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Hospitality glossary · Service and operations

No-show

A no-show is a booking that never arrives and never cancels, leaving a table held empty through the part of service when it could have been sold.

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In practice

No-show in a real operation.

Definitions are easy. What matters is how the thing behaves in a real operation, and where it tends to go wrong.

What it looks like in a UK hospitality business

The cost is the full contribution of those covers, not the food, because the table was unsellable while it was held. Most operations reduce them with a combination of card details or a deposit taken at booking, an automated confirmation a day or two out, and a quick call for large parties. Terms have to be set out clearly at the point of booking for a charge to be fair and enforceable, so write them plainly and say them out loud to anyone booking by phone.

The mistake operators make

Treating the policy as the whole answer and the reminder as an optional extra. A confirmation message that makes cancelling easy recovers far more tables than a charge nobody ever applies, because most no-shows are people who forgot or felt awkward about ringing, not people trying it on.

Questions

No-show, answered.

Something here that doesn’t match what you’re seeing in your own business? That is usually worth a conversation rather than another article.

What does no-show mean in hospitality?

A no-show is a booking that never arrives and never cancels, leaving a table held empty through the part of service when it could have been sold. The cost is the full contribution of those covers, not the food, because the table was unsellable while it was held. Most operations reduce them with a combination of card details or a deposit taken at booking, an automated confirmation a day or two out, and a quick call for large parties. Terms have to be set out clearly at the point of booking for a charge to be fair and enforceable, so write them plainly and say them out loud to anyone booking by phone.

What do operators get wrong about no-show?

Treating the policy as the whole answer and the reminder as an optional extra. A confirmation message that makes cancelling easy recovers far more tables than a charge nobody ever applies, because most no-shows are people who forgot or felt awkward about ringing, not people trying it on.

Related terms

Worth reading next.

Covers

A cover is one guest served, so “we did 180 covers” means 180 people ate — not 180 tables, and not 180 bills.

Table turn time

Table turn time is how long a table is occupied by one party, from being seated to being ready for the next booking, and it sets how many covers a room can physically do in a service.

Walk-in

A walk-in is a guest who arrives without a booking, and in most restaurants and pubs they are a significant share of covers rather than an exception to plan around.

WHY Hospitality

Knowing the term is not the same as fixing the problem behind it.

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