4 ms·
This is one aspect not addressed in the article; just because tables were falsely reserved, doesn't mean they were actually responsible for the lack of business
by petee 9y ago
This is one aspect not addressed in the article; just because tables were falsely reserved, doesn't mean they were actually responsible for the lack of business - if no customers were going to show up anyway. No real way to ever gauge that though.
- Double_a_92 9y ago> if no customers were going to show up anyway They didn't show up because they couldn't get a reservation (because it was already booked out fraudulently).
- petee 9y agoThe point already made in my post was that there is no way of us knowing that many, or even a few customers actually called and couldn't get a table. Evidence is anecdotal.
- Double_a_92 9y agoYes but even if you call you won't get a table. The restaurant doesn't know that most bookings will never show up. I guess I probably didn't get your point...
- cozzyd 9y agoI've been to the same restaurant on other nights and it's always been packed, so it was quite suspicious that it was so empty on what should be an even busier night...
- petee 9y agoOh ok, you're likely right in that case! On a positive note, at least you got a little peace for dinner
- matte_black 9y agoWhat’s to stop anyone else from doing something similar if they want a quiet dinner?
- cozzyd 9y agoThat's a great idea, sounds like a niche for no-shows-as-a-service.
- 52-6F-62 9y agoAlso the fast track to normalizing pay-to-reserve/down-payment on meals at restaurants
- sitepodmatt 9y agoWhy isn't this a thing already, just like hotels, pre-authorize a minimum table charge to a debit/credit card (ensure AVS and/or names matches - most CC processors fraud systems provide this info - so you have correct details to blacklist in the event of a chargeback) - infact actually the reservation provider should be handling and swallowing the chargeback risk - they have the aggregated data and taking a big fee for essentially a risk free SaaS.
- petee 9y agoThey probably don't want to raise the bar any more for potential customers: too many hoops and I'll just use the phone instead; it'll take less time to call than type my CC#
- sitepodmatt 9y agoThe idea would be that they do the same on the phone, it's much easier to type than have someone try to process a CC over the phone 5494 2442 what was that again 5494 242.. etc.. It's almost impossible to secure a hotel without a CC nowadays even for pay on arrival, it will take some first movers but I'd suspect most would follow suit pretty quickly.