New research from OpenTable’s Restaurant Impact Report found that diners were honouring their reservations more frequently than the previous year, with 83% of customers recognising that failing to honour a reservation can harm a restaurant’s business.
The top 10 cities with the lowest proportion of no-shows were found to be Lincoln, Preston, Stirling, Worcester, Aberdeen, York, Hereford, Wolverhampton, Norwich, and Plymouth the booking platform says.
Cities with the highest proportion of no-shows included Leicester, Birmingham, Milton Keynes, Manchester, Liverpool, Gloucester, and Nottingham, with London also making the top 10.
The report also calculated the cost of a no-show for a table of two at an average of £55.70. However, it found that the impact goes beyond lost revenue, with 60% of restaurant operators saying no-shows have led them to turn away other bookings, 48% citing wasted food and stock, and 41% saying they make staffing harder to forecast.
Almost half (48%) of diners said that understanding the financial cost to restaurants would make them more likely to honour or properly cancel a booking. A further 44% said a small deposit or card hold would encourage them to do so.
Diners would be willing to pay an average refundable deposit or card hold of £35 per person, rising to £58 among Gen Z, £44 among Millennials and £49 among Londoners, the report found.
Among restaurateurs, sending diners confirmation reminders was most considered the most effective way to reduce no-shows, cited by 43% of respondents, followed by offering cancellation windows (36%), requiring deposits (32%) and sending SMS reminders (29%).
OpenTable says that restaurants using deposits through its reservation system globally led to a 60% reduction in no-shows.