Im just confused about something...

So and the wife are new to this, we've just been using a few apps to find people. We were talking to a single female not too far from us in a city we are visiting. Everything was going well and we started planning for her and my wife to go out for drinks tonight. She sent us a photo, we complimented her and told her we would rather meet in person before trading photos for our own privacy. She said this was fine. We decided I would just buy some alcohol and host in our hotel room for everyone's convenience. She was super down she said. Then as we started finalizing our plans and i asked when she was gonna head over, ghosted... It's odd because she was so interested in both of us and us in her. Last thing she said was that she would be down to come to the hotel and share a bottle. The only thing I'm wondering is, what the hell would someone get from this? Why jump through hoops and carry a convo all day leading to a meet up, and then just ghost at the last minute. At a loss and a little disappointed. Are there red flags to look for that can help me see that someone is just wasting my time. Whats the point of this? Are they just trying to ruin someones night?Do people do this often? We are okay with not finding a unicorn, it isn't our main fantasy. But this just seemed kinda cruel. They just led us on so hard.