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THE ROLE OF PROFESSIONAL BOOKING AGENTS

  • Is there any advantage to using one?
  • What is a professional booking agent?
  • What should you look for in an agent?
  • Is there any downside to using one?
  • What does he do for me?
  • Who pays the agent?

We are full-time professional hunting and fishing consultants that typically spend 40 to 60 hours a week, every week, working on adventures worldwide for our clients. That is what you want – someone devoted to this business, full time.

Full-time roughly translates to about 2,500 hours a year spent looking for good trips, inspecting outfitters’ operations, working out the finer details on hundreds of trips, including licenses, travel, hidden costs, reviewing tips and leads from clients and friends, talking with outfitters and their references, reading thousands of written pages per year on various trips, researching the background on outfitters for criminal or civil violations or bad reports, etc.

Clearly, a sportsman cannot afford to devote that much time and effort into locating good trips. It follows that a good and experienced booking agent can then help steer you toward the better trips, all within your budget framework. He can help you with specific information and tips on any trip you might be contemplating. He will often be aware of little quirks that no one else will tell you about! He can offer you a variety of trip choices and is able to make recommendations for the best areas for quality trophies of a given species. This is where a good booking agent shines. In today’s frantic-paced world, TIME is the major commodity we all are lacking in our personal lives – time for family, time for friends, time to pursue your sporting interests.

Finding a quality outfitter takes precious time away from family and business. So what do you do? Too often, you simply hear of a trip, decide to do it, and off you go. Deep down you know you should have looked around, you know you should have asked more questions, you know you should have done more research, but time won’t allow you that luxury.

Instead, you can make one phone call to a clearinghouse of information, the professional booking agent. A good agent will first find out what your interests are, maybe African plains game this year, maybe an American elk next year, and maybe a red stag down the road. All those wishes get logged in our database, and if a great trip comes along, you get a call or, more likely, an email. Or you may want to go on a multi-species horseback wilderness hunt. A good agent will ask you to talk to him realistically about your horsemanship, your physical conditioning, your trophy size expectations and, importantly, your budget. In most cases, an agent has multiple hunts of that type available to choose from. Our agency works with more than 350 outfitters, offering close to 2,000 different choices. You may find you cannot afford either the time or money required, once you factor in air flights, licenses, trophy transport etc. So we may suggest a less expensive alternative; or put you on our cancellation list for a future bargain; or we may suggest putting down a small deposit now and locking in some dates and maybe even locking in prices two years down the road so you can save some money. A trip will be tailored to fit your needs!

Now please realize that using a good professional full-time booking agent is not a guarantee of success. The best agent there is cannot predict the dozens of variables that can affect any given trip. But booking your trip through a professional certainly ups your odds dramatically. While the agent cannot possibly control what happens on your particular trip, he does know what that outfitter’s overall record is. The best of outfitters can fail to get you your trophy, but always remember that the agent is working to stack opportunity in your favor, and finding you the best opportunities is what we do. And we saved the best for last – our services are FREE to you! You pay the same trip price (and sometimes less) regardless of whether you book direct or use an agent! So you get the benefit of all of our research, years of experience, advice and counsel, and you get a selection of outfitters to choose from – ALL FREE. You pay not a single dime, as the outfitter pays us for advertising and marketing their adventures.

We want you to come back again and again, which means we need to give you solid advice. In return, we hope you will be loyal to us, and if your friends want to do an adventure next year, please do the right thing and send them back to your agent. It is how we earn our living.

Build a relationship with your agent and it will pay big dividends over time.

Good Luck & Happy Hunting and Fishing!

FULL TIME ROUGHLY TRANSLATES TO ABOUT 2,500 HOURS A YEAR SPENT

  • Reviewing Outfitters/ph’s/captains Via Online Research And Boards
  • Working Out The Logistics On Hundreds Of Adventures Reviewing
  • Tips And Leads From Clients And Friends
  • Looking For Quality Adventures
  • Speaking With Outfitters And Their Reference
  • Reading Thousands Of Written Pages Per Year

Clearly, a sportsman cannot afford to devote that much time and effort into locating good hunts and good fishing trips. A good competent full-time agent does this checking and research and searching for you. A good agent literally eats and sleeps hunting and fishing.

For example, I read almost every periodical published- every month and have done so for over 40 years, plus countless books. It follows that a good and experienced booking agent can then help steer you toward the better hunts or fishing trips, all within your budget framework. He can help you with specific information and tips on any trip you might be contemplating. He will often be aware of little quirks that no one else will tell you about! He can offer you a variety of trip choices, after weeding out those outfitters he feels do not produce well. He is able to make recommendations for the best areas for quality trophies of a given species, from mammals, to fish to birds. This is where a good booking agent shines.

In today’s frantic paced world, TIME is the major commodity we all are lacking in our personal lives. Time for family, time for friends, time to pursue your sporting interests. Finding a quality outfitter takes precious time away from family and business. So what do you do? Too often, you simply hear of a trip, decide to do it, and off you go. Deep down you know you should have looked around, you know you should have asked more questions, you know you should have done more research-but time won’t allow you that luxury. 

