A restaurant owner has started naming and shaming patrons by tweeting the surnames of the customers who fail to turn up to their booking.
The Cauldron in Bristol has received praise from other restaurateurs for blacklisting diners from their venues if they fail to show up.
Restaurant owners have blamed the ease of online booking for the rise in ‘no-shows’.
Some eateries have even started charging for the whole meal in advance, while OpenTable – an online booking service – has enforced strict measures to ensure that people who fail to repeatedly turn up are banned from using it.
Owner Henry Eldon, said posting people’s last names on Twitter and shaming them was the last resort.
The Cauldron in Bristol (pictured) has received praise from other restaurateurs for blacklisting diners from their venues if they fail to show up
He told The Daily Telegraph: ‘It just gets to the point that, as a business, people don’t seem to care that we will end up losing out.
‘There’s a phenomenon of people booking two or three restaurants in one night and seeing what they fancy and not bothering to cancel.
‘It’s an attitude towards booking restaurants in general that needs to change.’
He added that even if just two tables cancelled, the restaurant might not break even on that night.
Mr Eldon said: ‘Margins are so incredibly tight, and if you lose up to five per cent of your seats, that can be the difference between breaking even and not breaking even.
‘That’s how much we lost that night.
‘As a nation we are going out more and more and casually booking becomes second nature; it’s very impersonal.
‘You don’t know who owns the restaurant, and you don’t think that your actions mean they lose money.
Owner Henry Eldon, said posting people’s last names on Twitter and shaming them was the last resort. Pictured: Inside The Cauldron, Bristol
‘Especially during the week – people book tables in case they fancy going out and don’t turn up.’
Menu Gordon Jones – a sought-after restaurant in Bath – lost £400 on Valentine’s day because a single booking did not show up.
The restaurant, which is booked up months in advance, was not able to seat any of the 47 people on the waiting list because it was too late.
OpenTable admitted that it had to constantly adapt its technology in order to prevent customers from failing to arrive to their booking.
A spokesman told The Telegraph: ‘OpenTable’s policy is, if a diner no-shows for a reservation four times over 12 months, they will be prohibited from making reservations.
‘But our approach is to maximise functionality of technology to minimise the impact of no-shows.’
Restaurant owners have blamed the ease of online booking for the rise in ‘no-shows’