With Reservations

Don’t you just hate it when a restaurant won’t seat your incomplete party? Apparently, so do a lot of other people. The Cornell Center for Hospitality Research conducted a study on reservations policies in restaurants and released the results in a report today:

The survey found that customers were not keen on several policies designed to prevent no-shows, late-shows, or short-shows (when some, but not all of a party arrives). While the survey respondents generally supported the idea of giving away the table of a late-arriving party, for instance, they disliked policies that call for an entire party to be present before anyone is seated. Credit-card guarantees earned reluctant support in the survey.

What’s your least favorite reservations policy?

A Consumer’s View of Restaurant Reservations Policies [Cornell University School of Hotel Administration]