Classical phenomenological aspects of acoustic perturbations on a draining bathtub geometry where a surface with reflectivity R is set at a small distance from the would-be acoustic horizon, which is excised, are addressed. Like most exotic compact objects featuring an ergoregion but not a horizon, this model is prone to instabilities when |R| 2 ≈ 1. However, stability can be attained for sufficiently slow drains when |R| 2 70%. It is shown that the superradiant scattering of acoustic waves is more effective when their frequency approaches one of the system's quasi-normal mode frequencies.