Restaurant cancellation policies are getting (more) ridiculous...

[adidan]

Probably started, like was said, during the 'vid hayday when people would book multiple places and sack several off

That along with the dine and dash, it seems, 'craze' then I have no problem with it.

Would I go to a place that did this? Nope.

Then again I find eating out a disagreeable venture generally.

 

[mattyg]

I wish them luck making this stick if you raised a section 75 against them, with no service provided and no signed contract.

48h is total nonsense, maybe if you cancelled within 2 hours of your booking, and a reduced rate up to 6 hours. Perhaps they should give you a guarantee of how long your food will be from the time you order it, and if it is late they give you a 5% discount for the full table per 5 minutes. I means fair is fair right, what if you are late for your next pre-booked event due to them being slow, and you lose a deposit?

Youve booked a table, Not a kitchen slot.

However, Having been in the restaurant game for a while now. No shows really mess things up. Yeah if you can fill the slot.. But how long do you give a no show. 10 mins, 20 mins. an empty table is costing the business money.

Its a horrible situation from both sides. But if your going to dine there then whats the harm in paying a bit up front?

Restaurant margins are really really tight.
Since we opened one of ours 5 years ago. Our wage bill is 30% higher. Our turnover is 35% down this year alone. Energy bills have skyrocketed. I'm amazed many independent sites are still able to trade.

 

[Journey]

Its a horrible situation from both sides. But if your going to dine there then whats the harm in paying a bit up front?

I suggested a compromise, 48 hours is total nonsense, if I book for Friday night at 19:00, and something happens on Wednesday night meaning If have to work Friday night then I lose £100-200, they can get lost with that nonsense.

As mentioned by someone earlier, I just won't book with anyone that has this backwards booking system and spend my money elsewhere, so they lose out.

Our wage bill is 30% higher.

So is everyone's, it's called inflation and NLW.

 

[Scam]

The charge should be reasonable though and reflect the food/drink cost savings the restaurant will make by you not turning up

Indeed. If anyone wants to do the maths for this particular example, our totally bill was £350 and I’d say about £160 of that was drink (predominantly wine). So that leaves £190. Yet if we didn’t turn up they’d get £200, and possibly fill the table as well.

I dunno. It is tricky and I hate to see restaurants suffer. And we did have a good night. I just feel that they put as many people off with such huge penalties, as they might for those that don’t turn up.

Edit: And besides it should be more of a deterrent than something to protect their costs. A £20pp charge or something (more common) is enough if a deterrent to (I’d imagine) stop 99% of people simply not turning up?

 

[R.C.Anderson]

IMO £50/head is a bit high for most places, but I'm not against the idea generally.

I think a fairer way for all, would be something like £20/head 48 hours before, £50/head 24 hours before. This means if you cancel well enough in advance, then they can still cover some costs, even if they can't re-fill the table (but because of the timeframe, they're likely to, but still a gamble), but if it's known to be popular, I'm not sure how many people would even try to book less than 24 hours in advance as they'd just think "it's always full 2 weeks in advance, we'll have to go somewhere else" (or at least that's how I would be).

As long as it's not a minimum spend type thing, I don't really have an issue whatever the amount is. If I book, I plan to go & there's got to be something fairly serious to change that.

 

[Scam]

If I book, I plan to go & there's got to be something fairly serious to change that.

But that’s the point isn’t it. If something serious (ish) comes up, like one of your party falls sick and can’t come. Why should you be punished so harshly? Again it comes down to whether or not they are covering their costs or profiteering.

We’re off this week and driving out to a town in Sussex today. There’s a lovely vineyard and restaurant 10min drive out of the town so we’re booked in BC or dinner tomorrow. That’s a £45pp cancellation policy. I kinda get it more as they’re unlikely to have walk-ins, but it still feels a lot.

I still think a fairer way would be if you only get charged if you cancel <4-6hrs before or something. That way if someone wakes up sick or you have an emergency on the day, you can still cancel. Then the service knows that table is free before they’ve even started the evening and can reorganise.

I dunno. It’s tricky.

 

[R.C.Anderson]

I go with the mantra of "if it's so bad I can't go, I don't really care about the fee"

Sure, it's a shame to get charged when you're not using the service, but the business needs to ensure they're covering their costs. They've still bought all the ingredients for an expected number of tables, so they still need to cover this etc.

If you book a holiday, flight, train etc etc & don't turn up (even because you're ill etc), you don't get a refund. Sure, you might have travel insurance that might cover it, but I'd guess some travel insurance polocies would cover resturant fees too if you're unable to make the booking for a suitable reason, might just need to pay for a more expensive policy and/or had a chunk of excess taken out of the claim.

 

[Moobert]

Turn up
Buy sharing starter
Ask for bill
.....
Profit

 

[Haggisman]

That way if someone wakes up sick or you have an emergency on the day, you can still cancel.

Wonder if they'd turn you away if you arrived with a bucket, and sat there puking the whole time?

I can't imagine they'd particularly want you there ruining the atmosphere for everyone else, but I can't see how they could justify keeping your deposit, since you've turned up as agreed.

 

[Scam]

So here we go guys. Booked a place for Tuesday to have a casual dinner with two of my buddies. One of them has come down sick (he has a little kid who’s a germ distributor) so is bailing out. Restaurant took my credit card details, but if I go to modify reservation it just takes me to the booking page for which there are now no tables for two on that evening. The 48hrs notice is 7pm tonight, so would you cancel and bail? Or risk turning up with two? Or maybe try calling them to let them know tomorrow there’s only two? They’d be hard pushed to charge us £25 because one of us didn’t turn up. In fact it only mentions cancellations in the terms;

Cancellation Policy
Should your plans change, we kindly ask for a minimum of 48 hours' notice in advance of your reservation date. Cancellations made after this time, or failure to provide notice that you are unable to make your reservation will result in a penalty of £25 per person and any pre-orders being non-refundable. Kindly note that the cancellation terms may differ for large groups or events.

 

[Craig_d1]

They'll only be doing it because people not turning up is costing them a lot of money, and running a restaurant is now already hard enough.

that means they're not confident filling the seats...so if they think a no show means an empty table because they can't fill it from walk ins, why pay for a booking. just turn up and sit down or find another restaurant