No-shows are a killer in any business, but can be particularly insidious in the hospitality industry. When somebody makes a booking, you have that table reserved for at least an hour in advance … and every 15 minute block that nobody is sitting there, is money going down the drain! Reservation systems are an essential part of owning a restaurant, but if you find no-shows are stifling your business, we look at some tools and tactics to help, ranging from scheduling text messages, to taking deposits and other purely process-based methods.
Push for online bookings
Start advertising online bookings over phone-based bookings, and put a system in place for senior staff or the restaurant itself to be alerted when a new booking is made. There are plenty of these systems available - they take a bit of development, but are wonderful once in place. When you have your online booking system, you can take a deposit via Paypal or credit card, which would of course come of the cost of the meal.
Give people the opportunity to cancel easily if required
This is a two-part process that is extraordinarily effective at preventing no-shows. You can set up a text-message scheduling system, where your computer will automatically send a text message to confirmed bookings at a certain period before their arrival time - perhaps an hour. If someone has simply forgotten about their booking, this will remind them! If you incorporate a reply feature into your system, you can also catch people who no longer want to come, but relieve them of the perceived burden of telling you themselves. Have them text 'Yes' to keep their booking, and 'No' to cancel it, when you schedule the text message.
Keep a 'waiting list'
When you are booked out, ask people that ring for a booking if they would like to be notified of cancellations. This isn’t so much a preventive measure, as damage-control - but still a vital part of managing no-shows in your business.
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