Unfortunately, guys are not always as considerate as they should be.

By the same token, I do know of one lady that had that happen to her.  That is the exception not the rule though.

I don't tour but I've heard some ladies who do ask for deposits.  Maybe the gentlemen would be less likely to cancel and would be more serious about keeping the date if they put a small amount down. And if they cancel some of your expenses would be covered.

I will go back again to LI but I will probably end up doing doubles. More fun anyways.

I was thinking the same thing this morning. I do have established incalls in different areas...NJ/NY/PA/MD and here is my personal experience with each location:

NYC:
every girl who goes or lives in Manhattan knows that the lifestyle of the guys is set in a different pace. Everything is fast fast and their schedules either opens at the last minute or they have unexpected meetings or delays. Is the NYC way and either guys are calling trying to change appts or you get same days cancelations. Very common and happens a lot. When I first started to go to the city, I was very frustrated with the last minute cancelations. Let's face it, 350 for the hotel room, parking, meals and cancelations do not mix very well. But, with time I developed some loyal guys, who books me every time I'm in town so, now, if I have 2 or 3 cancelations during my stay it doesn't affect me much.

BWI:
ohhh I love my BWI guys. Is the place I have the highest number of repeated clients (outside NJ) and the guys I see are truly a pleasure to be with. Soon I put my BWI schedule out, I get the familiar mail addresses on my mailbox and I seldom have a cancelation there. Usually I have to extend my stay to accomodate all my favorites. I even dragged NYVanessa to the area for our summer doubles and now she also loves going there. Maybe we can do a 3 girls BWI oral special ??? I've heard you are good too, so we can combine forces and have a blast

Philly:
my home base is right across the bridge to Philly, I do get lots of Philly guys coming to NJ to meet with me so, one day, I decided to make a trip there. Well, after tons of mails of guys suggesting where to stay and saying "I would LOVE to see you" I got the bookings and all and, like you, the night before the cancelations started to show up in my mailbox. I didn't think twice, I called the guys I had booked and transfered the appts to my NJ location and it was all good. Nor harm done for me, but I can see why the travelling girls gets upset on the philly board.

KOP:
King of Prussia is 15 minutes from center city (Philly), a location lots of travelling girls pick for their tours. The first 3 times I went there, I had tons of cancelations, one after the other and I truly believe was someone trying to scared me away from the area. With time, I developed a steady clientele and KOP is now one of my incalls locations. I think you should give the philly guys another chance but go to KOP instead.

On your take for the motives of the cancelations I would say, yes anything can happen, from a local provider who doesn't want you in her area asking her johns to call and book in exchange for freebies, to local agencies who wants you out, to johns trolling for their favorites and thinking if they book/cancel they are doing their darlings a favor.
But also shit happens for the guys who booked you  with serious intentions but had a last minute thing that makes them cancel.
I think all comes with the territory and is part of being in the business we are. I've met some nice girls and some nasty ones.
I've meet great guys and just a handful of the ones we should pass on.
My take is...be persistent, if you like an area and you see tons of girls doing well there, if you have the skills you can do well too. Is just a matter of time until you establish your own clientele.

If it were truly other ladies that wanted to freeze you out, why would they bother to cancel at all.  You would suffer more if they let you incur the expense of coming to NYC and ended up with a bunch of no shows.