oh for sure. People do it with hotels as well. One of the most common ones is to make a booking on booking.com and then never turn up or simply cancel the booking after you confirm it - they have an option to pay at the location so no money changes hands. You don't pay for the room in advance.
I've always thought it was a bit authoritarian for immigration to demand to know EXACTLY where you are staying for your entire trip before they will let you in. When I first started backpacking I would turn up in a city and not yet know where I was going to stay and that was part of the fun. In most places, you can't really do that anymore.