OTAs and cancellations

We don't use boo**ng dot com but I know people who do say they get a lot of cancellations.
We're going to a wedding in Aug and I booked hotel for the weekend on this site about 9 months ago when the invitation arrived. But since I've still got 2 weeks to cancel without charge I thought I'd have a look and see if there were any better deals available.
I was quite shocked how much book*** dot com encourages people to book now because they can later cancel. It's on nearly every listing and the cancel booking button is very prominent at the top of the page on my reservation.

Plans change.
There is an incentive to being able to cancel, and they obviousely know it! I recently booked a place direct on their website for less than bucking-dot-calm but that was the deviding factor, if they gave me a no cancel deal or two week vs 24 or 48 hours cancel policy I wasn't going to use them directly.
Sad, but it is a fad right now with all those flashing lights making promises. People are just going with the flow, like you said.

And no one clicks the little ? to see what each property has for a cancellation policy.
Yes, it's emblazoned all over that 'cancellations are free' but that only means booking isn't going to charge a fee.

Booking = Get All The Money Up Front.