Restauranter Paul Treyvaud has said he can understand both sides of the argument around cancellation fees for tables.

He was speaking as one Cork restaurant charged a fee of €250, after a couple cancelled a tasting menu booking with only 30 minutes notice.

The tasting menu at the Michelin-star Bastion restaurant is priced at €130 per person.

The couple said they had to make an emergency trip to an Accident and Emergency department.

Paul Treyvaud is the owner of Treyvaud's Restaurant in Killarney.

He told Lunchtime Live this is a hard one to call.

"This story, in particular, it's unfortunately a story that I can understand both sides of it; both sides are right," he said.

"The couple are obviously not going to turn around and say 'The kid's sick but we'll go out for dinner anyway', and the restaurant is right.

"There was no way the restaurant was going to cover or resell those seats.

"So I completely understand the owners, that they were left high and dry, and that they had to recuperate their costs somehow - staff would have been there, food would have been there.

"It's not ideal for both scenarios; slightly different in the sense [that] this is one of the best restaurants in the country."

'It's not as easy as that'

He said taking a holding fee for a table is becoming more popular.

"In a tourist town like Killarney, it's very possible that I might have a stag party, a hen party, eight American golfers... where all of a sudden there's one guy who's made the booking and six of the fellas after the golf turn around and say 'I'm actually quite happy just to stay here and have a few pints' - with no consideration that the restaurant has bought in the food, brought in the staff and they're keeping the space.

"I fully understand why more and more places are doing it," he said.

"I personally don't like doing it, unless it's a very large group on a particularly quiet night in November where I'm opening specifically for them."

Close up of a man reading a menu in a restaurant. Picture by: Tetra Images, LLC / Alamy Stock Photo

However he said some other restaurants will find it harder to fill tables at the last minute.

"The Michelin-star restaurants, it's not as easy as that, because you're just not going to resell that table.

"They do unfortunately get cut out, and operating at that level they are throwing the food out - they're not going to turn around and say 'That'll be grand for tomorrow'.

"They are operating at the highest-level possible, so I fully understand where they're coming from," he added.