I am somewhat of a newbie in the hobby business but one thing I have found really frustrating is the lack of responsiveness and/or flakiness from some providers. I was lucky to have a provider guide me to date-check and for her to provide a reference after our get together. I thought that would make things a lot easier with other providers; however, I have found that it is very hard to get a response back from some girls.  

Am longtime hobbyist, but got a lot of the same you got. Guess that's the nature of this business. The word "professional" has a different meaning to them.

pun intended.  I also have had terrible luck with D-check and p411 regarding a response even with double digit "OK's".   You know the girls get listed for FREE on both sites, p411 being a tad bit harder to get listed but WTF how about the courtesy of a response!  I don't want to bitch to the sites because they will remove the providers listing but something has to be done with the bullshit attitude.

Go with a good agency or a girl who is visiting from out of the area.  It seems when an agency schedules a girl or when a visitor comes to town it is because she wants/needs $$$ at that time and is prepared to work as advertised.  With a local independent you never know what might come up that is a distraction or a higher priority for her.

Two of the no show girls were visiting from out of town. It would be nice if they respect my time the same way they expect me to respect their time.  

I just had a similar discussion with a gent in regards to date-check and his "references", while he had many of them they were over a year old. I cannot speak for the other girls, but I only accept recent references no matter where they are from and you need to have at least 2+ before I will even think about seeing you. All of this is clearly stated on my site.  

A couple things come to mind, (1) she might be unreliable, (2) you might of said or wrote something that scared her away, (3) you just hit a string of bad luck.  On the positive side, you still got the dough in the bank.   But again, hang in there buddy

to get a hold of them and ask why they didnt respond. Shoot, even well reviewed providers do it.

Cancellations happen (often) on both sides of the hobby.  Be careful about throwing all providers under the bus as they deal with a lot more cancellations than we do.

Nor is it excusable not to at least respond, but how are you making that initial contact.  Many ladies, such as myself, have a contact form on their website to make it easy, but the bottom line is ladies need some basic information about you to even consider meeting you.  I can't tell you how many "oneliners" I get, such as: Hi beautiful.  or "I would like to meet you."  Some ladies will ignore these completely, others, such as myself, will email you back and ask you for the information they need to do some screening.  In any case, that initial first impression goes a long way toward getting your foot in the door.