Reservation No-Shows

All of us in business lose money when customers don't show. It's also why all of us in the service industry take the time and effort to pay employee's to call and confirm these appointment's or  reservations. There is much talk amongst our industry specifically, about how to handle taking reservations. Recently, an article for the National Restaurant Association highlighted some of those ideas. Some idea's range from not taking reservations at all or on a very limited basis, purposeful overbooking, or even public shaming thru social media (cringe)!

But, some of the more popular ideas have been deposits via credit card or even pre-paid ticketing to hold a reservation. While we are a long-way from pre-paid ticketing, we have used the deposit system on larger parties (5 or more) for our busier holiday's. Ray has asked us to institute this policy on many more occasion's for ALL reservations. But, since Jim and I make the decisions around here you won't see this happening any time soon

While it does seem crazy and it does make a lot more work for us, there is some serious discussion about it. It's fair to say cancellations and no-show's are a problem in, not only our industry, but service industry as a whole. We know we are not in a large city like Chicago and we don't have millions of people knocking down our door's, but nonetheless it is still a real issue facing our industry.

Ultimately, reservations are a service that we offer for FREE. We try our absolute best to hold our commitment to you and we feel we do a great job at honoring that commitment. When we aren't on time for you, nobody feel's worse (trust us)!

Restaurant's and other businesses involved in service just ask that you do the same. If your party goes from a 20 to a 14, one phone call can go a long way. It sometimes means saving a table or TWO which in turn stops a restaurant from turning walk-in business or other reservation requests away. Even if a party might go from 8 to 9 it can sometimes be the difference between using 1 table or requiring a need for a 2nd, which can dramatically change the game plan! When customer's call to cancel they almost always seem embarrassed, but you should NEVER be. We appreciate and are very thankful for those calls. You are actually doing US a service by placing that phone call. No-shows are a major NO-NO!