“I’d heard about BookYourHunt.com before, but didn’t really understand what it was. I thought it was another booking agency that hired Jim Shockey for celebrity endorsement, not even worth checking out. Then, when I learned what BookYourHunt.com really stands for, it made all the difference, and I signed up for their services”. That’s what we often hear from lots of different people (including Grant Taylor of Mashambanzou Safaris, 500th outfitter to join our online marketplace). Here are six common questions about BookYourHunt.com that most people seem to get wrong:
- Is BookYourHunt.com just another booking agency?
- Can anyone advertise their hunts on BookYourHunt.com?
- Are the services of BookYourHunt.com expensive?
- Will BookYourHunt.com staff find the right hunt for me?
- Why book with BookYourHunt.com if I can book with outfitter directly?
- Does Jim Shockey get paid for promoting BookYourHunt.com?
Are you sure you know the right answers? Read below and check yourself!
1. Is BookYourHunt.com just another booking agency?
No, it isn’t. BookYourHunt.com is an ONLINE MARKETPLACE. It’s there to help hunters meet outfitters. It’s often described as “expedia” or “travelocity” for hunters. Picture a traditional country marketplace. Vendors come and put their wares in front of the customers. Customers come, examine the wares, chat with sellers, compare and buy products. Most vendors have been there for years, have their regular clients, and treasure their reputation. The newcomers can only survive if they not only adhere to the standard set by old-timers, but do better. BookYourHunt is something similar, only with latest high-tech options and safeguards. The biggest difference, perhaps, is that there’s no wheeling and dealing. BookYourHunt.com guarantees that the price you see on the hunt will be the price you’ll pay, and that it’s the lowest price this hunt can be had at.
However, when you book a hunt on BookYourHunt.com, you don’t sign a deal with BookYourHunt.com. You’re dealing DIRECTLY WITH THE OUTFITTER OF YOUR CHOICE. The same, of course, applies to the outfitter. When a client books one of your hunts on BookYourHunt.com, it’s a deal between the client and you. BookYourHunt.com doesn’t touch a cent of the client’s money.
2. Can anyone advertise their hunts on BookYourHunt.com?
No. Before an outfitter can post their offers on BookYourHunt.com, they UNDERGO A THOROUGH VETTING PROCESS. We developed a simple, yet effective way of separating quality outfitters from scammers and poachers. Fair Play – for both the animals, and the clients – is absolutely vital for BookYourHunt.com, and any lack of transparency, or any hint of dishonesty, from violation of hunting rules to mishandling the client’s money, leads to expulsion of the guilty party from the marketplace. To confess, in the beginning one or two bad sheep managed to creep in. But as soon as we found them out, out of the marketplace they went like a football on Superbowl. And the experience allowed us to refine the vetting algorithm, and now we’re certain that every outfitter on BookYourHunt.com is precisely what they claim to be.
In fact, dishonest outfitters shy away from BookYourHunt.com. Our win-win scheme works only for those who care for their reputation and are interested in long-term sustainable growth.
3. Are the services of BookYourHunt.com expensive?
For all hunters, BookYourHunt.com is FREE. All services of the online marketplace, from searching for hunts to 24/7 support once you’ve booked, costs absolutely nothing. It is also free for an outfitter to join. The BookYourHunt.com team will set up your page, and promote your hunts, and it will not cost you a penny until you get a paying client (if you’re interested in our terms and conditions, click here).
4. Will BookYourHunt.com staff find the right hunt for me?
BookYourHunt.com team will do what it takes to make sure YOU find the perfect hunt for YOU. If we were just another booking agency, we’d have a sale manager who’d do the looking for you, but that’s against our “skip the middleman” philosophy. It’s your hunt, and you’re in charge of everything, starting with hunting for the best offer. Who knows your preferences, likes and dislikes, better than you? If you have any questions, our staff is always there to answer and support, but this is seldom needed – our comprehensive and easy to use system makes DO-IT-YOURSELF SEARCH OF THE BEST HUNT a piece of cake!
Enter the animal and/or location that you’re interested in, with any additional filters such as family friendly, hunting type (stalking, baiting, with dogs, etc.), hunting weapons (rifle, bow), your budget, hunt difficulty, you name it, and see the hunts as a list, or on the map, at a click of the mouse. Even better, if you’re registered on BookYourHunt.com, there’s a smart system that highlights those of the nearly 4,000 hunts from over 500 outfitters that match your interests. And if there aren’t any hunts that match your settings, in a click you can create a personal subscription, and the second after such a hunt appears the system will automatically e-mail it straight to you! Go and see for yourself how easy and convenient it is.
5. Why book with BookYourHunt.com if I can book with outfitter directly?
We’ll just let Jim Shockey answer this one.
To reiterate, when you book with BookYourHunt.com, you still get the same attractive price – BookYourHunt.com has a best price guarantee policy – but on top of that YOU GET 24/7 SUPPORT. This applies to anything, from your concerns about communication with the outfitter to getting through the customs with your firearms on your way to Africa, Russia, or any other country. We’ll provide you with all the information you need and try to sort out any problems that might arise. BookYourHunt.com will even cover some of your own blunders. Check out this story about Hungarian hunters who didn’t think they needed a visa to travel to Russia!
But that only works if you book on BookYourHunt.com. If you only found a hunt on BookYourHunt.com and then went directly to an outfitter, we don’t know you. You’re on your own.
6. Does Jim Shockey get paid for promoting BookYourHunt.com?
No! When you see him promoting BookYourHunt.com, it’s because JIM SHOCKEY IS A CO-OWNER OF BookYourHunt.com. He has been an enthusiastic supporter of the online marketplace concept from the second he learned about it. The BookYourHunt.com ads you see are created by the incredibly talented people at Jim Shockey’s Adventures, who are on Jim’s payroll. Jim Shockey backs BookYourHunt.com with his impeccable reputation. This alone should convince you to prefer this online marketplace to any other form of booking hunting trips. Fortunately, there are other reasons why, the same reasons that convinced Jim Shockey and thousands of other hunters and outfitters in the future of BookYourHunt.com
I would love to have someone contact me, I have not had the experience with BYH that has been described above, my hunting buddy and I are extremely disappointed with the lack of response from the outfitter we booked with, the cancellation of the hunt from the outfitter and although we’ve had good communication with BYH trying to resolve the situation, we’ve not been able to settle anything, we are at wits end.
Sorry to hear about your bad experience with the outfitter. However, I don’t quite follow what you want us, the BookYourHunt.com blog team, to do. You’re saying you’ve had good contact with BookYourHunt.com already. What else can we do for you here?