Paul and Helen McDonald, who own Bastion, the Michelin-starred restaurant in the Co Cork town of Kinsale, woke up one recent morning to a one-star TripAdvisor review. It had been left by a diner who had phoned to cancel their reservation less than an hour before they were due to eat in the 12-seat restaurant.
The diner had explained that they were in the emergency department with their daughter, awaiting test results to ascertain the severity of an injury. But their credit card was immediately charged €250, the full menu price for two people, in line with Bastion’s cancellation policy. The diner posted the negative review because of what they saw as the restaurant’s lack of understanding.
Bastion’s response on TripAdvisor went largely unnoticed until it was picked up by a local newspaper. A slew of negative reviews ensued (TripAdvisor has since removed them), prompting the McDonalds to explain their policy on Twitter.
The diner does not wish to discuss the incident further but confirms that they stand over their review. The charge to their credit card was refunded when they phoned Bastion with details of the gift voucher they had intended to use that evening, which was then taken as payment for the no-show.
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For Paul McDonald the issue was that the food for 12 diners had already been bought and prepped, and it was too late to fill the table — a €130, 10-course tasting menu isn’t a last-minute dining decision, and many of their customers travel from Dublin and elsewhere around Ireland.
With enough notice, he says, Bastion has generally been able to fill tables from its waiting list. But if a reservation is cancelled at short notice, moving the booking to another date is not an option. With staffing issues forcing them to work at reduced capacity, they do a single sitting of 12 diners four nights a week. McDonald says that 12 is their break-even number.
“If someone says, ‘Oh, I’m going to book next week instead. Is that okay?’ next week is going to be full anyway. It’s the here and now that we’re worried about,” McDonald says. “And, you know, everybody’s reason is the best reason, but none of them make a difference when I’m sitting looking at an empty chair. And as cold as that sounds — I know, I get it, that’s cold and heartless — it’s where we’re at right now. It’s tough.”
No-shows and last-minute cancellations rank among restaurateurs’ top complaints, particularly coming up to Christmas, and many have put deterrents in place, as a missed booking is missed income. Yet other restaurants are reluctant to endorse the sentiments expressed by Bastion’s owner. Lignum, a destination fine-dining restaurant in Bullaun, Co Galway, has a 24-hour cancellation policy, but discretion is applied.
“We don’t want to charge people, but sometimes we do,” says its chef and owner, Danny Africano. “If it’s a case where something happens, the first thing we do is ask, ‘Would you like to change the date of your booking?’ We don’t charge automatically. We’d like for them to come back. Because if you charge someone they’re not really going to come back in a nice spirit.”
At Liath, the two-Michelin-star restaurant in Blackrock, Co Dublin, full payment for the €170 tasting menu is charged at the time of booking, which would seem to work in favour of the restaurateur rather than the diner. Damien Grey, the chef and owner, says that over the years he has learned to sniff out a spoofer, but when it comes to a genuine emergency, such as a sick child, it’s a different issue.
“That’s where your human compassion comes into play, and that’s when you’ve really just got to weigh up the options,” he says. “Bad publicity? Or you just bite the bullet? Take it for what it is. I think it just comes down to, literally, how genuine the person is. When something like that happens you’ve just got to say, ‘I’m really, really sorry. Is there anything we can do for you? Don’t worry about the booking. Just sort your child’ — or your sibling, or your mother, or your father, or whatever the case may be — ‘and come back to us. We’ll sort it all out later on.’
“Deposits are a great system if you’re fair in how you work them and you are prepared to refund at a reasonable drop of the hat,” he says. “You can’t use a booking system and just go, ‘Nope, that’s it. Good luck. Thanks very much.’ Because that’s just going to hurt you. It’ll definitely hurt you, because one person talks to 10 people, 10 people talk to 100 people.”
It is not just Michelin-starred and fine-dining restaurants that apply a penalty for a last-minute cancellation or a no-show. Increasingly, midpriced restaurants are using the same tactic, with a nominal fee per diner.
In the main, you have to be able to do something to guarantee that people are going to come. You rely on it. Twenty euro, I think, is a small token
“One thing that I think a lot of people really struggle with is putting in credit-card details” when they reserve a table online, says Morgan VanderKamer, who owns and runs Union Wine Bar & Kitchen, in Waterford, with her partner, Stephen McArdle. “We don’t charge anything — only if they are no-shows. Life’s going to happen. Sometimes people are going to have to cancel. But I think, in the main, you have to be able to do something to guarantee that people are going to come. You rely on it. Twenty euro, I think, is a small token. When it’s for a group booking that’s a bit different, because once you have the food in for a group of 20 or 30 people you’ve ordered that already; that’s coming in. So you’re left with that.”
[ No-shows: Restaurants that don’t take deposits have ‘only themselves to blame’Opens in new window ]
VanderKamer says they haven’t charged any diners for last-minute cancellations or no-shows and hopes it won’t become necessary. “People have called us last minute, and you can hear it in their voice that something’s happened. You can’t question it,” she says. “What do you do? You just have to go with it. And you know at some stage they will come back. Those kinds of things happen. You know when there’s truth in it and you know when there’s not.”
So what should diners do to ensure they are fair to the restaurant but also don’t risk losing money on a booking when a situation arises?
Typically, after making a reservation online with your credit-card details, you can cancel without charge up to 48 hours before the time your table is booked for — the time frame generally ranges from 24 to 72 hours beforehand. If you miss that deadline, the restaurant will bill a charge per person to your credit card — in some cases, such as restaurants with a limited number of tables, the charge may be for the full cost of the meal. So it’s well worth checking the rules before you tick the online box to say you accept them.
If you can’t make a booking, just try to work with the restaurant. And the same for restaurateurs. Work with the bloody customers. Because they’re your bread and butter
“Make sure you read the terms and conditions that restaurants using a deposit system have put up. Because that’s the legalities there,” says Grey. “Second thing is, if you can’t make a booking, give them plenty of notice. Every restaurant will refund you if you give them plenty of notice. Make sure if you have a problem, or if you have an issue, to reach out. The restaurants are more than happy to work with people. They want the business. They want you to come, even if you push the booking back down to another date. Just try to work with the restaurant. And the same for restaurateurs. Work with the bloody customers. Because they’re your bread and butter. And if you don’t want to pay a deposit, don’t go to the restaurant. It’s as simple as that.”
