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17th Dec 2018

‘No-Show’ Bookings Have Cost This Dublin Restaurant Owner A Staggering Amount Of Money In One Week

Darragh Berry

A couple of weeks ago, this Dublin restaurant received massive support from customers there was a last-minute cancellation of a booking.

The restaurant in question admitted that they had “turned away so many guests who would have turned up” in order to hold on to to the table.

And as bad as that is, the only thing that’s worse than a late cancellation is a complete no-show.

And that’s what happened to Dublin restaurant owner, Oliver Dunne.

In an interview with The Irish Independent, he has said that the bane of his life is bookings that fail to show up.

Dunne owns Bon Appetit, Beef and Lobster, Cleaver East, and December Fest, all based in the capital, and has said that no-shows could cost him as much as €1,500 per week minimum.

“Every night I get a report sent from each restaurant which tells me how many covers we got, and the no-shows. On Friday December 14, for example, in Bon Appetit there were 16 covers that didn’t show – a table of eight, a table of four, and two tables of two. In Cleaver East that night there were 12 no-shows.”

When asked about the ‘deposit’ that some restaurants have for their establishments, Dunne said that he’d much rather if someone just called to cancel rather than getting a deposit from them and for them still not to show.

He said the only solution for this problem at this time of the year is to take credit card deposits for the whole month.

But, he said that this would have to be a collective policy by all restaurants.

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