4 ms·

> The not-so-subtle message to the customer is, "We don't trust you to pay." But that knife cuts both ways: if you get my money up front, why should I trust you

> The not-so-subtle message to the customer is, "We don't trust you to pay." But that knife cuts both ways: if you get my money up front, why should I trust you not to cut corners on the meal that you provide? Because the mostly-anonymous diner has effectively no reputation to lose by not showing up. The restaurant has everything to lose by not continuing to produce good meals that satisfy their customers.

lisper 8y ago
But that's not true. When I reserve on OpenTable, if I don't show up, that goes on my OT record, or at least I presume it does. And I'm perfectly fine with that. I'm proud of the fact that I don't screw restaurants (even though I easily could), and I want them to know that. Also, we've had a few absolutely horrible experiences at some very high end restaurants. One case was so egregious that we actually walked out. Maybe our experience was unusual, but if a restaurant consistently treats its customers badly it's going to fail whether or not it collects the money up front. And if a restaurant does treat me like shit, I want to have some recourse other than just bitching and moaning about it.
- stephencanon 8y ago
  > if I don't show up, that goes on my OT record ... but, who cares? If I somehow behaved badly enough to get banned, I could just reserve a table with a new OT account, or just call the restaurant; it's not like they ask for references and do a background check before taking the reservation. A "bad OT table record", if such a thing even exists, costs you nothing.
  - lisper 8y ago
    > ... but, who cares? Well, I presume the restaurants care. If I'm a chronic no-show, a restaurant may not accept a reservation from me, or maybe limit me to off-peak times. I can think of a lot of ways that information could be effectively leveraged.

4 ms·

> The not-so-subtle message to the customer is, "We don't trust you to pay." But that knife cuts both ways: if you get my money up front, why should I trust you

by stephencanon 8y ago

lisper 8y ago
But that's not true. When I reserve on OpenTable, if I don't show up, that goes on my OT record, or at least I presume it does. And I'm perfectly fine with that. I'm proud of the fact that I don't screw restaurants (even though I easily could), and I want them to know that. Also, we've had a few absolutely horrible experiences at some very high end restaurants. One case was so egregious that we actually walked out. Maybe our experience was unusual, but if a restaurant consistently treats its customers badly it's going to fail whether or not it collects the money up front. And if a restaurant does treat me like shit, I want to have some recourse other than just bitching and moaning about it.
- stephencanon 8y ago
  > if I don't show up, that goes on my OT record ... but, who cares? If I somehow behaved badly enough to get banned, I could just reserve a table with a new OT account, or just call the restaurant; it's not like they ask for references and do a background check before taking the reservation. A "bad OT table record", if such a thing even exists, costs you nothing.
  - lisper 8y ago
    > ... but, who cares? Well, I presume the restaurants care. If I'm a chronic no-show, a restaurant may not accept a reservation from me, or maybe limit me to off-peak times. I can think of a lot of ways that information could be effectively leveraged.