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

Scam

Scam

Scam

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I've booked a dinner with a work colleague for this coming week, and dinner out with some friends on Saturday. One in the West End, one out east London. Both places demanded a credit card to book (which I hate, but I've gotten over now..) but to my disbelief both places charge £50 per person if you don't cancel 48hrs before. This is bonkers, right? :confused: Have we all lost the plot? I'm sure we'd spend probably a little more than £50/head, but surely it's a bit extreme for a restaurant to be charging the same as what they'd expect you to pay there for a meal, when they'd probably fill the table with walk-ins anyway :confused:

Is this just a London thing?
 
m@rty said:
Seems a bit more common these days in the pricier places, had a few that require a deposit per person also!
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I get that if you're paying Michelin starred prices with a bill that'd end up being >£100/head, but these are pretty informal casual places. I'm expecting the bill to be around £50-75pp depending on what we drink. Seems a bit mad!
 
Didn't this start up a couple of years ago when the willy wavers were booking everything (probably for tickgram) and not turning up.

We've made sure 100% that nothing within our control could spoil a booking before doing so.
 
Some bars will ask for quite a high deposit if you want a reserved area.

It's quite a new thing, due to the losses they make by turning away other customers.
 
Scam said:
I've booked a dinner with a work colleague for this coming week, and dinner out with some friends on Saturday. One in the West End, one out east London. Both places demanded a credit card to book (which I hate, but I've gotten over now..) but to my disbelief both places charge £50 per person if you don't cancel 48hrs before. This is bonkers, right? :confused: Have we all lost the plot? I'm sure we'd spend probably a little more than £50/head, but surely it's a bit extreme for a restaurant to be charging the same as what they'd expect you to pay there for a meal, when they'd probably fill the table with walk-ins anyway :confused:

Is this just a London thing?
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Just to clarify they charge £50 but then take that off the cost of the meal? I don't get the "if you don't cancel 48 hours before" bit.
 
so you give them your card details before you even arrive...
No thanks.

What if they cancel? do they give you a 100 refund?



It's reaching the point where it's easier to just hire a chef to come your house and cook for you.
probably cheaper too
 
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Seems vaguely sensible. If the average spend is £50 per head and you've booked a table based on that then they're expecting that spend so if you don't turn up then they've not lost out.

Hospitality is basically on its arse these days so they need to ensure people are making them money if they've said they will.
 
aVdub said:
Didn't this start up a couple of years ago when the willy wavers were booking everything (probably for tickgram) and not turning up.

We've made sure 100% that nothing within our control could spoil a booking before doing so.
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It was to do with bots booking up the sought after restaurants and then people not turning up for their booking.

tom_e said:
Seems vaguely sensible. If the average spend is £50 per head and you've booked a table based on that then they're expecting that spend so if you don't turn up then they've not lost out.

Hospitality is basically on its arse these days so they need to ensure people are making them money if they've said they will.
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On the face of it it does seem vaguely sensible to stop people wasting time and causing the restaurant a loss, but could also be seen as profiteering if the restaurant is able to fill those seats easily - it wouldn't be right that they then charge the card as they've not lost out so to speak.

We ate somewhere recently that required a booking deposit, but that was £5 per head which is a token amount in the grand scheme of things.
 
tom_e said:
so if you don't turn up then they've not lost out.
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As @Semple said it’s profiteering really. These are restaurants that’ll easily fill that table - so they’re likely to get say for a table of two your £100 no-show fee plus another £100+ from the couple that fill it. Sure, they’re not guaranteed to fill it but the no-show fee should cover their costs not their expected income from that table.

I know it’s horrible for hospitality at the moment but it does seem excessive. It probably puts a lot of people off as well. I’d never book a place like that for a business lunch— everybody’s schedules change all the time and could cancel last minute. How would I explain to my boss that I’m putting in £100 of expenses for a lunch I never had :p So I can never go to those places. (NB: I don’t do that sort of thing often, but still)

There’s a foodie guy I follow on Instagram that booked some trendy new restaurant for 4 people. They had a £30pp fee for no-shows. His friend couldn’t make it last minute so they turned up as a party of 3. Got the bill and the restaurant charged them the £30 for their friend not turning up. Nuts.
 
Scam said:
There’s a foodie guy I follow on Instagram that booked some trendy new restaurant for 4 people. They had a £30pp fee for no-shows. His friend couldn’t make it last minute so they turned up as a party of 3. Got the bill and the restaurant charged them the £30 for their friend not turning up. Nuts.
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Yeah that sort of stuff needs clamping down on (or cancelled as the kids these days say). If you booked a table for 4 and 3 turned up it's not like they could use the seat - just as they wouldn't refuse to seat a 3-person party as a walk-in.

Bit different if you'd booked a table for 10 and only 3 showed up!

I'm not actually sure they'd have a legal leg to stand on with the 3 person party and charging for a single no-show.
 
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I'm all for no show fees it if it helps keep restaurants afloat in a very tough market - we're used to paying for everything else upfront so why should food be different? Do you go to the cinema or the football and withhold payment if you didn't enjoy it?
 
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It’s fair enough.

Too many flakes booking restaurants months in advance then cancelling.

Makes it worse for the restaurant and those who actually want to go.

When you do attend the £50 pp you spend will act like a voucher.

I don’t see the problem here.
 
I'm not adverse to that. If the restaurants decent then fair enough. No point in them going bust. Decent retaurants are hard to come by in my neck of the woods. Paying a deposit for a table in 5 guys though......
 
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