Notifications & Reminders
The rising number of no-shows puts a lot of pressure on restaurant owners
trying to deal with this hot button issue. No shows have become the bane of restaurants’
lives, cutting already slender margins to the bone.
This is a worldwide problem and has a huge impact on smaller restaurants..
VANCOUVER - Chef and restaurateur Jefferson Alvarez remembers a night when Cacao
was fully booked, then half of the guests were no shows. When your restaurant has just
40 seats, those kinds of losses take a toll..“We buy what we sell,” Alvarez says. “I rely on
my reservations to see what I’m going to buy, what I’m going to make,” the chef explains.
However, when they don't show up, money is spent on food which is wasted, staff who
have less to do and fewer tips to bring home, and customers who may have really wanted
a table end up rolling the dice as walk-ins or opt to dine elsewhere.
SINGAPORE - Artichokes owner and chef Bjorn Shen also laments on the “wasted food”,
“wasted effort and money” and “over-rostered staff” that the restaurant saw “every week”.
“So many of my customers don’t get to eat at my restaurant because tables are
supposedly fully booked,” said Shen. “You’ll find us thanking people profusely when they
call (in advance) to cancel. People always wonder why.”
In the eight years that Artichoke has been open, he shared, the average rate of no-shows
and last-minute cancellations – diners who cancel their bookings within several hours –
has been a fairly consistent 20 per cent. “Some days, everyone does turn up, but other
days, up to 50 per cent don’t show up,” he said. Shen said that Artichoke had attempted
credit card pre-authorisation four years ago, but scrapped it after a few months because
they were losing business.
Upon hearing that credit card details were needed, customers would demur and not call
back. When asked if he would consider moving to a location with better foot traffic, he
sighed: “If the problem is human behaviour, why should we tango around it?”
But now he is trying it again.. asking for deposits on parties of 10 or more.
Shen stressed that the penalty fee does not cover the costs incurred when guests do not
show up. “Rent and staffing (costs) stay the same. We can’t send half our staff home and
say, ‘We’re not paying you for today’s work.’ We can’t recover the cost of the food we’ve prepared,”
And what if the situation still does not improve? “ Then, whatever. I’ve done my best. I tried,” said Shen
“The most significant comment was, ‘The people who would be upset about you setting
boundaries are the very people who were benefiting from you having none.''
(your regulars)
He acknowledges that the move is a “risk”... many restaurants don't want backlash from
negative Google or Tripadvisor reviews, let alone disgruntled customers going elsewhere.
“We have been sucking it up ever since. But I’m starting to realise, ‘Why should we pay for
other people’s indecision, especially now that it’s not just my livelihood on the line but
those of my 20 employees? It’s about time we did something.''
Shen predicts that with his new move, Artichoke will lose customers again, largely due to
negative sentiment. ''In any case, he added: “It can’t be worse than it is now.”
Wild Rocket’s chef-owner Willin Low is taking Shen’s side. “Good on him. It’s disgraceful
behaviour to make a booking and not turn up. The costs of running a restaurant are crazy
and to have to turn other guests away because a table is booked for no-show guests is
incredibly frustrating.” “We had a table of 20 guests on Christmas Eve not show up.
Twenty guests is 50 per cent of our revenue for a special menu that we won’t be able to
use for anyone else. When we called them, they refused to answer, so I called them from
my personal number. The reply was, ‘Oh, sorry, we can’t make it.’ Thereafter, we decided
to take credit card details.”
SAN FRANCISCO - Every night at her Eastern Mediterranean restaurant in the Mission,
Azhar Hashem plans for 10 percent of the people who have made reservations simply not
to show up. Most nights, she’s close to her expectation.
Like many of her peers, she often deals with last-minute cancellations and diners who
don’t honor their reservations. That can mean empty chairs in her 62-seat dining room, a
significant hit when it comes to the razor-thin profit margins of the restaurant industry.
“Especially for a place our size, a no-show means a missed opportunity to bring in another
guest to dine, which is important when the restaurant is so small,” Hashem said.
Over the years, technology has helped streamline the reservations process, with
companies like OpenTable and Resy that shifted the booking model from phone calls and
little black guest books to screen swipes and mouse clicks.
