Originally Posted by
opushomes
At the Saturday night dinner for SinDo 2010, eleven people did not show up. It turned out that all were experienced DO attendees yet not one of them called, PM'ed or emailed with regrets. As a result a table was held for 1.25 hours for them on the busiest night of the week at the busiest hour for a restaurant in Singapore.
Were these people you knew personally? I suspect it's easier for people to bail when they don't know the host. But I agree with you...unconscionable and you're doing the right thing by cracking down.
Originally Posted by Sweet Willie
I'd like to see a credit card commitment for reservations. While sure there are some true mishaps that cause someone to completely miss a reservation, I think I'm very safe in assuming that the majority of missed reservations are due to people's selfish or forgetful nature.
Knowing you'll be dinged for a no-show will change some (most?) people's bad behavior.
As far as stopping some diners from booking, if the restaurant is producing quality food and has the demand, the restaurant will do fine regardless if some diners won't book due to a credit card ding for not showing up.
If it meant that reservations were easier to procure, I'd be all for it. My only concern with giving a credit card when making the reservation is the cancellation policy. If I can still cancel with no penalty 24 hours in advance, that's fine.