4 ms·

Far be it for me to defend OpenTable, but... No shows are a big deal for restaurants. If you have 40 seats in your restaurant that turn say, twice a night and

Far be it for me to defend OpenTable, but... No shows are a big deal for restaurants. If you have 40 seats in your restaurant that turn say, twice a night and a group of 4 doesn't show up, you've just lost a considerable portion of your night's revenue. Restaurants are typically living off scraps (5% margins are common), so OpenTable punishing you for not showing up is in the best interest of the restaurants. If you at least cancel, the restaurant can call up people on their wait list and hope to fill the vacancy. And really, how hard is it to get online and cancel your reservation?

joezydeco 15y ago
For a lot of the higher-end restaurants, it's worse than that. It's not like people are strolling into Alinea looking for seats. When a party doesn't show, that table is dead for the entire seating. Achatz has the right idea in selling tickets instead of booking reservations. The burden of cancellation is now on you, not him. I betcha Tara would show up if she had cash on the line.