While it’s no secret that restaurants are experiencing difficult financial circumstances due to factors such as increased overheads, growing competition and decreasing demand, another issue has come to the fore: that of people not turning up for bookings (no-shows).

The impact of no-shows, which may account for 5 to 20 per cent of restaurant bookings, includes too many staff hired, wasted food and lost revenue – not to mention the negative effect on staff morale.

Restaurant owners have begun to take action to raise awareness of the problem, and in some instances, are requesting non-refundable deposits, selling prepaid tickets, or are issuing fines if diners don't show up and haven't notified them.

Online booking platforms may lack the personal touch, which perhaps makes no-shows easier, because there is no human connection made. However, the same technology may be harnessed to issue automatic reminders to customers, and to facilitate easy online cancellation ahead of time, to ensure that forgetting is less of an option.

A total of 984 restaurants across the UK fell into administration in 2017, driven by a large number of creditor voluntary liquidations, compared with 825 the previous year (source Insolvency statistics: October to December 2017).

Read more: BBC Business

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