Yet an unintentional byproduct of this new efficiency is the prevalence of no-shows,
according to Bay Area restaurateurs.
“About 70 percent (of diners) are really great. They’ll call, even if it’s the last minute,” said
Gayle Pirie of Foreign Cinema. “Then there’s this 30 percent. They make multiple
reservations across the city as part of a strategy, then they just make a decision at the last
second and don’t notify the places they didn’t choose.
“It’s hard on the kitchen, hard on the clients,” she said. “Every day you look at the book
and you check the weather, trying to find some clues about potential no-shows. It really is
a day-to-day process. There is no formula.”
The National Restaurant Association encourages business owners to require credit card
confirmations to facilitate reservations, with the idea that a small cancellation fee will
reduce no-shows. But, that idea doesn't work well in the real world. It requires a delicate
balance. Tawla’s Hashem said cancellation fees can leave a bad impression on potential
diners; requiring a diner to input a credit card number may also dissuade them from even
making a reservation. “We apply it judiciously for groups of five or more since, it's hard to be
able to fill a table for a large group last minute,” Hashem said.
Since when did we become so careless of people’s livelihoods or frankly so selfish?
The digital age that we live in makes it easy to overbook and choose last minute.
It seems diner etiquette is no longer what it once was.
Pirie says..
“With the de-socialization of society, it’s completely easy for people to not worry about
no-showing. They don’t even want to cancel a reservation on the phone because they
don’t want to deal with a person. It’s society. Everybody is so isolated.”
NETHERLANDS - With winters that seem endlessly cold, rainy, and gray, spring is always
a welcome change in The Netherlands. Suddenly, we're all a bit less responsible and a bit
more impulsive. Nothing wrong with that, unless our new-found lust for life effectively
destroys someone else's day or evening. Jim de Jong, owner of Restaurant De Jong in
Rotterdam, aired his unhappiness about all of this in a post on Facebook, which prompted
a massive response from fellow restaurant owners who all agreed with him.
Here is his post (translated)
''Man, what a disgrace how people handle their reservations nowadays, cancelling when
they were supposed to be here, while laughing on the phone. People say, "I'm glad you
called; we can't make it!' Someone else, at 6 PM will say: "We can't make it! We're so
comfortable in the yard." It seems like people think a reservation is a concept and not a
real table which will stay empty when they don't show up. Does this happen only with us?
Or is it a common problem, people in the hospitality business?''
In over 60 comments, restaurant owners and managers—from cities like Rotterdam and
Amsterdam, and also from smaller towns—shared similar experiences. Pepijn Schmeink of
restaurant Dertien says he was verbally abused one recent Friday night by a man who
canceled a table for four only 15 minutes before he was supposed to show up. All
Schmeink did to deserve an earful was ask the man if he could have called sooner.
"We have paid our suppliers, done our shopping, hired the staff—all of that costs money
and we end up throwing away the food. On top of that, it's embarrassing to seat people
who reserved their spots weeks in advance to make sure they would be seated next to an
empty table on a Saturday night. It makes them think, "Why did I have to wait this long if
[the restaurant] isn't even fully booked?" Of course I understand that last-minute
cancellations happen. What I don't understand is the sloppiness and lack of respect that
goes along with it. People walk around thinking a restaurant table is somehow not a real
thing; they don't realize that an actual table will stay empty when they don't come, and
that the consequences for the restaurant can be devastating."
The commenters also discussed possible solutions ranging from calling guests the day
before to confirm their reservation to sending a text message to remind them, to more
drastic measures like sending a bill for a late cancellation, or starting a blacklist with
names of no-shows.
Natasja Postma, who tried to make a blacklist, says: "It's not very practical. As soon as
people call, you have to go through an entire list to make sure they are not on it. It's a
hassle." There aren't any mobile or desktop apps available to tackle this problem.
UNTIL NOW... AUTO REMIND - Does all the work so you don't have to!
This tool easily looks up instantly who's been loyal or not...
AND automatically sends multiple email and text reminders so you don't have to...
AND builds you a list that you can send special offers to...
AND is brain dead simple for all your employees to use.
