A Dublin restaurant which had 11 no-show bookings in one evening has said it was disheartened when people failed to honour their reservations.
The La Peniche restaurant on the Grand Canal closed for the night on Wednesday after 11 people who had confirmed bookings failed to turn up.
Wayne from La Peniche told Lunchtime Live that it was "very rude" of the diners, who had booked in three separate groups, not to show up.
He said that staff had been brought in and fresh food had been bought for the evening, a lot of which went to waste.
He added that "business has been tough" as there is no passing trade at the moment.
Wayne believes that no-shows are happening frequently and that the restaurant may have to consider taking deposits for bookings.
Just closing the boat for the night and feel so disheartened 11 people who had booked and confirmed didn’t show up these are people we followed up with we had the tables ready set etc we were waiting and just no shows. We close Mon and Tues and open today to this 😔 #supportlocal pic.twitter.com/HQ7x7zlaJd
— LaPeniche (@LaPeniche3) September 9, 2020
He said: "I believe this happens quite a lot and people have started taking deposits.
"It's probably what needs to happen going forward.
"You would like to be able to trust people and not have to take a deposit because we understand that taking deposits can be quite tough on people."
While he is wary about taking people's credit card details over the phone, Wayne said deposits might act as "a deterrent" to bookings not being honoured.
He added: "We understand people have to cancel.
"Cancellations are actually perfect it's just as long as we know we're not projecting to feed people that don't turn up.
Wayne said the three groups not showing up on Wednesday was "very rude" and that the restaurant would be blacklisting the phone numbers.
He said: "Of all those groups, could one person not acknowledge us and ring us?"
He said that staff "don't know whether they're coming or going" at the moment.
"People, when they came in on Wednesday, were all jollied up because they'd been off Monday and Tuesday expecting it to be a full house."
