changes and the other 3 guys in camp get their bears. He left 9 days early, I could not justify a refund as he should have stayed the whole hunt. He said the camp and the food were fine, he was not happy over the weather.

Zim Elephant hunt:
Client books an area, the outfitter changes the area without his consent or being informed about it. He arrives into the new area and there is not an elephant to be seen, the trackers tell him they have not seen one in months. He has a terrible time, no elephant, no tracks, decent food and a nice camp but not what he was promised. His money for the hunt was back in his account before he returned home.

 

[Royal27]

With many of my outfitters I pay them the deposit and hold the remainder of the funds in an escrow account until the hunt takes place. If there is a legitimate problem the clients are refunded the money I have on account for them.

I don't think the value of this can be under estimated. My cousin won't go on a foreign hunt if all the money leaves the country before the hunt, period. He doesn't care if it is Canada or Zimbabwe, and he has hunted both. Hard to argue with his logic. On example number two above getting the money back could have been a real nightmare if it had made it to Zim....

 

[JamesJ]

A good outfitter would refund the money, but it is hard to get it back out and can be very slow. Of course if he decides not to refund you, you have little recourse. I have seen guys try to sue, but it's futile, it's hard to enforce a judgment in the states let alone a foreign country.

 

[Royal27]

Agree a good outfitter would refund, but without knowing all the detail of your example I will also say that a good outfitter wouldn't do a last second switch to an area without elephant. So.....

 

[JamesJ]

That was an outfitter whose got in a financial bind and they were cheating clients to try and fix their situation.

 

[Bhfs300]

Hi James

Another question.

'Eg. You as Agent has an arrangement with an Outfitter to sell hunts on his behalf... You trust the Outfitter to deliver on his services / promises and take money from clients for a hunt - which you pay over to the Outfitter ... But it turns out later that he doesn't deliver as promised... (Bad areas, trophies not getting home )'

There was another thread that was dealing with paying. 'Hunting Agent' if the hunter should pay for the hunt before he is heading home from the Safari and you are taking care of paying for him, and the shipper isn't going to ship things until they are payed, by you? How are you still holding money that you will refund to the hunter when there is a problem with trophies when they get home or the hunter thinks there was a problem with the trophy quality during the hunt?

 

[JamesJ]

For me and the way I do business, typically I pay the outfitter in full after your hunt is complete, you return home and let me know how it went. So in the event there is a problem we work out an equitable solution.
Also I bill clients on their return for the trophy fees and pay that as well. Traveling through Africa with 20K in cash tucked in your tighty whities is a bad idea, it really is anywhere not just Africa.

Once the trophies are delivered in good order to the taxidermist, the taxidermist in my opinion, becomes responsible for the trophies. The outfitter may help sort out any difficulties, but there has to be a point where his liability is diminished. Unless he owns the taxidermy shop as well.

As for trophy quality, during the hunt. the ultimate power in the decision making is the guy pulling the trigger if you don't like it, don't shoot. Now if he tells you its a 65" kudu and it's 40", I don't expect you to pay for it, but mistakes happen and every outfitter I have ever worked with will eat a screw up on their part.

Here is another story also true.
A client shoots a leopard, he was there when it was skinned and delivered in perfect order to the taxidermist. The outfitter was paid in full for services rendered, job well done. The taxidermist dips/packs and crates the skins and send them to the shipper, he is also paid for his work. The skins arrive in port, go through customs and to the taxidermist, where it's discovered a leg has been cut off of his leopard. The client demands a free hunt from the outfitter to replace the damaged skin. We told him no, the outfitter had done his job perfectly and delivered all in order.
The client was present when the skin was taken to the taxidermist and the taxidermist has pics of it before it shipped, damage was in transit somewhere.
From my standpoint the outfitter did his job as did the taxidermist, their liability was null in the problem. They helped as best as they could but the damage happened elsewhere and the client was certainly not due a refund or a free hunt.

Once the outfitter has taken care of his job, he gets paid in full. But my relationship is such with most of my outfitters, that even after the fact if there is a problem they will help remedy it.

You could say it's buying power, I may do $100K-200K with an outfitter in a years time, if there is a problem over a $1,000 animal, its in their best interest to take care of it and make my clients happy.

 

[CAustin]

James I may want to talk about bear hunts sometime!

