Some Restaurants Won’t Take a Reservation. Deal With It.

A recently deleted post by a customer on the Facebook page of a national chain restaurant that treats their customers just like family posted a complaint: “I called to make a reservation, but they wouldn’t let me. When I got there, I waited an hour for a table! Why can’t I make a reservation?? So frustrating! Makes no sense!”

Actually, it does make sense for some restaurants to not accept reservations. The short answer is they don’t need to. Imagine, if you will, a restaurant only has 20 tables to seat. On a Saturday night, let’s say fifteen different people make a reservation for 7:00. All of a sudden, 75% of the restaurant will now be theoretically full. At 6:30, three new parties arrive and are seated. That leaves just two tables still available as the restaurant waits for the other 15 parties to arrive. By 6:45, the last two unclaimed tables have been filled as well, so now the restaurant looks basically empty, but within fifteen minutes it should be completely full. At 7:00 five of the fifteen parties arrive, but where are the other ten? By 7:20 the restaurant is still waiting for four of the reservation holders to show up even though walk-ins are ready to snap up those four gloriously empty tables. “But I see empty tables!” they exclaim. Those walk-ins dejectedly go somewhere else as the restaurants hopes these lollygaggers with the reservation eventually show up. And then they don’t. At 7:45, the tables are released after the restaurant had to turn away people who were clamoring for those very tables less than an hour before.

Need another reason that some restaurants don’t take reservations? No problem. Say a customer makes a reservation for twelve people. The restaurant rearranges two 4-tops and a two 2-tops to accommodate them all. The group of twelve people slowly dissolves into a paltry party of seven. That means that five available seats have been wasted and instead of seating customers, those chairs now hold bags, purses, coats and the bitterness of a server who isn’t making the money they should be making.

Oh, you still want to know why some restaurants refuse to accept reservations? Okay, here’s another reason. A couple has a reservation for 8:30 and show up to the restaurant at 8:25. “Oh your table should be ready any minute,” says the host. However, the customers who reserved that same table at 7:00 are still sitting there because they showed up fifteen minutes late. They also ordered well-done steaks that took a lot longer to make and then they wanted some time to “catch up with each other” before they ordered dessert. Now they’re sipping their coffee and ignoring the check that’s been on the table for ten minutes. The host can either piss those customers off by asking them to vacate their table or piss off the new customers who arrived on time for their reservation, but still don’t have a table. Once again, the restaurant could have just seated tables first come, first serve and avoided all the conflict.

If a restaurant chooses to not accept reservations, it’s their decision. No amount of complaining on their Yelp page is going to change it. The restaurant knows that their restaurant may be even more full than had they taken reservations since so many customers don’t bother to show up for them anyway. Plenty of restaurants take reservations. If you absolutely only want to go to a restaurant where you have reserved a table, then do it. But don’t think that a restaurant has some sense of obligation to write your name down in a book and guarantee you a place to sit as soon as you arrive. Restaurants make their own rules and do what’s best for them. If they are constantly on an hour-wait for an available table and do not take reservations, they’re doing just fine. You can either wait for a table or you can find someplace that will reserve you one. If you choose the latter, make sure you show up on time with the exact number of people you said were coming and then don’t get too upset if you still have to wait for a while. And whatever you do, don’t go onto their Facebook page and complain abut it. When you’re there, you’re family which means they might embrace you with open arms and a warm hug or they might treat you like dirt and wish they’d never laid eyes on you. Hey, that’s what families do, right?