Non arrival of WWoofers

Funny thing is, this is the first year we've had any "no - shows".
Usually, if they've confirmed well in advance I email a month before, and act according to their reply. If it's a general enquiry I make it clear we're only regarding it as a tentative booking until they give me a definite, positive date they expect to arrive.
I wonder if we maybe need a firmer, clearer directive on the site for prospective WWOOFers, indicating that they are acting selfishly, in that other WWOOFers may be rejected because there appears to be no room for them.
Is there a possibility that some are booking themselves in to more than one farm at once, then seeing which way the fancy takes them?

Me too! Sounds possible that some may be 'playing the field'! It is a problem for other wwoofers too indeed, especially as say, for the likes of here its nice for there to be a few wwoofers here for company in the 'wilderness' as well as for projects that can be done. hmmmmmmmm hard to know, cos i've had 'definites' too who just haven't turned up and I have talked to a few other hosts who had the same experience this year. Head scratching stuff

Its good to get the feedback that there has been this problem for hosts!  What we would encourage you to do is to let us know - after all, we don't know if they have just disappeared off the face of the earth or not really!  And it IS very irritating, has happened to me only once this year, but I was able to trace them and it was a misunderstanding because of language. So if any don't appear in the future, or you have any other concerns, just send in a note to us on the 'contact' button and we will always do what we can.
Thanks for using the forum! - Annie

Thank you for taking part in this discussion, it really seems that communication and courtesy is the key to all this from both sides, and I hope that this exchange between WWOOFers and hosts will help to increase both!
Annie, WWOOF Ireland team

Hi everybody! and a happy new year to you all!
Well-it's starting quite miserably.
We've read Jo's comment and wondered what's happening,but now 2 of our
supposed to be wwoofers haven't shown with no explanation whatsoever.
Since most of the wwoofers are quite young,travelling in a foreign country
we were quite worried.
We try to reply to every enquiry we're getting,but it can take up to two weeks,
depending on the work load we're having.
I find it really annoying if wwoofers don't show up.First of all they're letting us down and secondly they rob other potential wwoofers of the space they'd have taken.This January is the first time it happened to us and,if it should happen more often,we'll have to rethink taking wwoofers inn.
Jo-I wonder if our problem is/was caused by the same wwoofers?
Let's hope,it won't happen again this year.

Hi Peter,
the problem you mentioned,I find,is only with wwoofers that send multi E-mails to
a lot of farms.
I reply to wwoofers that mention our names,the name of the farm and show a genuine interest in our work.
When we started,we took in everybody who applied,but after four years we changed our tune a bit.We tell interested parties about the bad sides of the work,and since then,fingers crossed,ended up with brilliant wwoofers.
We like to make sure that they'll fit in and after being told about the bad bits
only the determend ones usually come.
We had around 15 wwoofers last year and apart from one they all fitted in nicely.
We still got friends who started as wwoofers during the first two years coming back as friends.
I know a lot of hosts will disagree with me,but you'll have to be cruel to be kind.