Restaurant no-show — be prepared to pay the cost
An empty seat at a restaurant table is the last thing small venues say they can handle.
In a bid to halt sly diners who either don’t show up or cancel their booking last minute, some hospitality operators are turning the tables by taking credit card details and charging for no-shows.
And hospitality bosses say diners should probably get used to it, as people did long ago when it came to being charged for accommodation whether they showed up or not.
Thyme Square restaurant on Hamilton’s Grey St has moved to requiring customers’ credit card details when bookings were made. The charge for bookings left empty or cancelled last minute was $35 a head.
Having fully booked evenings wiped by cancellations had been depleting for owner, Logan Murray, and it got to the point where it just wasn’t viable for the business.
’’[The $35] is a true reflection of how much that seat costs us before we have even taken an order,’’ Murray said.
’’I just found myself too regularly coming in in the morning with a full restaurant . . . (but) people would cancel throughout the day. We’re only 30 seats, every seat matters for us.’’
He asked customers via social media what they thought of the move first. They backed him fully, he said and once customers are seated, the credit payment is no longer needed.
‘‘People, instead of cancelling just cold turkey, are rescheduling, they’re more mindful.’’
Cambridge’s Alpha Street Kitchen & Bar has introduced a $25 bond.
Owner and operator, Richard Levings says they’ve had no choice after an overwhelming amount of cancellations recently.
The fee will look to lessen the risk of being ‘overstaffed and out of pocket.’
‘‘Over the period of one month we had
. . . over 170 people either cancel last minute or not show up to their booking at all,’’ Levings said. ’’One Thursday night we were fully booked in the restaurant, in the space of an hour before service started we had 34 cancellations.’’
Covid-19 had been a stressful time and Murray said they were still pushing through. But he was worried too many people were using the virus as an excuse when pulling out of bookings. He would be paying for the effects of the pandemic for a while yet, Murray said.
Hospitality New Zealand Chief Executive Julie White, said that there is an increasing trend of restaurants requiring a deposit from diners upon booking.
‘‘I know that it has caused problems when groups don’t show up and more restaurants are doing similar things . . . This sort of deposit is not unusual in other sectors, look at accommodation for instance.’’
White said that ultimately her organisation left it up to members how to approach the issue.
In the past the association’s members have better been able to ‘‘backfill’’ tables with walk-in diners, but this is no longer the case, White said.
Sly diners have been known to ‘‘book a couple of venues in advance and decide on the day which one they will go to,’’ White says. This trend is particularly noticeable amongst people who book holiday packages on travel websites which include restaurant reservations, and then book a different restaurant to dine at regardless.
Levings says credit card pre-authorisation for all bookings could be adopted by other businesses over time but so far he hasn’t had to charge any patrons.
‘‘I think it will be normalised . . . it seems to be heading that way.’’
After battling through two years of pandemic restrictions, some hospitality venues have struggled to get back up.
The Madam Woo restaurant chain, founded by celebrity chef Josh Emett and restaurateur Fleur Caulton, had been put into voluntary administration.
The chain was part of hospitality group, Go To Collection.
Administrators from PwC were brought on by the company’s directors earlier this month.
‘‘The company has experienced a difficult period due to the impact of Covid19, especially the extreme shortage of staff,’’ PwC administrator Malcolm Hollis said at the time.
The hospitality group operates the Rata, Madam Woo and Hawker & Roll restaurants in Queenstown, Auckland, Hamilton and Tauranga and employs more than 100 staff.
The chain had a Madam Woo restaurant in Hamilton, but Hollis says that branch was unlikely to close anytime soon and ‘‘was running really well.’’