Well that's one way to handle it...

Wouldn't it be cool if this (type) of thing became more common... I say "out" the scofflaws, plaster their names all over Facebook, etc.

http://shine.yahoo.com/shine-food/top-l ... 41971.html

"Everyone knows it’s uncool to be a no-show when it comes to restaurant reservations. But should neglecting to call and cancel make you a public pariah? Apparently, according to Noah Ellis, owner of acclaimed Beverly Hills restaurant Red Medicine, who spent the weekend tweeting the names of folks who didn’t show for dinner during prime time"...

It seems like a bad business practice, but it is a pure goose and gander situation. If a customer can blast a restaurant on facebook, why not a restaurant blast a customer?

Still, seems like a bad idea.

Take a cell phone number, call if they are 10 minutes late, agree to hold it for another 10 but no more. If they don't answer or are more than 10 minutes away,let the table go.

The abuse is especially bad on special event nights like Derby and New Year's Eve. People will make reservations at multiple locations so that they have options when the night arrives. Of course they never call and cancel the other resos once they decide. Those people should die.

Restaurants should take a Credit Card to hold a reservation and if they no show, charge it $5 or $10 per person that the reservation was for.

Where I work at doesn't have this policy, but for special events they should. We prep and schedule employees based on the reservations and then a little extra for walk-ins. If reservations don't show, not only is the restaurant out the revenue, they are out the extra food and labor cost. In a business of tight margins, it makes a huge difference.

But I digress. Publicly shaming the customer is a lose-lose situation. If a group of people with a reservation has an emergency, their priorities might not be calling your restaurant to cancel a reservation.

I just know from experience that on any given night 5-10% of the reservations are no-shows, but walk-in guests usually make up the slack. On special events, days where everybody already has plans and walk-in guests are non-existent, it can really make or break that day's profits.

To me this is just a stunt to drum up business. A good restaurant needs not worry about people not showing up for reservations. I worked in the service industry for over twelve years and I know a no show is not going to make or brake a restaurant. Also it will alienate some regulars and new diners as they might find it spiteful and immature to post stuff on twitter or facebook. BY THE WAY IT IS IMMATURE TO CALL PEOPLE OUT ON SOCIAL MEDIA UNLESS THEY ARE DOING SOMETHING CRIMINAL. Also many people book reservations under false names. Yes the research has been done. So please understand how businesses roll. A good restaurant will survive even if a reservation ends up being a no call no show. If this happens so much that it affects the business, well then you need to look at your business model.

Rick,
Not that they are the model for our local restaurant community, but this is exactly what Disney World does at their most popular restaurants. A credit card guarantee and a $10 cancellation fee per person if your party no-shows. Has apparently cut down on people making multiple reservations and then no-showing.

Lot's of local places implement a no show policy during Derby by holding a credit card number and explaining it when the reservation is made. It used to be a pretty common practice for out-of-towners to make several reservations at different establishments that they had no intention of honoring but did it to "keep options open".
As someone who worked many a busy Derby in the kitchens of some of these places, I can tell you that Rick is correct in that reservation numbers are the best gauge some of us have in how we schedule our production and labor.
When you are expecting ____ number of covers to show up and you have prepped and staffed for, I certainly have no problems charging someone a nominal fee for the establishment's inconvenience of a patron not bothering to show up or call.