However, for select restaurants that have a substantial check average coupled with limited seating, dealing with no-shows is an economic necessity. With these restaurants, even a small number of no-shows can mean the difference between success and disaster. To have reservations function correctly, the restaurant must turn down customers, especially walk-ins, who want to dine at the same time as customers who have reservations. Turning down anyone who wants to dine with you is difficult enough, but to turn down customers only to have the reservation party not show up either is totally unacceptable. In all fairness, at least for the moment, most of the restaurants that do charge for no-shows do so only for large parties, not smaller ones.
Reservations are a customer service that is taken for granted.
But look around at the number and kinds of restaurants that take reservations today. Most mainstream restaurant chains do not take reservations even though they did years ago. It wasn t worth their trouble. However, the higher-end dining segment must take reservations as a condition of the prices they charge. While restaurateurs and managers understand the complexity of reservations, most customers do not.