Hello all,
At the restaurant that I work at, we have had an unbelievable amount of people who are not showing up for reservations that they have booked. An example of how ludicrous it has gotten, we had reservations for 130 on Saturday and ended up with only 90 or so.
Now, let me explain a little about our restaurant, we are a 3-1/2 star restaurant with seating in the main dining room for 90. Many of our patrons opt for the 5 or 7 course dinner that can last a few hours. So, turning the tables is not fast at all and we really focus not only on the food, but also on the service.
All of us in the kitchen knew we had a big night ahead of us, so we prepped for it, had back-ups ready. I personally ordered and broke down fish for the reservations we had. 130 amuse were painstakingly prepared for our customers. We were ready
The front of the house was ready too, we had 5 teams of two ready for the night, and we had some of those teams set for some big-tops coming in. Busboys were set and ready. Hostesses were ready.
When covers don't show up, something happens with everyone's psyche. The waitstaff gets a little teed-off when they realize that they are not going to be busy (aka not make as much money), so they get frustrated, things get mis-fired, things happen. This, in turn, disrupts the flow of the kitchen staff. We were staffed to handle the rush, we are now over-staffed. People start getting in each others way. Tempers flare, things get ugly.
Why do people not show up? Are we the only industry out there that has this problem? Think about it. If we are a business and we call for a meeting with a client or a customer and we sit and make graphs and come up with points to discuss. Perhaps, make arrangements for a lunch, etc. When that client or customer does not show up, it causes problems for the company. It is an inconvenience, to say the least. But the hours that we used to prepare for the meeting, the money spent on supplies, etc. Can cause a problem. If this continues the company can suffer greatly.
The losses for the restaurant are obvious. Loss of business means loss of revenue. We turn people away on Saturdays to prevent overbooking and then we discover that we could have easily taken those reservations. People don't work as much as they want, the morale goes down. Work performance is not as much as it could be. The consequences are endless.
Is this a problem for anyone? How do you take care of this situation?
Take care,
Paul
At the restaurant that I work at, we have had an unbelievable amount of people who are not showing up for reservations that they have booked. An example of how ludicrous it has gotten, we had reservations for 130 on Saturday and ended up with only 90 or so.
Now, let me explain a little about our restaurant, we are a 3-1/2 star restaurant with seating in the main dining room for 90. Many of our patrons opt for the 5 or 7 course dinner that can last a few hours. So, turning the tables is not fast at all and we really focus not only on the food, but also on the service.
All of us in the kitchen knew we had a big night ahead of us, so we prepped for it, had back-ups ready. I personally ordered and broke down fish for the reservations we had. 130 amuse were painstakingly prepared for our customers. We were ready
The front of the house was ready too, we had 5 teams of two ready for the night, and we had some of those teams set for some big-tops coming in. Busboys were set and ready. Hostesses were ready.
When covers don't show up, something happens with everyone's psyche. The waitstaff gets a little teed-off when they realize that they are not going to be busy (aka not make as much money), so they get frustrated, things get mis-fired, things happen. This, in turn, disrupts the flow of the kitchen staff. We were staffed to handle the rush, we are now over-staffed. People start getting in each others way. Tempers flare, things get ugly.
Why do people not show up? Are we the only industry out there that has this problem? Think about it. If we are a business and we call for a meeting with a client or a customer and we sit and make graphs and come up with points to discuss. Perhaps, make arrangements for a lunch, etc. When that client or customer does not show up, it causes problems for the company. It is an inconvenience, to say the least. But the hours that we used to prepare for the meeting, the money spent on supplies, etc. Can cause a problem. If this continues the company can suffer greatly.
The losses for the restaurant are obvious. Loss of business means loss of revenue. We turn people away on Saturdays to prevent overbooking and then we discover that we could have easily taken those reservations. People don't work as much as they want, the morale goes down. Work performance is not as much as it could be. The consequences are endless.
Is this a problem for anyone? How do you take care of this situation?
Take care,
Paul