It can take you 4 or 5 phone calls just to get the most basic information into your hands, never mind all the nuances and little-known facts and details. You can find thousands of hunting and fishing trips on the internet-all showing pictures of their biggest animals or fish, all telling you why they are the best bet. Now multiply that time’s hundreds and thousands of outfitters offering the same species in dozens of different locations, and you realize how daunting your task is. Sure, your buddy Johnny had a good trip last year – got a great animal. But did Johnny tell you he got the only trophy in camp? Did he tell you he had the only decent guide? Did he tell you it was the only animal he saw and did he know that the next group after him left early after 3 days of frustration?

Imagine then, that instead of dealing with this, you simply make a SINGLE phone call to a clearinghouse of information, the professional booking agent. They have tens of thousands of hours invested into trying to find the better trips. Realize that “Sam” the outfitter — can only sell you the trip he personally has and does — and realize that Sam is trying to earn a living, Sam needs you to book, and worries that you may look elsewhere. Sam is mighty tempted to do and say whatever it takes to get your check!! He knows the outfitter next door, Bill- has a far better area and a far better hunt- but Sam is never gonna tell you about Bill!!! The booking agent does not have to sell you Sam’s trip, because he has Harry, Wally, Bill and Paul offering the same or better trips, and for hopefully less money! So an agent has no need to put the hard sell on you — as Sam had to do. And we agents depend on your returning to us year after year, so we want to keep you as happy as possible.

Normally, a good agent will first find out what your interests are. Maybe African plains game this year, maybe an American elk next year and maybe a Red stag down the road. All those wishes get logged into a computer, and if a great trip comes along, you get a call or more likely, an email! Or you may want to go on a multiple specie horseback wilderness hunt. A good agent will ask you to talk to him realistically about your horsemanship; your physical conditioning; your trophy size expectations; and importantly your budget. While our fictitious outfitter “Sam” might gloss over some of these things, the booking agent can steer you away from Sam and into something more suitable for you.
After all, in most cases an agent has multiple hunts of that type available to choose from. Our agency for example, works with 300 outfitters offering close to 2,000 different choices. You may find out you cannot afford either the time or money required, once you factor in air flights, licenses, trophy transport etc. So we may suggest a less expensive alternative; or suggest that we put you on our cancellation list for a possible future bargain; or we may suggest putting down a small deposit now and locking in some dates and maybe even locking in the prices two years down the road so you can save the funds. You can readily see how different this approach is from “Sam’s”. A trip will be tailored to fit your needs, rather than tailoring you — to make you fit into Sam’s trip!

NOW PLEASE REALIZE THAT USING A GOOD PROFESSIONAL FULL TIME BOOKING AGENT

Now please realize that using a good professional full time booking agent is not a guarantee of success! The best agent there is cannot predict the dozens of variables that can affect any given trip. He can place you the very finest outfitter in the world- but the weather may be awful; the prime guide may take ill; a crucial piece of equipment may fail; the game or fish may for unknown reasons vacate their normal haunts; the guide may have taken to drinking due to his divorce — the list is endless.

But booking your trip through a professional certainly ups your odds dramatically. While the agent cannot possibly control exactly what happens on your particular trip, he does know what that outfitters overall record is. The best of outfitters can fail to get you your trophy, but always remember that the agent is working to stack opportunity in your favor– and finding you the better opportunities is what we do. Hopefully you will always enjoy your experience and the adventure, and it is important not to equate a trophy or the size of the trophy — with enjoying the experience.

Try to go with the mental attitude that you will have fun no matter what- and over the years you will realize that such an attitude will give you years of enjoyment! You are living freely; you are in the great outdoors; you are doing physical tasks and you are seeing new sights, making new friends and acquiring expertise and experience. I have seen the sun rise over Outer Mongolian mountains; I have watched giant Arctic char jump in wild Siberian Rivers; I have discussed black holes in the solar system with fellow bow hunters around a Colorado campfire on a starry night; I have seen the dancing Northern Lights above the Arctic Circle- these are important, and I encourage everyone to relish these things. Success is in the doing, not in the hanging of the trophy on the wall. We all crave success; just don’t let it cloud your enjoyment of the experience.

Also, be aware that if problems do show up on a trip booked through an agent, you have a very strong ally in your corner! Someone who will listen to your complaint, and will grab hold of the outfitter and try to find some solution for you- like a re-hunt or a discounted hunt, or a partial refund. The outfitter, if he has any common sense, realizes that he needs to keep the agent happy with him, or he will receive no further clients! So you now have leverage you did not have as a solo client. And it costs you nothing!

Oh yes- I saved the best until last-the agent’s services are FREE to you! We get paid a commission from the outfitter you book with. You pay the same trip price (and sometimes less) regardless of whether you book direct or use an agent! So you get the benefit of all the agents research, years of experience, his advice and counsel, you get a selection of outfitters to choose from- and it is all FREE. You pay not a single dime for the agent’s services, as the outfitter pays us.

A reasonably intelligent agent wants you to come back again and again. That means we need to give yo u solid advice. In return, we expect our clients to respect your agent and be as loyal to him as he is to you. If friends want to do next year- the same trip-then do the right thing and send them back to the agent. It is how he earns his living.

Build a relationship with your agent – and over the years it will pay big dividends. Make yourself a frequent caller, a well-known and well respected client-and the agent will return your kindness over and over in the form of phone calls on hot opportunities and discounts, and perhaps invitations to join the agent on a particularly interesting trip.

GOOD LUCK & HAPPY HUNTING!

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