This is very insightful indeed and thanks Tom for starting this thread.
In spite of listing my Daily Rates on my website I would still get enquiries from folks who would ask: "I am interested in a 10 day hunt for X,Y and Z species... Can you tell me what my safari would cost me?" Well, I thought it was quite simple... multiply the advertised Daily Rates by the number of days you wanted to hunt, add the Trophy Fees for the species you were after and you knew what it would cost... Why ask someone for a quote if all the details were available on the website already?
Then an Outfitter (deceased now after being trampled by an elephant) who ran a very successful Outfit here in the vicinity told me he wasn't advertising his rates on the web - reason being that - "if someone had to ask what it cost to hunt with him he couldn't afford it anyways..."
With all due respect to the deceased, this comes across to me as very arrogant and quite presumptuous. I didn't know this man to say he was actually that way, but for me that is an immediate reason for exclusion from further consideration. The fact is there is a great deal of variation from one outfitter to another especially from country to country. Every rich person I've ever known was also a savvy shopper.
Well, I removed the section pertaining to Daily Rates from my website and replaced this with something to the effect of: "Daily Rates are determined by the number of clients in the hunting party, the duration and type of hunt, etc. etc. please contact us for further details"
Guess what? The average number of online enquiries I received per month halved! Funny thing was that my Daily Rates were on par with (if not cheaper than) most of the other guys in the business.
Needless to say - my current rates are back up on my site again...