Do you mind when restaurants call to confirm your reservations?

5 Comments

  • Jeremy - 13 years ago

    Personally, I hate it. There are other modes of communication in modern times, and I would much prefer an email than a phone call. (Phone? Who uses that anymore?) Restaurant staff can personalize an experience just as well via email.

  • Andy McElhany - 13 years ago

    I do not mind a confirmation call. I understand the need to reduce the number of no-shows. What I really do not like are restaurants that demand a credit card to make a reservation. I simply say "no thanks" and go somewhere else.

  • Becca Willcox - 13 years ago

    Being in the restaurant manager, and trying to schedule a busy night and accomodate all of our guests as close to their desired time, sometimes calling to confirm is a necessary activity. As we know life gets in the way and sometimes people forget to call. Also, often times people make reservations at multiple restaurants and the thought of calling the restaurant that you are NOT dining at escapes us. While we certainly would much prefer not to spend employee hours (thus company dollars) on sometimes repetitive activity, it is also an opprotunity to personalize our guests' visit. We can take this time to ask if it is a special occasion, or introduce ourselves to the guests and begin a pleasant relationship. Yes, technology is wonderful and the emailing of confirmations is completely convenient for us all, but for those guests that are not as considerate or just really busy, this is the most assured way to accomodate the maximum amount of guests at your establishment and make the most amount of people happy. Time is money and the longer that we hold tables for parties that do not show up and turn away guests that WILL show up, the more money we lose and the more money we put into our competitor's pockets. Turning a guest away also does not start a great relationship off the bat so we may even lose a potential FUTURE customer. Imagine if you set aside time for a business meeting and the people that you were having the meeting with just didn't show up. When you put it in the context or a different business/line of work...it does not seem so annoying.

  • Lynne Mattison-Tolep - 13 years ago

    I bave never gotten such a call, and use OPENTABLE.COM frequently.
    But if I did, I certainly wouldn't mind.
    Sometimes, between the placement of the online reservation, and the days or hours between, something comes up forcing a cancellation, and a person might forget to go online and cancel.
    If that were the case, why shouldn't the restaurant know in time, and save that reservation for someone else who might have been turned away.

  • Carl Smith - 13 years ago

    I think restaurants are still operating in the stone ages. They need to catch up with the technology that is available to them. One of the purposes of online reservations is to remove the hassle of verbal confirmations. When restaurants assign the task of phone confirmations to an employee, they are simply wasting that individual's time. From what I have heard about opentable, not all of the restaurant's tables are listed online. So, it is possible that any no shows can be covered with walk-ins or last minute reservations by phone. What is also disturbing is the lack of attention to the special request section in the reservation section and the frequent inability of some of the higher end restaurants to have their tables ready at the time of the reservation request. Soon restaurants will be forced to adhere to new technology in the kitchen, on the floor, and in the bar. Until then, we will all suffer through their growing pains.

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