Saying goodbye to restaurant no-shows with prepayments

Restaurateurs have been hit hard by the level of customers failing to honour their bookings after the lifting of lockdown.

English Michelin-starred chef, Tom Kerridge recently slammed the “disgraceful, short sighted” behaviour of 27 people who were no shows at his London restaurant Kerridge’s Bar & Grill on Saturday (11 July), on Instagram according to a recent article in Big Hospitality.

For some restauranteurs, maybe now is the time to consider taking prepayments. Not only will it reduce no shows, but it will offer other advantages too:

• improve cash flow,
• easily handle more bookings,
• only order and cook food you need,
• reduce turnaround and smooth service.

With Syrve, customers can easily establish and implement a reservation prepayment policy e.g.

• to confirm a reservation, guests must pay a portion of the reservation cost upfront by making a prepayment,
• all guests charged using a manual payment, even no shows,
• recoup cancellation fees,
• reduce no-show rate.

Syrve allows customers to register prepayments by a bank card, cash or using other payment methods.

The customer prepayment is recorded against the table booking.

When the booking party arrives and makes an order, the prepayment is deducted against their final bill.

If there is a no show, the manager sells a “No Show” item to balance against the prepayment and close off the transaction.

Alternatively, the restaurant can always refund the prepayment at discretion.

Cash reports show receipts for prepayments and prepayment refunds that took place within the current till shift.

In SyrveWeb, restauranteurs have full visibility of No Shows and any cancellation monies collected over time periods.

Are you ready to cut down on no-shows and increase revenue – is it time to start using a prepayment policy?