The AMEX Fine Dining reservations require a guarantee with an AmEx card. IIRC the no show charge had been $60 per person, $120 minimum per table, but this may have increased since I last booked a table through the program. However, I suspect that the OP's restaurant is not of this caliber.

In Chicago everyone is overly-entitled and thinks nothing of making plans and just not showing up. If I owned a restaurant I'd be sick of it too.

This is standard practice in my part of the world for any decent restaurant on special dates (christmas eve, new year eve, valentine's day, etc). No credit card no reservation. Some places take it over the phone, others you need to email or fax it to them.

Fortunately for me, the missus doesn't like paying inflated "special occasion" prices so we never give in.

Not uncommon with high end restaurants.

It's increasingly standard now in San Francisco - the last three reservations I have made have all required credit cards. Fortunately not yet in London.

I always do this via Open Table which I would hope has decent DSS. I would be amazed if any restaurant taking credit cards over the phone would meet their contractual PCI-DSS, unless they have the discipline to enter it into their POS, which I suspect that they don't. I'd love to see such places' ability to take cards withdrawn.

It's interesting: they didn't *exactly* say it in those terms, but my assumption is they'd charge the card for a no-show.

It seems to me the best defense against this would be to run all reservations through Open Table. That site won't let a user book more than 1 table for a given time. That feature by itself probably knocks down 90% of the double-/triple-booking. The 10% who would still do it with multiple accounts...probably not worth a ton of energy to try to stop them anyway.

I suppose a gift card with almost no money on it would be what I'd try if I really wanted the table. I just don't happen to have one of those, nor do I ever want to handle gift cards at all. All this hassle to do something I used to be able to easily do: book a damn table at a restaurant.

Me too: I'm more okay with it through Open Table. If I need to cancel, it's one click. The phone call to reserve would also be another phone call to cancel. It's like they're the cable company or something...

No unusual demand that I'm aware of. Kansas City in the summer: worst possible place I can think of for a huge convention. Unless maybe it's a hot yoga convention... @:-) Perfect weather for that.

I googled but can't find the list for that program. Not sure how it maps up against Forbes or other lists. My guess is that no, it isn't there, although it may aspire to be.

+1. This is the norm here for many restaurants. We too avoid them, in part because of the prices but mainly because if I go to a true fine dining restaurant, the last thing I want is to have to pick from the chicken or fish they're mass-producing for the event. I want the full menu and regular service. We often have a nice Valentine's dinner at a restaurant...on about February 10th.

LOLing at the idea of faxing anything to anyone in 2016.

In that case, I could see running everything through Opentable and requiring cards. I don't like it, but I could live with it.

My dad always used to give the card number but get one digit wrong intentionally.

If they are entering it in a computer, it won't work because the computer verifies that the card number can be valid (there's an algorithm by which credit card numbers are generated - it's not random).

In any case, I wouldn't think twice about it (especially if I intended to go). On the off chance that someone steals the number and buys a TV, you wouldn't be responsible.

Yeah, I guess it really isn't too much financial risk - especially if I use Amex, which I trust to handle a dispute quickly and fairly.

As I think about it, perhaps part of it is principle. I've booked restaurants forever without giving them CC information in advance. It feels like a new development, and one that does not benefit the consumer. It also smacks a bit of arrogance...as if their tables are so in demand that I won't hesitate to participate in this irregular practice to get one.

I wanted to say "Tell you what, you guys earn your first Michelin star, and I'll be back with a credit card." But that would have been just a tad bit on the snarky side...

It isn't this, it's all the places you need to change your CC#.

Aside from specialty restaurants - a limited single seating prix fixe dining experience for example - any restaurant demanding a credit card for a table reservation is either totally full of itself or failing so badly that they don't want to staff up unless patronage is certain.
And what are they going to do if you no show? Charge you for one of everything?
Btw, do you enjoy handing your card over at the end of the meal and watching it walk out of sight?
I pester every restaurant about getting those portable readers they have in Europe.

Although the security issues are valid, greedy people who were making multiple reservations for the same date and time (in order to be able to pick which one to use) are to blame.

That is why we will see more and more popular places moving to a Tock like system of selling nonrefundable tickes.

If some restaurants want to impose a no-show charge or sell non-refundable tickets in advance that is fine with me -- but my 8:00 pm Saturday night table had better be ready for me at 8:00 sharp. The increased commitment needs to cut both ways.

I agree. I don't mind waiting a few minutes if I'm early, but if my table isn't ready at the reservation time, I get frustrated.

security issues aside, how often are reservations, "secured" or otherwise, actually held?

if the restaurant is not very busy, then a reservation wasn't necessary in the first place. and if it's busy, i usually find myself waiting 5-15 minutes anyway while they "get the table ready." regardless of which, there never is really any risk to the restaurant of no-shows, because "my" table will get seated whether i show up or not.

of course, opentable points are a separate consideration.

In the last week, I've come up against this twice. One restaurant is in Dresden, one is in Prague. Here is the booking form for the Alcron, a one star Michelin restaurant in the Radisson Blu in Prague. It's very clear about its Ts and Cs:

Fee for full cancellation or a reduction of a party size after booking:

Cancellations (including a reduction of a party size) must be confirmed in writing via email to [email protected] and received by the Alcron Restaurant no later than 12.00pm (mid-day), 3 days prior to your reservation date.

In the event that the reservation is not honored in whole by you or is cancelled or is reduced party size with less than the required notice period, the Restaurant will charge EUR50 per person to the credit or debit card that you have provided to secure your reservation.

All credit card information is secure and protected by PCI Data Security Standards.

We are coming by train. I felt uneasy about absolutely knowing the arrangements 3 days in advance, and I did not book due to this policy. I'm glad they were clear and I made my decision accordingly.