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Reservation no-shows can be catastrophic for small independent restaurants, and while many diners perhaps don’t realise the consequences of their actions, one restaurant booking service is fighting back.
Dimmi, one of Australia’s most popular online booking portals, introduced a blacklist for restaurant no-shows last year. As Broadsheet reports, the list allows restaurant owners to bar diners for up to a year for failing to cancel bookings. Perhaps unsurprisingly to those who work in the industry, the list has swollen from 3159 last year to 38,000 – no shows currently cost the Australian restaurant industry AUS$75 million a year.
But, it seems to be working. Since the list was introduced, no-shows have decreased by 25% and Dimmi aims to reduce no-shows to zero by 2020. “The industry is better without this customer. They are the guys who cripple the profitability of these restaurants, who make them charge more for the rest of us,” said Dimmi’s founder Stevan Premutico.
France’s La Fourchette has also explored ways of reducing and killing off no show’s entirely, including the possibility of across the board financial penalties, while chef Matt Orlando of Copenhagen’s Amass restaurant penned an open letter on the subject.
What do you think? Should restaurants be allowed to blacklist diners or even review them? Let us know over on our Facebook page.
