Personally, I have stopped using the referencing system about 5 years ago.

If you're on tour, there is no time to be checking references. But even so, I have had no call/no shows on tour off the back of more than one reference. I have also had a slave in San Diego give me a Domme's details for a reference, and when I called her to confirm she flipped out.

Also, in the past, I had a client who was very reliable, he was always on time like clockwork. I was out of town and referred him to a friend. He ended up screwing her around and didn't follow through. I found it surprising that someone who'd always been so reliable with me messed up so badly with a colleague. I've also had the reverse of this. A colleague referred one of her long standing clients to me and he cancelled at the very last minute (claiming he was nervous).

And one Domme's standards of what makes a client good may differ from someone else's.

Now, I take deposits 100% of the time (even from regulars I've seen for 7 years and they have no problem with this). So in my professional opinion, I think overall, references are pretty much redundant now days. But to each their own.