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?