Count before you change anything
For a month, record every no-show and every late cancellation against the service, the day of the week, the party size and how the booking arrived: phone, your own website, or a platform. A rate on its own tells you little. A rate by service and party size tells you where to act.
Look for concentration before you apply a rule to every table. If the trouble is Saturday parties of six or more, a phone call for large bookings fixes it without adding friction to a Tuesday table for two.
Confirm the booking in writing
A booking that lives only in a phone call or a form submission is easy to forget and impossible to point to. Send a confirmation with the date, the time, the party size and a way to change it.
A request-and-confirm model helps here, because it gives you a natural moment to reply. On the phone, read the booking back and ask for a mobile number you will actually reach.
Send one reminder, and let the guest cancel from it
A reminder about a day ahead catches the forgetting. A booking made the same day needs one only a few hours before, or none at all. The reminder has a single job: make “still coming” and “can’t make it” equally easy. One that only says “see you soon” saves nobody.
The cancel option matters more than the wording. A guest who can cancel in one tap will, and you get the table back while there is still time to sell it.
Make cancelling easier than not turning up
Every cancellation before service is a table you can resell. Every no-show is not. So put the way to cancel where the guest already is: in the confirmation, in the reminder and on your booking page, not behind a phone number that rings in a loud kitchen.
Treat honest cancellations kindly. A guest who cancels an hour before and gets a friendly reply books again. One who is scolded stops cancelling and starts not showing.
Give large parties and peak services a human
Pick a party size, six or eight, above which you confirm by phone or message a few days ahead. One large party that does not arrive costs you several tables at once, so it is worth a two-minute call.
Do the same for your busiest services. The aim is to put effort where a missed booking costs most, not to call everyone.
Decide what a late cancellation and a no-show cost, then say so before they book
The options run from nothing, to a stated fee, to a deposit, to a card guarantee that charges only if the guest fails to show. Whichever you choose, the guest has to see it before the booking is made, in plain words. A fee the guest first learns about when the charge appears is the weakest position you can be in.
The law on what you may charge, and how you must present it, is in our guide to deposits and no-show fees. If you want wording to start from, the cancellation policy templates are written out in full.
Free the table on a clock you have told the guest about
Decide how long you hold a table for a late party, often fifteen minutes, and put it in the confirmation. When the time passes, mark the no-show so the table can be seated again. A walk-in fills the gap only if someone is free to seat them.
Keep notes you would read aloud
A guest who has not shown twice is worth a note, written as a fact: “did not attend on 12 March”. Not “flaky”. The guest can ask to see what you hold about them, so write what you would be comfortable reading to their face. Our guide to guest data sets out how long you may keep it.
What we would not rely on
Accepting more bookings than you have tables is a bet on your own no-show rate. It turns a bad night into a crowded room and a worse review. If you do it, do it by service, keep the margin small and watch the result.