Just a thought.

I noticed that this is for NON HHonors members?

Guess is that they can track cancellations by HHonors members and should a member 'abuse' the system, the membership can be revoked.

So.. Rooms are priced based on demand so more empty rooms, cheaper rates. This means if I intend to disrupt a hotel, I could fake a few bookings and cancel them later. Impact would be while I held the inventory under a few bogus reservations which I never intend to honor, the rate of that property goes up for those days in comparison to the neighboring properties making it less attractive. Fine if the rooms ended up consumed but disastrous if the property lost the original bookings and other subsequent potentials due to the increased rates. How bad is this, only the property and HHonors knows but apparently significant enough to merit them trying something.