If you don’t contact the pub in advance to cancel, this is of course pretty thoughtless and inconsiderate behaviour. I’m not defending it for a minute. However, if it really does cause a serious problem for pubs, then surely the remedy is in their own hands, to require people making bookings to give a deposit in advance which is not refundable unless they give sufficient notice of cancellation.
Many will reply that it isn’t quite that simple, and undoubtedly it isn’t a one size fits all situation. There are two different scenarios – making bookings for food and just for drinks. Booking for meals is well-established and any pubs operating it will be used to a certain level of no-shows.
Booking for drinks service, on the other hand, is more of a novelty, though, and something pubs may feel is forced on them by reduced capacity. I can’t say I’m a fan of the idea at all, but it’s maybe understandable that a pub feels they would prefer to serve a free-spending party of six rather than a solitary codger occupying a whole table while nursing a pint. However, people may feel less compunction about cancelling a drinks booking rather than one for a meal, and there have been stories of people making multiple bookings and choosing the one they fancy most on the night.
Pubs may feel that requiring a deposit is going to put customers off making bookings in the first place. That may be true to a limited extent, but if people are deterred by it, it suggests they weren’t entirely committed to their plans in the first place and thus more likely not to turn up. Pubs have to make a judgment of balancing one factor against the other.
And, in general, if you are accepting walk-in customers as well as bookings, a cancellation doesn’t impact all that much on your earning capacity if the space can be taken by other customers. It is a more serious issue if you are operating on an advance booking only basis. As a general rule, unless you’re supremely confident about filling all your space, operating a mix of bookings and walk-ins will minimise the downside risk.
So I return to my original point, that customers cancelling bookings is an unfortunate fact of life, and if you feel it causes a serious problem for your business the solution is a simple one of requiring deposits rather than just moaning about it on social media. And Wetherspoon’s seem to get along fine without taking any advance bookings at all.
Edit 21/05/2021: It has been pointed out on Twitter that the EPOS systems used for card payments in many pubs may not accept remote payments. That may well be true, but I’ve been making card payments over the phone for thirty years, so surely it isn’t an insurmountable problem for pubs to do it if it’s important to them.
.jpg)
A few of the bigger pubs near me tried bookings last year and gave up, though they are solely wet led.
ReplyDeleteI would have thought the most sensible thing for table bookings is to simply put a "reserved from XXXX time" on the table and allow walk up to use it until that time, in the event of a no-show, you've not wasted a table.
This has worked well in normal times.
Yes, I can't in general see no-shows being much of a problem for wet trade, unless maybe you're in the City and all the customers in effect come in in a rush between 5.30 and 6.
DeleteIt's only really likely to cause a problem if it's for dining trade and you are either mostly or all bookings, and so in effect lose a whole sitting at that particular table.
None of this booking nonsense in Shetland. Just walk in and grab a pint.
ReplyDeleteFew pubs in England are doing it for wet trade, tbh.
DeleteI don't think a deposit system is necessary really. Boozy P's comment above reminded me of how things work in Czechia, many pubs will have reservations from a certain time, until which the table is available. If the reservation doesn't turn up after about 10 minutes, the table is opened to walk ins. Clearly stating such a reservation policy would help, as well as stating that if you are running late, it is on you to call ahead and assure the pub you are on the way, and this buys you an extra half hour or so. It's just not feasible for pubs to hold tables all night because someone made a reservation. Also, if you EPOS can't handle a remote payment, then either the users aren't fully aware of the functionality or it is a shit EPOS.
ReplyDeletetrue that would be a way around it but I think alot of the no shows issue for pubs in this situation, is you end up turning away customers who could have booked instead and maybe were more likely to turn up, its not that the table just sits empty the whole night, its that you turned custom away, who may not ever come back, I dont know maybe its something restaurants plan for in terms of the amount money per seat they might expect and have numbers they aim for, and pubs new to this are just totalling the max figures up and being disappointed.
Deleteweirdly its my local wet led pub doing the reservations, why I dont know I cant see what benefit they get from it, whilst the foodie led ones are walk ins, some are confusingly trying a mix of both with book first but might turn into walk in if not enough bookings.
but hopefully this wont be a state of affairs that lasts much longer, though I suspect it wont be the free for all in June that we are expecting at this stage.
One of my locals - wet only - has a booking system which is entirely geared round making sure the regulars are looked after. Nothing more than a blackboard with two hour slots for every day and a space for our initials on the slots. Walk ins also catered for. It works well.
ReplyDeleteIf tables are being booked, it is not a pub.
ReplyDeleteIf I want table service I'll move to Bruges.
DeleteTable service is not a pub. Covid exemption 14a allows for temporary table service under current restrictions. Come June 21st, establishments with table service are not pubs.
DeleteOffers to bring it over in 5 minutes as the barrel is being changed do not constitute table service as the drink is ordered at the bar. This is considered a polite act and not a system of table service. Table service involves both ordering and delivery as an established service and delivery model.
Re EPOS systems not taking remote payments, most use systems like iZettle, Square or SumUp, or full fat systems from Barclaycard and WorldPay. They don't usually accept Card Not Present transactions from retailers, including pubs, due to the high risk of fraud and the retailers are averse due to the much higher cost of taking a CNP payment if they're allowed. What pubs can do though is to use systems like iZettle to email or text a payment link to the consumer who can enter their card details on a secure transaction page. Job done, and it's really easy to do.
ReplyDelete