05-07-2025
My problem with being a restaurateur? Flaky customers
We are a small- to medium-sized neighbourhood restaurant, probably averaging 40 to 45 covers per night, serving simple but – we hope – delicious food. It's casual, but there are tablecloths and we hope to give nice service. But we sometimes have a problem: flaky customers. It's one shared by Olivier Vincent, the chef and owner of a 20-seater restaurant called L'îlot in the Loire Valley. For him, it's reached such a breaking point, he's decided to impose fines: if a group does not contain the exact reserved number of guests, they are now charged €15 (£12.92) per missing or additional person.
It sounds heavy handed, but I wasn't surprised to read that Vincent had taken action – on missing customers, at least. For small, independent businesses, too many or too few customers showing up for a booking can have a big impact, in different ways.
If you book a table of eight and turn up with six, we could have reconfigured and given that table to someone else. Or someone might have turned up hoping for a walk-in of two and we've turned them away, which is sad for us because it's horrible turning people away. If the big table had just called and said, 'I'm really sorry but we're going to be six now,' it's annoying, but at least you can reset the tables.
A table turning up with too many people is annoying in a different way. I think we've had a table of nine that has suddenly been 14, which is 50 per cent more. Sometimes there is just genuinely not the space. Meanwhile, the people on the table are starting to get annoyed at you for not having room. What are we supposed to do?
Sometimes people don't understand that as a restaurant you have a responsibility to all of your diners and not just one table. A table of eight turning up with 12 or 13 changes the dynamic of the room. A huge table will sometimes take over the restaurant in a way that isn't fair on the rest of the diners.
I feel like restaurants are the final frontier of understanding that if you commit to coming you ought to pay. If you buy a theatre ticket and you can't make it last minute, you're not going to get your money back. The same with a massage or a ticket for an exhibition. For some reason that psyche doesn't apply to restaurants. Partly it's because you haven't paid for your meal upfront, although some restaurants now make you do that. People feel aggrieved about the notion of having to pay something to a restaurant if their plans change.
I sometimes wonder what people think restaurants make, money-wise. When you look at a waiter, or a chef, does anyone think they are living a life of luxury? None of us are rolling in it. Mostly we do this because it's a passion. One or two people not showing up might not seem like a big deal, but actually it is a big deal financially. A table of 10 dropping to a table of six is a 12.5 per cent service charge of those four people that none of the staff are going to see. I don't think people realise that someone's pay cheque is instantly reduced if fewer people than expected turn up.
The problem is definitely getting worse. A lot of customers lie about their reasons for not showing up, too. It is hard for us to negotiate that. Some restaurants make it very clear there are no exceptions. I don't know if I agree with that. Sometimes people genuinely have had an emergency. But sometimes people have a table of eight but one of their party is sick so none of them come, which is ridiculous.
Part of the problem is people being reluctant to call on the phone. When we opened Cafe Deco I refused to have an online booking system, because I was so depressed by the fact people were so scared to pick up the phone and speak to a human. I hated the few experiences I'd had when I'd gone in to book a restaurant and been directed to the online database.
Ultimately we had to move to a booking system because having to ring was putting off so many people coming. If you don't have to speak to someone, you don't have to take responsibility. If you're doing something that you know is going to be annoying for a restaurant, maybe if you don't have to speak to someone it's not so bad for you. The generation who started dining out before everything was digitised are better at ringing. It's the younger customers who are less considerate and less understanding of their commitment.
We have a cancellation fee; if you cancel with less than 24 hours notice, you'll get charged. For tables over six, we take a £30 deposit per head up front, which incentivises people to figure it out. If you turn up with more people than your booking, it's really annoying but we're not going to lose money unless we have no space and they all walk out, so we have no plans to implement a fee for that.
It's important to say that these cases are still the exception, rather than the rule. It just happens a bit too often. It doesn't give us the chance to give you the best experience, which is what our job is, and what we aim to do every time.
