Paying for less than no hosting

Why would a business pay out good money for a web domain address and then have nothing at the other end? I came across a hotel the other day where the link just produces the generic "unable to find a server of that name" response and decided that as it is one where we intended to go to eat, I'd check a little further. Yes, the domain is registered, and to a company which obviously owns the hotel. However, this was not just a temporrary glitch. Yet the web site of the hotel is included in all their advertisements, in local newspapers, in regional tourist magazines and even on some general web sites of where to eat. So I asked. I was told by the manager that their designer was working on a new site and that their web site would be back in "a month or so". When I suggested that they were paying for the name anyway and that most registrars or site hosts would charge no extra to put up a "site under construction" page with, at least, their address and phone numbers, I got a blank stare and a kind of grunt which I took to mean "we'll find out about that". Most of the clients I host are in touch if their site is offline for even a few minutes. How can I find ones like this who don't mind if it is off line for months? As I write this another month has gone by and the site is still offline, and still being advertised.