Restaurant owner urges customers to keep bookings in midst of COVID-19 crunch

Restaurants and cafes will soon be able to accept more patrons as restrictions are eased, but eateries have urged customers to remember no-shows have a harmful effect on their bottom line.

A BELLERIVE restaurant owner has urged customers to honour bookings and give enough notice of cancellations, saying no-shows have a harmful effect on the bottom line of hospitality businesses.

Sarah Mundy, the owner of Gastown East on Cambridge Rd, said the importance of the issue was heightened due to gathering limits imposed due to coronavirus restrictions.

The business, which opened in 2018, had to close in late March due to rules designed to stop the spread of COVID-19, but was allowed to reopen and seat up to 10 patrons at a time.

Co-owners of Gastown East, Kristian Farrow and Sarah Mundy want customers to honour their bookings or call up if they cannot make it, because of gathering limits and associated impact of no-shows. Picture: Zak Simmonds

Miss Mundy, who runs the eatery with fiance Kristian Farrow, said further easing of restrictions would enable that number to increase in coming weeks.

She said while most customers did the right thing, the business had experienced instances where groups arrived with less people than they had booked for.

This meant the restaurant could lose out on income because it may have had to turn people away due to the existing booking.

“I know people don’t do it on purpose and don’t mean to upset the flow of the restaurant,’’ she said.

“I acknowledge there are times when you don’t have any prior notice but the majority of the time, if people do know in advance, any notice before the table arrives is enough for us.”

Miss Mundy said the business had considered taking credit card details when bookings were made but had decided against it due to the impact on older customers.

She said government grants for small businesses, the JobKeeper scheme, and a supportive landlord had allowed the business to stay afloat during the coronavirus crisis.

“We’re really fortunate our business is community-based. We have a lot of regulars that we several times a week and we’re not relying on tourist trade,’’ she said.