The rising number of no-shows puts a lot of pressure on restaurant owners
trying to deal with this hot button issue. No shows have become the bane of restaurants’
lives, cutting already slender margins to the bone.
This is a worldwide problem and has a huge impact on smaller restaurants..
VANCOUVER - Chef and restaurateur Jefferson Alvarez remembers a night when Cacao
was fully booked, then half of the guests were no shows. When your restaurant has just
40 seats, those kinds of losses take a toll..“We buy what we sell,” Alvarez says. “I rely on
my reservations to see what I’m going to buy, what I’m going to make,” the chef explains.
However, when they don't show up, money is spent on food which is wasted, staff who
have less to do and fewer tips to bring home, and customers who may have really wanted
a table end up rolling the dice as walk-ins or opt to dine elsewhere.
SINGAPORE - Artichokes owner and chef Bjorn Shen also laments on the “wasted food”,
“wasted effort and money” and “over-rostered staff” that the restaurant saw “every week”.
“So many of my customers don’t get to eat at my restaurant because tables are
supposedly fully booked,” said Shen. “You’ll find us thanking people profusely when they
call (in advance) to cancel. People always wonder why.”
In the eight years that Artichoke has been open, he shared, the average rate of no-shows
and last-minute cancellations – diners who cancel their bookings within several hours –
has been a fairly consistent 20 per cent. “Some days, everyone does turn up, but other
days, up to 50 per cent don’t show up,” he said. Shen said that Artichoke had attempted
credit card pre-authorisation four years ago, but scrapped it after a few months because
they were losing business.
Upon hearing that credit card details were needed, customers would demur and not call
back. When asked if he would consider moving to a location with better foot traffic, he
sighed: “If the problem is human behaviour, why should we tango around it?”
But now he is trying it again.. asking for deposits on parties of 10 or more.
Shen stressed that the penalty fee does not cover the costs incurred when guests do not
show up. “Rent and staffing (costs) stay the same. We can’t send half our staff home and
say, ‘We’re not paying you for today’s work.’ We can’t recover the cost of the food we’ve prepared,”
And what if the situation still does not improve? “ Then, whatever. I’ve done my best. I tried,” said Shen
“The most significant comment was, ‘The people who would be upset about you setting
boundaries are the very people who were benefiting from you having none.''
(your regulars)
He acknowledges that the move is a “risk”... many restaurants don't want backlash from
negative Google or Tripadvisor reviews, let alone disgruntled customers going elsewhere.
“We have been sucking it up ever since. But I’m starting to realise, ‘Why should we pay for
other people’s indecision, especially now that it’s not just my livelihood on the line but
those of my 20 employees? It’s about time we did something.''
Shen predicts that with his new move, Artichoke will lose customers again, largely due to
negative sentiment. ''In any case, he added: “It can’t be worse than it is now.”
Wild Rocket’s chef-owner Willin Low is taking Shen’s side. “Good on him. It’s disgraceful
behaviour to make a booking and not turn up. The costs of running a restaurant are crazy
and to have to turn other guests away because a table is booked for no-show guests is
incredibly frustrating.” “We had a table of 20 guests on Christmas Eve not show up.
Twenty guests is 50 per cent of our revenue for a special menu that we won’t be able to
use for anyone else. When we called them, they refused to answer, so I called them from
my personal number. The reply was, ‘Oh, sorry, we can’t make it.’ Thereafter, we decided
to take credit card details.”
SAN FRANCISCO - Every night at her Eastern Mediterranean restaurant in the Mission,
Azhar Hashem plans for 10 percent of the people who have made reservations simply not
to show up. Most nights, she’s close to her expectation.
Like many of her peers, she often deals with last-minute cancellations and diners who
don’t honor their reservations. That can mean empty chairs in her 62-seat dining room, a
significant hit when it comes to the razor-thin profit margins of the restaurant industry.
“Especially for a place our size, a no-show means a missed opportunity to bring in another
guest to dine, which is important when the restaurant is so small,” Hashem said.
Over the years, technology has helped streamline the reservations process, with
companies like OpenTable and Resy that shifted the booking model from phone calls and
little black guest books to screen swipes and mouse clicks.
