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

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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? 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

Is this just a London thing?

 

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Seems a bit more common these days in the pricier places, had a few that require a deposit per person also!

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!

 

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I think what he's saying is if you cancel with less than 48h notice, they'll charge £50pp to the card you had to give during booking.

Correct.

 

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so if you don't turn up then they've not lost out.

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 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.

 

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Imagine you own a restaurant, and then you get never ending **** heads that book tables and don't turn up... Empty restaurant = no income... Don't blame them at all

Well as @cheesefest says why not let people cancel for free - and charge those that just don’t turn up. This policy of having to cancel 48hrs in advance or you get charged is silly. A lot can happen in 48hrs, people can get sick, you might have to work late etc. Of you’re a group of 4 it’s even more likely that something could happen. That’s life.

If you just don’t turn up, fine get charged. But if you actually bother to cancel then it should be ok imo.

Heck if you cancel 2hrs before that’d help the restaurant massively with filling the table with walk-ins. They can plan other sittings etc.

And like I said, i don’t mind the idea of a charge to cover costs - but charging almost what a punter would have paid is excessive and off putting.

 

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but theres little incentive for him to stop, its paying entirely for his university fees and accommodation.

So would dealing crack, is he going to do that next?

Ticket scalpers would be first against the wall as far as I'm concerned.

 

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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?

 

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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.