Restaurant booking site OpenTable could ban users who repeatedly fail to turn up to their restaurant reservations without notice, as it launches a campaign to help reduce no-show rates.
New figures from online restaurant booking service, Open Table, have revealed more than a third of restaurant goers admit to failing to turn up for their table booking.
The research revealed more than 33% of UK diners have at some point been a ‘no-show’, having failed to inform the restaurant to cancel their reservation.
Young adults have been shown to be the worst offenders, with 25% of 16-24 admitting to regularly failing to show up for their booking, while London diners led the way for being a ‘no-show’ at least once.
With the top reasons for failing to cancel a booking included memory, or not knowing how.
The online booking site is now warning that would-be diners could face penalties, including banning repeat offenders from using its service, as the knock-on effects are felt by the restaurant industry.
Open Table’s Adrian Valeriano said their new campaign, called Book Responsibly, is aimed at reducing no-show rates and helping ease the impact late cancellations have on restaurants.
‘’We have launched this campaign to help build awareness among diners of the issue and showcase how we can continue to leverage our technology and diner network.’’
For those who repeatedly fail to turn up – four times within 12 months – OpenTable will prohibit them from using the website and app. It already only allows diners to make one booking for the same time slot, preventing users from booking multiple restaurants and then choosing where to dine on the night.
‘’By turning the tables on no-shows in our new campaigns we want to educate diners about the impact of their booking behaviour and remind restaurants of the many ways Open Table attempts to minimise the likelihood of no-shows.
