Give My Table Away

Published on Monday, April 16, 2007, by Helena Echlin / Edit Post

Dear Helena,

If a restaurant calls you to confirm your reservation, do you have to call them back if you want to keep it? And if you want to cancel a reservation at a hot-spot restaurant, how late can you do it? Is one hour before considered poor manners? Or is it like an appointment with your shrink, where 24 hours ahead is de rigueur? Also, if they ask for a credit card number, can they charge you for a late cancellation? —Fickle Diner

Dear Fickle Diner,

Some restaurants will cancel reservations if you don’t confirm by a certain time, such as noon on the day of a dinner reservation. If this is the case, they will mention it in their messages and will make multiple attempts to contact you. Deborah Torres, a reservationist at Charlie Trotter’s in Chicago, says: “We call all the numbers the customer has given us, we email them, and if we know where they’re staying, we’ll call there too.” Other restaurants will hold the reservation, even if you don’t call them back. Either way, if you can make it, you might as well call; otherwise, they will keep bugging you.

If you can’t make it to dinner, you must call the restaurant as soon as you realize this. The worst thing you can do is not bother to contact them at all. “Someone who was enthusiastic about coming is cheated out of a reservation,” says Sarah Carron, manager of wd-50 in New York. “Your table sits empty for 25 minutes while the restaurant waits for you to arrive; and then if we fill the table, the reservation schedule is out of whack.”

Some hot restaurants have no penalty for last-minute cancellations. Carron says: “We understand that everyone is busy, work runs late, and baby-sitters flake.” Unlike simply not showing up, calling and telling them you’re not coming shortly before you’re supposed to arrive doesn’t hurt the restaurant much. The staff just fills your table with walk-ins or people on the waitlist.

But some upscale restaurants do punish flaky behavior with a fee. The exact policy varies. Charlie Trotter’s charges $100 per person for canceling after 12 p.m. on the day of the reservation (it also charges you if you reduce the number of people in your party). But the fee is not always this draconian. Robert Coffing, general manager of Cyrus Restaurant in Healdsburg, California, says when customers cancel with less than 24 hours’ notice, the restaurant simply charges their credit card for a $50 gift certificate per person. Many restaurants only demand a late-cancellation fee if the reservation is for a large party. The reservationist should tell you what the restaurant’s policy is at the time he or she takes your credit card number. If he or she does, the restaurant can lawfully charge you, according to a representative of MasterCard.

If a reservationist asks for your card number but doesn’t mention any fees, it’s likely he or she is doing it purely for psychological effect. “We don’t do anything with the information,” says wd-50’s Carron. “But people are more responsible about canceling if you have their credit card details.”

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POST A COMMENT |11 Comments

COMMENT

  • Restaurants overbook and the people get them back when they walk in off the street and say they had a reservation for four. Then flip them a $20 and go on in.

  • Hey! Give the Savoy's a break! Sorry, just a joke as that's my family name. On the flip side, we have held a table for almost an hour for people with reservations. Eventually you have to turn it over, this is business.

  • What to do when a restaurant gives away your reservation?? We went to a PTown Restaurant who not only gave our reserved seat to a "regular" but gave away our entire reservation, causing an hour wait, only to be seated at a 4 top with a card table.....I say cancel away. We confirmed the reservation when we made it and arrived 15 minutes early. Shame on the "busy" restaurants for overbooking or...+READ

    What to do when a restaurant gives away your reservation?? We went to a PTown Restaurant who not only gave our reserved seat to a "regular" but gave away our entire reservation, causing an hour wait, only to be seated at a 4 top with a card table.....I say cancel away. We confirmed the reservation when we made it and arrived 15 minutes early. Shame on the "busy" restaurants for overbooking or playing favorites!-COLLAPSE

  • I always call if we have to cancel and the restaurant is always appreciative. I have even been known to call if we get stuck in traffic and are going to be 15 minutes late (a pet peeve of mine - I hate being tardy). Most restaurants are both appreciative of the head's up and stunned that a customer actually took the time to alert them.

