Buses for truants polarized
Restaurants are afraid of alienating their customers
More and more people are skipping their reservations – most frequently in the city of Zurich. That’s why restaurants can now charge a fine if tables remain empty. The measure splits the gastro scene into two camps.
Published: 5 minutes ago
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Conveniently via smartphone or laptop: it has never been so easy to reserve a table.
Select the restaurant, reserve a table online with just a few clicks – and then don’t show up. The catering industry in Switzerland is struggling with guests who don’t show up without notifying them. So-called no shows have quintupled since the corona pandemic (Blick reported). Lunchgate, the largest provider of online booking systems in German-speaking Switzerland, has now analyzed the problem more closely and published the results at the end of January:
- The no-show rates are highest in the cities of Zurich, Lucerne, Basel and Bern
- Restaurants register the most no shows on weekends
- No shows are most common after 8 p.m
- Guests making reservations at a particular restaurant for the first time are twice as likely to no-show as returning guests
Restaurateurs demand a solution
According to Lunchgate, these numbers are frustrating for the restaurants and lead to financial difficulties. Managing Director Yves Latour (45) says to Blick: “Every day, restaurateurs contact us to ask if we have a solution.” Until now, Lunchgate was able to block guests in the system who had already skipped several times. Apparently that’s not enough to make it more binding.
That’s why Lunchgate is now offering a new option: fines for truants. With the “Foratable Pay” service, restaurateurs can now request their guests’ credit card details when making reservations. If they do not show up without prior notice, a fee may be charged. The restaurant must inform guests of this during the reservation process.
Commit or discourage guests?
It is up to the companies themselves whether they want to use this opportunity and how high the fine should be. There is no maximum amount. The fee can also only be charged at certain times, for certain group sizes or exclusively for new guests.
“With the new service, we want to contribute to a paradigm shift in the gastronomy scene,” says Latour. Opinions are divided in the catering industry, as a Lunchgate survey of 352 catering establishments shows. Around 30 percent want to introduce the credit card option. About the same number are against it because they are afraid of upsetting their guests or losing them altogether. Seven percent of restaurateurs are undecided.
When asked by Blick, Gastrosuisse writes that the restaurants have so far been rather reluctant when it comes to specific measures against no shows: “The restaurateurs see themselves too much as hosts and do not want to deter guests with such consequences.” The optional solution with which buses polarize. Whether people feel more committed to it remains to be seen.
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