At The Killingworth Castle, in Wootton near Woodstock and Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire, we have noticed a rise in ‘on the day’ cancellations.
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Initially, like many of our peers when no shows increased post-Covid, we decided to take a deposit per head, but perhaps given our setting in the affluent northern Oxfordshire Cotswolds, we have sadly come to the realisation that it is now not enough.
This latest fresh hell trend for those of us in foodie pubs is extremely frustrating.
Some customers have started booking half a dozen restaurants in an area on any given day and then decide at the last minute which one suits them best, whether it’s down to geographical location or what booking slot fits in with them best.
‘Decide on the day’
One of our locals who works for a wealthy local family told us that she is regularly asked to sort out some bookings and that they’ll simply ‘decide on the day’ which one they fancy honouring. I doubt even our royalty has balls on them that big, yet it’s happening more and more.
It’s a bizarre position to be in, in an industry where three pubs are closing every day, that this new entitled elite of people who are purposely booking multiple venues and don’t show up for most of them imply don’t care if they lose their deposit or not. This new breed of entitled customer – let’s call them the ‘guilded ghosts’ – are so monied that they actually factor this into their budgets.
Sometimes we can refill a table but it’s often at the cost of making our team more stressed as we try to sandwich in customers to make up for the shortfall. It’s not good for the kitchen or front of house, let alone or stock control and wastage.
Services must be tightly managed
But, as an owner, nothing says ‘hideous person’ to me more than someone who ghosts a call from a small, independent family business person who is trying to establish if they’re ‘on their way’ or not. They seem to think that if they don’t turn up one week, they’ll visit us the next instead and that this is still somehow ‘supporting the business’.
With so much of our trade squashed into the weekend, our services need to be more tightly managed than ever. Sadly, so do these ‘red flag’ customers. While they are absolutely not the majority, rest assured there will be a couple of these every weekend, usually on our key services.
So yes, we’ve increased the deposit hugely and more so if we are ghosted. We have to flag up names of persistent offenders on our booking system.
If you know anyone doing this, tell them to stop. Money is no excuse for bad behaviour.