  • ^ I would cringe at the sight of your hotel's name...

  • Guy Savoy in Paris cancelled my reservation, which I made 5 months in advance because it was my number one pick in all of Paris. I forgot what day it was (jet lag) and failed to call to confirm. They called my hotel several times, but my cursed concierge refused to help me out and wouldn't give a confirmation. By the time I returned from sightseeing to change for dinner, the reservation was well...+READ

    Guy Savoy in Paris cancelled my reservation, which I made 5 months in advance because it was my number one pick in all of Paris. I forgot what day it was (jet lag) and failed to call to confirm. They called my hotel several times, but my cursed concierge refused to help me out and wouldn't give a confirmation. By the time I returned from sightseeing to change for dinner, the reservation was well and thouroughly cancelled, and no amount of pleading would sway them.

    Saturday night in Paris in May does not lend itself to walk-ins. We had a mediocre meal at some Conran touristy place for one of our only 3 dinners in Paris.

    To this day I cringe when I see Savoy's name.-COLLAPSE

  • I always call to cancel or if I'm running more than 15 minutes late . . . we recently had prime-time reservations at a popular Brooklyn restaurant during Restaurant Week, so I knew they were packed w/a waiting list. We were held up in horrific traffic, so I called to let them know, thinking they'd give our table away and we'd have to wait in line when we got there. Lo and behold, when we did roll...+READ

    I always call to cancel or if I'm running more than 15 minutes late . . . we recently had prime-time reservations at a popular Brooklyn restaurant during Restaurant Week, so I knew they were packed w/a waiting list. We were held up in horrific traffic, so I called to let them know, thinking they'd give our table away and we'd have to wait in line when we got there. Lo and behold, when we did roll in, a teeth-gritting 30 minutes late, our table waiting. We already liked the place; now we love it.-COLLAPSE

  • I refuse to give a cc number; even restos that 'require' this have not pushed it when I told them that I refuse to give that information out. I've never been denied a reservation because of this.

    That being said, I always call the restaurant 24 hours notice if I am not going to make it; else I have lots of friends that will take up the helm and go out if I can't make it.

  • as a former restaurant owner ... i'd say call as soon as you know you can't make, call when you are lost or detained & will be late and when your party size changes. sure if it's a tuesday it's not the end of the world if you don't but on a busy night it can make all the difference .. seating is a delicate dance between the floor and kitchen staff so any notice of changes is always appreciated.

  • As soon as I know I can't make it, I always call to cancel, even if it's just a half hour ahead. The restaurant is generally appreciative. The staff at good restaurants does remember people who are consistent no-shows, so if it's a place where you hope to go back in the future, give them a call.

  • Whenever I make a reservation at a restaurant, I then add "Can we consider this reservation confirmed?" so that I don't have to return the confirmation call that I invariably miss in order to re-confirm my reservation. The staff are *always* fine with this, especially since I sometimes add, "If anything changes, I'll be sure to call."

    And I do.

    I call ASAP if the seating numbers change, or...+READ

    Whenever I make a reservation at a restaurant, I then add "Can we consider this reservation confirmed?" so that I don't have to return the confirmation call that I invariably miss in order to re-confirm my reservation. The staff are *always* fine with this, especially since I sometimes add, "If anything changes, I'll be sure to call."

    And I do.

    I call ASAP if the seating numbers change, or if I find we cannot make it that night. I also call if it looks like I am running 15+ minutes late, because the last thing I want is for that table to have been given away bc they thought I wasn't showing up.

    This is common courtesy and basic etiquette.

    I just think all this calling and re-calling and confirming is utterly ridiculous and a pain in the neck, but I know it's because people have become so rude, selfish and thoughtless as to not even bother to cancel their reservation if they are not going to honour it.

    All you have to do is spare a thought for people trying to run a business and act accordingly.-COLLAPSE