Irish Examiner view: Give red card for bad bookings

The next time you go to book a table be prepared to pay a deposit — and remember, the restauranteur is not to blame, the boorish people who book but don’t turn up are.

The problem with boorish people is that sometimes they are so boorish they don’t even realise or care that they are boorish. That trait is all too animated today in what, in less challenging times, might have been shrugged off as a first world problem. Today an unfortunately common form of boorishness is compromising struggling businesses and undermining the sustainability of barely-hanging-in-there jobs.

Restaurants have had to deal with the boorishness of unfulfilled table bookings for a long time but, strangely, the lockdown has made the problem worse.

“Consumers have been making multiple bookings in numerous establishments and either didn’t turn up at all or if they phoned to cancel, did it very late in the day,” says Restaurants Association of Ireland CEO Adrian Cummins.

That is unsustainable so the next time you go to book a table be prepared to pay a deposit — and remember, the restauranteur is not to blame, the boorish people who book but don’t turn up are.