[EwanToo]

The oddity of the situation is that the longer you register a domain for, the more likely you are to forget about it's renewal..

However, most big companies use someone like Netnames, MarkMonitor, etc, who simply wouldn't let a domain drop, even if nobody asked them to renew it - instead they'll renew it themselves, keep it active, and simply add it to the next invoice.

[kijin]

Even so, it seems unnecessarily risky for MarkMonitor et al. to renew their customers' domains one year at a time, often at the last minute, instead of keeping a comfortable buffer of two or more years.