 

[JamesJ]

Anytime, I'm going out tomorrow for a chopper pig hunt. I'll be available by phone if you get bored.

 

[ChrisT]

Thanks for your reply James,

I have no doubt that reputable guys like you can and does add tremendous value.

No doubt that you do due diligence when selecting an Outfitter to represent - as I'm sure all the other reputable Agents do...

However; please let me use the following two examples where Booking Agents added no (or little) value to Clients in the long run:

Example 1:

• A client booked a rhino hunt through a Hunting Agent with a specific "Outfitter" and paid for the hunt in full in advance.
• The Outfitter turns out NOT to be a registered Outfitter after all who had scammed both the Agent and the Client...
• The hunt never happens...
• It appears this "Agent" finds Outfitters to represent by surfing the Internet and when he sees someone he likes - he strikes a deal and starts representing him... When the crap hits the fan and his Outfitters turn out to be crooks - he washes his hands... "Sh_t happens!" seems to be the attitude...

Example 2:

• A Client is looking for an Elephant / Leopard hunt and finds one advertised on the Internet by a well-known and reputable Agent.
• The Client is wary of booking directly with an Outfitter as he had to wait for 3 years to get his buffalo trophy home after his first Zimbabwean hunt that was booked directly with an Outfitter.
• The Agent recommends a specific Outfitter for this hunt to the client.
• Based on the Agent's recommendation (and reputation); the Client books the hunt (feeling safe that he would be in good hands because of the Agent's recommendation). He has a great time, hunts with a great PH and kills an Elephant, Leopard and Kudu.
• Accordingly; the Outfitter is paid and the Agent's "obligation" has been met (or has it?)...
• When the Client starts enquiring about the status of his trophies, the Agent reassures him that all is in order. He knows the Outfitter well and the Outfitter is a "stand-up" guy... The Client does not have to worry - he will get his trophies...
• Time goes by and the first year passes - no progress with the trophies...
• The Agent finally admits that his Outfitter was not as "stand-up" as what he'd thought. It turns out the Outfitter landed himself in some financial difficulties and didn't pay whoever needed to get paid so the trophies can't leave Zimbabwe...
• It's been three years now - still no trophies. And it appears that those trophies (or whatever is left of them after all this time) will never leave Zimbabwe anyway.

Now in the second example I used - no one can blame the Agent for the fact that the Outfitter landed himself in financial difficulty and I guess no one can expect the Agent to refund the Client either.

But at the end of the day - it is the Clients who pulled the short string - losing large amounts of money in the process. And doing so - purely as result of an Agent's recommendation...

And one can argue that - had they not used Agents (granted maybe these Agents in particular) - they might have been better off by doing their own research and booking hunts on their own...

Just to be clear - I'm not being negative against Agents in general - most definitely not against yourself. But I do believe that sometimes Clients are given a false sense of security when using the services of an Agent.

Best,

Chris

 

[JamesJ]

Chris,

I appreciate your questions and the healthy discussion, the role of an agent is misunderstood by many people.

We all know there are bad people in every industry, the hunting industry has more than their share of them. But one thing that an agent does give a client is recourse. If you break out your Google-foo, find an outfitter, book and your hunt goes south you really don't have any option but to suck it up. An agent is typically at least in the same country or close by and you can take legal action to try to regain some if not all of your money back. Most of my clients know where my home is, they know my wife and kids, they know I'll take care of them and if I don't; they have the option to sue or come on down to Houston and whip my a$$, i 'll send you my address. I'm not a big guy and if I deserve it I'll take it.

In your scenarios, clients may have been better of to do their own research, maybe not.But in my experience, price drives that research. They look for the cheapest hunt they can find and go for it, they don't check references or hunt reports. They book based on the price alone and struggle with logistics, flights, permits, licenses etc. where an agent would have helped them take care of those things.

My point being a good agent does add value, my relationships and my experience does give a client a sense of security, more so than Google. My clients know if they book, we have hunted with the outfitter, rode in his car, slept in their lodge, ate their food and definitely drank their beer. We have had our feet on the ground in his camp and their hunting area.

A bad agent that surfs the web and hopes outfitter #3 on the second page of results is a good one because he has a pretty wife adds nothing. An agent that says oh well $hit happens adds nothing as well.

Good agents spend their money to fly over and check out outfitters, to make sure they are what they claim to be.