SJadventures is wrong. Hunters do pay the costs of a booking agent. It is true that the cost to the hunter may be the same whether you go through a booking agent or book directly with the outfitter. But there's no such thing as a free lunch.

Booking hunts is a marketing expense. Outfitters that choose to do their own marketing, pay the costs of advertising, brochures, websites, attending outdoor shows, etc. These costs are then included in the cost of the hunt you purchase. Other outfitters choose to use booking agents to do these chores and pay them a commission for doing so. These commissions are then included in the price of the hunt. So one way or another the hunter pays these marketing costs. Any booking agent that tries to tell you differently is blowing smoke you know where.

I have used top notch booking agents on a number of hunts and have been very pleased. However I feel that any booking agent that keeps a commission on a hunt that falls through due to his outfitter's negligence or fraud is, at the very least, unethical regardless of what the fine print of his legal contract may say.