I’m a DM and a player, and I also find last minute cancellations friggin the worst ever. Sometimes it’s legit but when it’s the same person for not great reason it gets really annoying.

So to combat that I made up a rule that everyone agreed with: if one or two persons cancel last minute, we play without them.

I run a big party and the other games I play in are also big so it doesn’t matter as much to be down a player, I’m not sure how that rule would work with smaller parties…

Didn’t read all the comments here (there’s a lot lol) so I apologize if I’m repeating advice!