Q & A with Chef J Stephen… Let’s say I gave a restaurant my card info while booking a reservation over the phone. If I were to cancel the reservation, would I be charged? Would I only be charged if I didn’t show?

 

 

 

Unless stated at the time of your reservation, most restaurants don’t charge for a
cancelled reservation.

However, if you can’t make it at your reserved time, you should ALWAYS cancel your reservation.

Simply not showing up not only complicates a restaurant’s guest schedules and denys the restaurant an opportunity to schedule another guest, but it also results in a charge that negatively affects the restaurants bottom line.

Most diners don’t realise that, because most restaurants use reservation services to handle their reservations, there is a cost associated with every reservation made and completed.

Because reservation services (e.g. Open Table, Seat Me, to name a couple) charge restaurants this fee for every reservation made and COMPLETED through their service, and those services consider a reservation completed if not cancelled, you should ALWAYS make sure you cancel your reservation through the same system you used to make your reservation.