No-shows costing hospitality £17.6bn a year

No-shows costing hospitality £17.6bn a year

No-shows by diners who have booked in advance are costing the hospitality sector £17.6bn a year, it has been revealed.

Hospitality tech firm Zonal said that since April one in seven customers have not turned up for a reservation without telling the venue with a quarter of 18-34-year-olds not honouring their bookings.

Zonal and consultancy firm CGA surveyed a total of 5,000 people and found younger people were most likely not to show up, compared to just 1% of those aged 55 and over.

Londoners were the worst no-show offenders, with 24% of consumers in the capital not cancelling their bookings in advance, compared to a national average of 14%.

‘Deeply damaging’

In response to the findings companies such as UKHospitality, Zonal, CGA, Bums On Seats and Wireless Social have joined forces to highlight the issue of no-shows, with a new initiative, #ShowUpForHospitality.

Chief executive, Kate Nicholls, 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 and it’s encouraging that this research shows there is a growing realisation among customers of the need to honour their booking or let the venue know they can’t make it. But it also highlights the fact that no shows still happen far too often, with younger customers particularly responsible, and that really can’t go on.”

You can download the campaign pack here to learn more and encourage customers to #ShowUpForHospitality via LinkedIn, Instagram and Twitter.

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