No-shows at restaurants costing hospitality sector £17.6bn a year, says study

A new report claims that 18-34-year-olds are the worst offenders when it comes to no-shows

No-shows are costing the hospitality sector £17.6bn a year (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

One in seven customers has failed to turn up to a prearranged reservation without informing the venue since April, according to a new study.

Data collected from hospitality technology firm Zonal reveals that no-shows at restaurants and pubs are costing the hospitality sector £17.6bn a year.

Their report claims that those aged between 18-34-years-old were the “worst offenders” for no-shows, with more than a quarter (28 per cent) not honouring existing bookings, compared with just one per cent of those aged 55-years or above.

And geographically, Londoners were labelled the worst for failing to alert venues if they were no longer able to attend, with 24 per cent of those in the capital admitting that they had not notified a restaurant or bar they had a reservation for, compared with a national average of 14 per cent.

More than 5,000 people nationwide were surveyed by Zonal and consultancy firm CGA to generate the report, which also revealed that one in eight of those polled (12 per cent) said they were more likely to no-show now than before the pandemic.

The news comes as restaurants, pubs and bars across the UK are struggling to recover after the devastating financial hit of the pandemic.

Industry group UK Hospitality said no-shows were “deeply damaging” to the sector.

Kate Nicholls, CEO of UK Hospitality, said: “No shows have been a blight on the industry for many, many years, but with tens of thousands of hospitality businesses in such a fragile state following prolonged periods of closure and heavily-restricted trading, they are currently deeply damaging to venues.

“Our pubs, bars and restaurants deserve our support.”

In response to the findings, Zonal and UK Hospitality have launched a campaign called #ShowUpForHospitality encouraging people to honour the bookings they make – or at least inform venues if they are no longer able to attend.

A report published by Caterer.com in August showed that more than 90,000 workers left the UK’s hospitality sector over the previous 12 months due to Brexit and the pandemic, with more Britons entering the field than ever before.

And nearly 90 million pints of beer were wasted due to pub closures during the pandemic, the British Beer & Pub Association (BBPA) estimated earlier this year, at a cost of £331m.

Emma McClarkin, chief executive of BPPA, said: “Our sector is in limbo. And at several points in the last 12 months pubs and breweries have effectively had to pour their revenues down the drain.”