In July 2021, almost one-in-five (19%) Brits admitted to failing to arrive for a restaurant reservation, according to research from TheFork*. While missing a booking can be an honest mistake, many no-shows simply choose not to cancel a reservation that they know they won’t attend, and it's the restaurant that pays.
No-shows have tangible effects on businesses, such as lower sales, food losses, and disrupted services – not to mention the loss for staff that turn away customers only to face empty tables.
Below are four solutions to counter this increasingly recurring and costly phenomenon for restaurateurs.
Communicating the consequences of no-shows
Truthfully, many customers don’t necessarily understand that their absence impacts restaurants in the ways listed above. It is up to restaurant owners to ensure that customers are aware of the effects.
Confirmation emails and websites are some tools available to restaurant owners. For example, if a customer calls for a reservation, it may be appropriate to politely remind them of the restaurant’s cancellation policy, and the consequences of not adhering to the procedure outlined.
Overbooking
As a general rule, restaurants tend to operate at a 5-10% margin on overbooking. A simple glance at previous cancelled reservations and no-shows per service can help you evaluate where within that margin you can place your business. However, it’s worth taking into account the restaurant location and night of the week.
Depending on whether you’re based somewhere with high-spending tourists, or in a rural area that has less traffic, and whether it’s earlier in the week, when fewer people go out for dinner, you may choose to adjust how much of a risk you take with overbooking.
Automatic reminders
To help those that do simply forget about their reservations, consider implementing automated reminders via SMS or email. This can be facilitated through online reservation tools such as OpenTable or SevenRooms, allowing both customers and restaurant owners to schedule push notifications at a time of their choosing.
This simple step can significantly reduce the number of no-shows, and by integrating an online reservation tool like OpenTable with Lightspeed’s restaurant software**, business owners can also schedule the sending of these messages in bulk. By synchronising the two software programmes, reservation statuses are automatically updated.
Bank imprint and prepayment
Another solution that’s becoming more frequent is taking a bank imprint or prepayment when making a reservation.
In simpler terms, it is possible to configure online reservation tools so that they ask for a credit card number at the time of reservation, which serves as a deposit in case customers don’t honour their booking. In place of a deposit, restaurateurs can also request partial payment or prepayment of the bill ahead of the reservation being fulfilled.
The range of digital tools available to restaurant owners acts as a safeguard against no-shows and, better still, helps staff build a connection with those that do honour their reservations.
