Handling no-shows without making things worse

A guest books a table and does not arrive. You lose the revenue for that table, and you probably turned away someone else who would have paid.

You cannot force a person to turn up. You can only control the system you use to record their booking, the messages you send them before the date, and what you do when they are late.

Confirm the booking

People make mistakes. They book the wrong date, the wrong time, or the wrong restaurant. A confirmation message sent immediately after the booking is made gives the guest a chance to notice their error.

Keep this message short. Include the date, the time, the number of guests, and the name of the restaurant. Provide a clear way to cancel or change the booking. A phone number or a link is enough.

If you require a card to secure the booking, state the policy clearly in this first message. If you do not require a card, do not threaten a penalty you cannot enforce.

Remind them

A reminder message sent a day or two before the booking reduces the number of people who simply forget. Again, include the details and a clear way to cancel.

Do not send too many reminders. One confirmation and one reminder is usually enough. Sending a message every day is annoying, and people learn to ignore annoying messages.

If your restaurant booking system allows it, consider sending a text message rather than an email for the reminder. People check their phones more often than their email inboxes, and a text is harder to miss.

When they are late

Decide how long you will hold a table for a late arrival. Fifteen minutes is common. Twenty minutes is generous. Ten minutes is strict but defensible if you are busy.

Whatever time you choose, apply it consistently. If you tell a guest you hold tables for fifteen minutes, do not give their table away after ten.

If a guest is late, try calling them. A quick phone call is often enough to find out if they are parking the car or if they have decided not to come. If they do not answer, leave a brief message stating that you will hold the table for the agreed time, and then you will release it.

When they do not show up

If the time passes and they have not arrived, release the table. Give it to a walk-in or someone on your waitlist.

Do not send an angry message. Do not leave a passive-aggressive voicemail. The guest might have had an emergency. They might be embarrassed. Yelling at them will not get you your table back, and it might earn you a bad review.

If you track your guests, note the no-show on their profile. If a guest repeatedly books and does not arrive, you might decide to stop accepting reservations from them, or require a deposit for future bookings.

The tools you use

Managing reservations manually on paper makes it hard to send reminders and track repeat offenders. A digital system handles the routine work.

lokal includes a reservation system that sends automatic confirmations and reminders. It also gives you a shared inbox for customer messages, so if a guest replies to a reminder to say they are running late, you see it. The whole system, which also includes a register and team scheduling, costs $1 for the first month and then $99.99 a month.