Reader: Charging a penalty would cut down on restaurant no-shows

Oak at Fourteenth is a very good restaurant, and it earned raves from Gretchen Kurtz in her review this week. But even a very good restaurant can have very big problems with no-shows, as co-owner Bryan Dayton learned last month when several large parties failed to arrive on a weekend...

By Patricia Calhoun

June 7, 2013

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Oak at Fourteenth is a very good restaurant, and it earned raves from Gretchen Kurtz in her review this week. But even a very good restaurant can have very big problems with no-shows, as co-owner Bryan Dayton learned last month when several large parties failed to arrive on a weekend so busy that they even opened Oak early, and were turning people away. Dayton was so peeved that he tweeted the names of the scofflaws, but soon had reservations about that tactic. What should restaurants do to combat no-shows?

Says Denver Dave:

I'm all for the taking a credit-card number idea. A lot of high-end restaurants in NYC, SFC, etc. have been doing it for years. Really, how hard is it to pick up the phone and cancel a reservation (especially in small venues) so that the restaurant can at least try to accommodate people on a waiting list. You fail to cancel -- your credit card gets hit with a failure to cancel penalty. You'd have to disclose that penalty when taking the reservation, of course. I bet that'd cut down on the no-shows!

Would charging a penalty for no-shows work? Would you object if you were charged for a no-show?

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Patricia Calhoun is editor-in-chief of Westword, the alt-weekly she co-founded in September 1977. She’s been inducted into the Colorado Press Association Hall of Fame, the Association of Alternative Newsmedia Hall of Fame and the Colorado Restaurant Association Hall of Fame. She’s also received dozens of local, state and national awards for writing, including first place for feature writing and first place for column writing with the Society of Professional Journalists. Patricia is a weekly commentator on Colorado Inside Out, PBS 12's public affairs roundtable, which has won two Emmys.

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