Neuss (dpa / lnw) – Reserved a table in the restaurant, but then didn’t turn up to eat and drink: According to the Dehoga NRW association, restaurateurs are increasingly finding that reservations are not being kept. This is not only annoying, but also leads to sensitive sales losses in restaurants and pubs, as the association announced on Thursday. Therefore, more and more restaurateurs took measures to get the problem under control. These ranged from a reminder of the reservation by e-mail or telephone to demands for advance payment.
A few days before Christmas, Dehoga NRW President Patrick Rothkopf urgently appealed to all guests to keep their reservations. This also applies to the number of people. Tables that remain empty not only lead to a loss of sales in the catering trade, but also to cost problems because personnel planning and grocery shopping then no longer fit. “The earlier information about changes or cancellations comes, the better it is for planning in the restaurant or the event. That’s fair to the companies and other “following” guests,” he explained.
Almost every restaurateur in NRW knows the situation of unoccupied or only partially occupied tables despite a full reservation book, which is also referred to as “no show”. According to a non-representative survey by the German Hotel and Restaurant Association (Dehoga) NRW, in which more than 270 restaurateurs from NRW took part this month, this was already the case for over 90 percent. Around three quarters also stated that this phenomenon had increased in recent years. Almost four fifths of restaurateurs lost up to ten percent of their annual turnover. For a good fifth, the loss of sales is even higher.
According to the association, the most common countermeasures are reminding guests of the reservation by telephone or email and pointing out that the reservation is binding. A good third of the restaurateurs proceeded in this way. According to the survey, every tenth company charges a downtime “fee”. Some restaurateurs work with advance payment (7 percent) or have the credit card details given when making the reservation (4 percent). Some also combined measures. “No restaurateur really likes to do this, but unfortunately the measures are becoming more and more necessary. However, it is largely in the hands of the guests themselves whether this has to happen,” said Rothkopf.
