Scott CWO
AH legend
We get it. I can understand that the change for one day wasn’t communicated promptly or at all until you contacted them again. However, as a lawyer who is paid to worry about all possible contingencies, I think you are overly worried about other things also changing. I haven’t seen complaints against this outfitter concerning surprising changes to contracted hunts already booked.If I had previously committed to a dollar amount that end up being higher than what an average outfitter charged for the same service, I would not expect to be able to unilaterally decide to reduce it.
Also, I think several people have suggested that the original daily rate for a hunter of $180 was miss quoted. It was not. The administrator stated that that was the correct rate when she quoted it to me, but that the rate has since gone up and that this is the first time they have done this.
I want to reiterate, since this thread is very long, that my concern is not with the fact that they need to increase their prices due to the variables that affect their costs, my issue with the fact that there was no communication regarding this possibility and that when we reserved the extra hunting day, there was no indication that this was a modifiable cost.
Communication is key to managing proper expectations on all sides. My primary concern is with the two hunters in our group who are on very strict budgets. Out of courtesy to them, I’m going to probably have to eat the additional cost of their extra nights so that the financial pressure doesn’t ruin their experience.
If the outfitter would have simply clearly communicated the possibilities at the outset, everyone could have gone into this information and made appropriate decisions.
The primary concern is about communication. The secondary concern is whether the party that failed to communicate should bear the burden of the poor communication. I had written this post to see if this was a common experience, but it seems that it is not.
The net $240 change for one day per person is fairly insignificant compared to the overall costs of international hunting and travel so hopefully your friends will pay it or the outfitter will eat it or compromise with you.