Hilde

While cc charges for no-shows may seem harsh, the reason for this is to avoid waste (and as a result increased prices) in the kitchen. It's very common for restaurants, at least in the upper scale, to do a great amount of prep work well before your reserved time slot.
However, three days advance notification for cancellations - that sounds a bit harsh. This particular restaurant may have a good reason for this that I am not aware of, though.

Secure transfer of cc data upon the time of reservation is a definite requirement for me, at least.

pinniped

+1...I love the portable readers and wonder if eventually those will proliferate in the U.S. once we're fully onto chip cards.

For me, it's more of a timing thing that a concern that the waiter is stealing my card number. I hate it when I'm trying to pay the bill and the waiter disappears with my card for 15 minutes...

I would participate in the secure data transfer to the Michelin-starred restaurant (who knew that the Radisson, of all chains, had a Michelin-starred restaurant?!?), but I would hope they'd be flexible in the event of a train delay. If I really wanted to eat there, I might phone the concierge and explain the situation....maybe they'd make a note in your hotel and/or restaurant reservation.

lhrsfo

Used to earn these but I find nowadays most restaurants don't give them - and certainly none of the restaurants which require a card.

pinniped

Isn't there still just the standard 100 points you get from Opentable for *any* completed reservation?

I don't even think about the points...I kind of realize I'm theoretically getting paid 90-95 cents per reservation to use the system...but in general I just like using Opentable. I don't bother chasing those 1000 point tables where I assume the restaurant is paying extra for that...

Sweet Willie

I generally find that 1,000 point tables are either offered at slow times (i.e. 5pm seating) or restaurants that have high price points to begin with and aren't "all that" in terms of asking for that high price. I use the former quite a bit as I like it when it isn't crowded, better service and better execution of the food.

Back to topic, I've been hesitant to give out CC for reservation for the security item(s) mentioned but figure I partner with vendors that make deleting any charges that aren't mine easy & I have a new card the next day.

Non-NonRev

My approach is to keep a low limit card for just such uses.

CRAZ8

The newest thing is not only a credit card for booking, but also a deposit charged that will be applied to the bill. They are pre-charging you the cancellation fee and giving you a credit for that fee.

One small restaurant that I know does this does it to reduce empty tables where the reservation isn't cancelled, yet there's a line at the door. In a small place - 10 or so tables - this is real money being lost with an empty table and no idea if the party is actually going to show up.

Non-NonRev

Interesting - seems like a way to not pay royalties for a ticket system like Tock.

Two of the hottest restaurants in LA, Trois Mec and Maude, seat only 25, so one can see why standard reservations will not work.

gfunkdave

Next, in Chicago, has you prepay the entire cost of the meal. You buy tickets for your chosen date and time, then show up, eat, and leave.

Non-NonRev

In fact, Tock was patented by the owners of Next and Alinea. And it is important to recognize that there is an active resale market for any unneeded tickets.

jeebus

I've only seen this for high-demand restaurants, in which case I think it's reasonable for the business to do this to manage their no-show rate. Personally, I don't have a problem with the process, and I've given my credit card number a few times before. Only a restaurant that is in sufficient demand could afford to do this, and I'd comfortable letting the market sort things out.

davork

Okay I do a fair bit of work for a small restaurant group new new york city , so here's their experiences:
- No shows run at 5 - 6 % fairly consistently - thankfully the walks in offset that
- They have the old style Opentable and when they take credit cards for an event (which is pretty much just valentine's and mothers day), they enter into a 'vault' (which is provided by Braintree, owned by PayPal) where the card can later be charged should a no show happen. Hosts taking res are taught to enter numbers directly into the vault... (The new ipad based opentable takes its payments via Stripe)
- For events, the invoices are sent out from tripleseat (an event management system) and payment is made via Stripe
- They have just moved over to a new POS (ToastTab) and use small blue tooth credit card from engenico devices - swipe or dip (tap comes later) - so all good there.
- Gift cards are currently sold online via OpenTable, but that will be moving to ToastTab in the next few weeks (once the marketing company finishes the new website!)

By the way someone mentioned DSS...The quarterly PCI-DSS questionnaire is insanely long to complete - almost too long for anyone with no background in IT security to be honest - but it can be done - and as for the required penetration testing...

Duke787

Reminds me of when I booked a reservation at Sushi Yoshitake in 2014 in Tokyo. They made me fill out a credit card authorization form where I had to fill in all the credit card details and then provide a scanned copy of my credit card to hold the reservation. Certainly not something I'd ever like to do but didn't have much of a choice and it was well worth it for the sushi.

Needless to say as soon as I got back to the US (Tokyo was the last stop on the trip), I requested a replacement card from Citi.