Guided hunts vary hugely in what they offer in location, terrain ,hunting style,accommodation & quality/numbers of game. You then need to factor in the personality of the guide that you will be living in close proximity for the duration of the hunt.
Most of my hunting is on friends & relatives private property, but I have used guides when hunting internationaly in Africa , New Zealand & remote areas in Australia.
Research the area you want to hunt & the guides that work that area. Most importantly you need to choose a guide that offers the type of hunt that YOU want. No sense in paying $3500 to sit in luxury accommodation & shoot a farmed trophy when what YOU wanted was to trek miles through back country roughing it in tents.
I personally think telephoning the guide & talking direct is best before a guided hunt. You get a far better feel for a person talking over the phone for 10 minutes than through emails. Finally ring those references the guide has provided. Most have volunteered to be references and as fellow hunters are happy to recount their hunt - warts and all.
Since the majority of my hunting is free & successful, guided hunts always provide a memorable hunt., but percentage harvest return to me is not the most important criteria. Hunting the way I want is far more important to me than success.
I did a fly in fly out remote New Zealand hunt that involved daily crossing of rivers, climbing of mountains & crawling through thick jungle, which was unsuccessful except for a doe I shot for meat on day 1. My mate shot a decent red stag, & I learnt a lot from my Maori guide. Not successful in trophys for me but a great hunting experience.
I spent a week with a mate using a guide on a huge property in South Australia. This guide would drive around this 300,000 acres "Watervalley Station" & you would see hundreds of Red, Fallow, Rusa, & Elk daily. Glass a trophy, park the vehicle - short stalk & shoot. Good harvest return, but hardly a good hunting experience, & I learnt nothing. This particular guide also had a very disagreeable personality, which fortunately in my experience is rare with guides.
Make sure your guided hunt is what you want.