Yet an unintentional byproduct of this new efficiency is the prevalence of no-shows,
according to Bay Area restaurateurs.
“About 70 percent (of diners) are really great. They’ll call, even if it’s the last minute,” said
Gayle Pirie of Foreign Cinema. “Then there’s this 30 percent. They make multiple
reservations across the city as part of a strategy, then they just make a decision at the last
second and don’t notify the places they didn’t choose.
“It’s hard on the kitchen, hard on the clients,” she said. “Every day you look at the book
and you check the weather, trying to find some clues about potential no-shows. It really is
a day-to-day process. There is no formula.”
The National Restaurant Association encourages business owners to require credit card
confirmations to facilitate reservations, with the idea that a small cancellation fee will
reduce no-shows. But, that idea doesn't work well in the real world. It requires a delicate
balance. Tawla’s Hashem said cancellation fees can leave a bad impression on potential
diners; requiring a diner to input a credit card number may also dissuade them from even
making a reservation. “We apply it judiciously for groups of five or more since, it's hard to be
able to fill a table for a large group last minute,” Hashem said.
Since when did we become so careless of people’s livelihoods or frankly so selfish?
The digital age that we live in makes it easy to overbook and choose last minute.
It seems diner etiquette is no longer what it once was.
Pirie says..
“With the de-socialization of society, it’s completely easy for people to not worry about
no-showing. They don’t even want to cancel a reservation on the phone because they
don’t want to deal with a person. It’s society. Everybody is so isolated.”
NETHERLANDS - With winters that seem endlessly cold, rainy, and gray, spring is always
a welcome change in The Netherlands. Suddenly, we're all a bit less responsible and a bit
more impulsive. Nothing wrong with that, unless our new-found lust for life effectively
destroys someone else's day or evening. Jim de Jong, owner of Restaurant De Jong in
Rotterdam, aired his unhappiness about all of this in a post on Facebook, which prompted
a massive response from fellow restaurant owners who all agreed with him.
Here is his post (translated)
''Man, what a disgrace how people handle their reservations nowadays, cancelling when
they were supposed to be here, while laughing on the phone. People say, "I'm glad you
called; we can't make it!' Someone else, at 6 PM will say: "We can't make it! We're so
comfortable in the yard." It seems like people think a reservation is a concept and not a
real table which will stay empty when they don't show up. Does this happen only with us?
Or is it a common problem, people in the hospitality business?''
In over 60 comments, restaurant owners and managers—from cities like Rotterdam and
Amsterdam, and also from smaller towns—shared similar experiences. Pepijn Schmeink of
restaurant Dertien says he was verbally abused one recent Friday night by a man who
canceled a table for four only 15 minutes before he was supposed to show up. All
Schmeink did to deserve an earful was ask the man if he could have called sooner.
"We have paid our suppliers, done our shopping, hired the staff—all of that costs money
and we end up throwing away the food. On top of that, it's embarrassing to seat people
who reserved their spots weeks in advance to make sure they would be seated next to an
empty table on a Saturday night. It makes them think, "Why did I have to wait this long if
[the restaurant] isn't even fully booked?" Of course I understand that last-minute
cancellations happen. What I don't understand is the sloppiness and lack of respect that
goes along with it. People walk around thinking a restaurant table is somehow not a real
thing; they don't realize that an actual table will stay empty when they don't come, and
that the consequences for the restaurant can be devastating."
The commenters also discussed possible solutions ranging from calling guests the day
before to confirm their reservation to sending a text message to remind them, to more
drastic measures like sending a bill for a late cancellation, or starting a blacklist with
names of no-shows.
Natasja Postma, who tried to make a blacklist, says: "It's not very practical. As soon as
people call, you have to go through an entire list to make sure they are not on it. It's a
hassle." There aren't any mobile or desktop apps available to tackle this problem.
UNTIL NOW... AUTO REMIND - Does all the work so you don't have to!
This tool easily looks up instantly who's been loyal or not...
AND automatically sends multiple email and text reminders so you don't have to...
AND builds you a list that you can send special offers to...
AND is brain dead simple for all your employees to use.