Why No-Shows are Hurting Hospitality, Especially Now

No-shows are a hot topic in hospitality at the moment. Celebrity chef Tom Kerridge recently called out his no-shows for being the “worst types of guests” on his Instagram. He said their behaviour is unhelpful and they are putting people’s jobs more at risk. Many other chefs and restaurants followed suit and spoke up about their frustrations on no-shows. The hashtag #nomorenoshows was born.

You might wonder why focus on no-shows now, surely this happened before Covid-19 as well. That’s true, but it shouldn't come as a surprise that hospitality has been hit pretty hard throughout this epidemic. Lots of venues have been closed for months but with costs like rent still payable every month. The majority of staff in this industry have had to stay home being furloughed hoping they won’t have to be made redundant.

Then imagine restaurants reopen and you can finally get back to work. Great! Lots of things have changed though. Suddenly restaurant staff are not just responsible for taking food orders, pouring glasses of wine, walking around with a smile and creating a great atmosphere. They need to explain and enforce new “rules and logistics” that come with dining out to keep everyone safe. More time is spent on strict cleaning regimes and explaining changes than doing what they used to love doing; providing great customer service.

Most restaurants are operating now with reduced capacities and rely heavily on reservations. Certain restaurants struggle to keep their heads above water and have barely made it to this point. So let’s say a restaurant now has a capacity of 40 seats and two tables of four people are no-shows. That’s 20% of their total capacity for that service. And keep in mind that those 40 seats are already way lower than the capacity this restaurant would normally have.

No-shows mean empty tables in a restaurant and less revenue to cover costs. It also means food waste, as produce has been bought and prepped. And likely the restaurant could have done with less staff for that service, which would have meant lower labour costs. Especially in these times it will be much harder to get those empty tables covered again as few restaurants are currently receiving walk-in guests.

Even though I currently work in contract catering I do remember what it’s like to have everyone working really hard to prepare for a busy service only to be disappointed hours later that part of the reservations didn’t show up. This was before Covid-19, when restaurateurs would work hard for low profit margins. Now restaurateurs are already happy if they are able to cover their costs, so these no-shows will hit them even harder.

It’s understandable that people are still apprehensive to dine out. The Coronavirus hasn’t gone anywhere so we are all at risk every time we step out of the house. But if you’ve made a restaurant reservation and then decide not to show up without even so much of a call, that’s inconsiderate to say the least. The table could have still been given to someone else if you canceled beforehand. Let’s all be a bit more thoughtful next time we make a booking, any booking. But even more so if, for whatever reason, you cannot make it. Pick up the phone and let them know. This is the time where we should support businesses where we can, not make their lives harder.