Irked by no-shows, operators tighten seating policies

Nation's Restaurant News, March 5, 1990 by Jack Hayes

Irked by no-shows, operators tighten seating policies

In a renewed campaign against reservation no-shows, fine-dining operators from coast to coast are mobilizing computers, creativity and common sense to keep their lunch and dinner tables filled.

Wounded more by the missing dollars than by the lack of courtesy on the part of patrons who default on reservations, the owners of table-cloth restaurants across the nation are demanding reconfirmations and even cash for guaranteed seats.

And while some high-volume operations are overbooking, more and more restaurateurs - like so many doctors who bill for broken appointments - are beginning to charge the customers who jilt them without notice.

"A seat represents dollars, and we take great pains to see that every one is taken," said Tom Kaplan, manager of Spago in Los Angeles, where overbooking runs 10 percent to 15 percent - the average no-show rate even with confirmations.

"At $58 a person, we lose big when a party of 10 doesn't show," said Deborah Elsner, who is an assistant maitre d' at Nikolai's Roof in Atlanta and handles telephone reconfirming to slash the no-show rate.

The nationwide no-show crack-down is part of an all-fronts battle against shrinking margins in the face of aggressive competition and the menace of sky-high overhead within the fine-dining segment.

"We enforced a $20-per-seat deposit for Super Bowl reservations," said a staffer at Versailles in New Orleans. "After so many no-shows on New Year's Eve, we had no other choice."

In major convention cities, where reservation breaches run rampant during overcrowded trade shows and sporting events, operators are reluctantly calling 1990 the start of "a decade of disloyalty."

At Commander's Palace - another popular New Orleans destination that is not immune to abusive no-shows, particularly during major conventions - large tables are now reserved with refundable deposits, said operator Ella Brennan.

But while visiting out-of-town groups are blamed for much of the no-show harm, small parties and locals also are big offenders, according to operators.

"We've been studying the problem, and there isn't any consistency," said restaurateur Brennan. "It's just another example of declining courtesy," she said, echoing her peers in other cities.

The national Restaurant Association, in its most recent study of reservation no-shows, reported that three-fourths of tablecloth operators were calling to reconfirm table bookings with patrons.

But while the notion of demanding credit card numbers, requiring deposits on special-occasion nights and charging no-show fees was only minimally popular a year ago, that attitude is apparently changing.

Drew Nieporent, owner of Montrachet in New York, took deposits for New Year's Eve and Valentine's Day to guarantee seating. The 60-seat restaurant, which opened in 1985, is asking patrons to reconfirm reservations one day ahead of dinner.

"We'd have a 40-percent no-show rate without reconfirmations," said Nieporent, who calls patrons when they forget. And he defends his new policy of special-occasion deposits as an operating must.

Leslie Reis, owner of Cafe Provencal in Evanston, III., has an even tougher policy but claims it has cut down dramatically on no-shows and smoothed her seatings.

"We've had mandatory reconfirmation for five years," said the outspoken critic of no-shows. "The rule is reconfirm by 2 p.m., or we might cancel your reservation. In fact, we release the table after 3 p.m."

Cafe Provencal also takes deposits for New Year's Eve, Valentine's Day and during graduation week at Northwestern University, which is three blocks from the restaurant.

"We're very nice about it," Reis explained. "It's a $25 deposit, and the number of no-shows I've to keep up with is minimal because when there's a money commitment, they either call or show up."

Reis, who keeps no-shows in a computer file and refuses a reservation to anyone whose name appears twice, re-called one patron's calling from the hospital after his wife give birth six weeks premature, asking not to be blacklisted.

But operators complained that the stepped-up no-show attention diverts them from culinary and hospitality concerns, where they would much rather be focused.

"We're going to become more like accounting firms than restaurants," said Charles Palmer, who co-owns and operates the 96-seat Aureole in midtown Manhattan.

Calling New York the most troublesome no-show city in the nation, Palmer said he's justly proud that Aureole's broken reservations run just 15 percent.

"We reconfirm every day, and we never take reservations more than two weeks in advance," said Palmer, who hates to look at empty tables after they've been reconfirmed that morning.