Restaurants turn tables on no-shows with fees
INCONSIDERATE diners who book more than one restaurant a night to guarantee themselves a greater choice of where to eat are facing cancellation deposits.
One of Dublin’s top restaurants, the Michelin-starred L’Ecrivain, is being forced to charge customers a €50 fee due to the rising number of no-show diners on the busiest night of the week.
And one of An Taoiseach Leo Varadkar’s favourite restaurants, Heron & Grey in Blackrock, has a €30 per person booking fee for its 11-course menu – and will impose a €100 fee for each ‘no show’ guest.
Sally-Anne Clarke, proprietor of L’Ecrivain, said the Celtic Tiger phenomenon of customers booking several restaurants a night – leaving it until the last minute to decide which one to choose – has made a resurgence.
Due to the number of no-show bookings over Christmas, she and chef husband Derry Clarke decided to charge per customer on Saturday nights if they fail to show up.
But she said when they try to collect the fee from the credit card, they’ve found the customer has cancelled the cards or reported them lost or stolen.
She told the Irish Mail on Sunday. ‘We’re a destination [restaurant]; people generally don’t walk in off the street, so we’re reliant on our bookings, and if people can’t make it for a genuine reason we fully understand. But for them not to call and leave us with an empty table on the busiest night of the week? If it was a flight booked with Ryanair they would not get their money back.’
Sally-Anne says no-shows cost the business around €2,000 a week. And those who fail to appear may not get their five-star treatment if they try to book again. ‘Absolutely not,’ she insisted. ‘It’s the old story – fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me.’