Booking no-shows: how to reduce the number of empty tables
How many bookings end in a no-show, who fails to turn up most often and what actually helps: confirmations, reminders, easy cancellation and tracking.
Vitrina team5 minute read
Contents
In short
On average 2.33% of bookings end in a no-show, and it happens most often in the evening.
Couples fail to turn up most often, while large groups are more reliable, although their no-show costs more.
A reminder with a “cancel” button turns a no-show into a cancellation, and the table back into a sale.
Mark who didn’t come: without tracking you can’t see what works.
How many guests don’t turn up
A no-show seems like a small thing until you count it for a Friday night. A large open dataset on the subject comes from the booking service Resos: 3.77 million bookings at 2,417 restaurants from August 2025 to July 2026. Here is what it shows.
2.33%
of bookings end in a no-show on average
Source: Resos No-Show Index 2026
2.63%
no-shows at dinner versus 1.84% at lunch: it is the evening that suffers, when a table could have been sold twice
Source: Resos No-Show Index 2026
2.69%
no-shows on Mondays, the worst day of the week; the best day is Wednesday with 2.09%
Source: Resos No-Show Index 2026
Who doesn’t turn up
Conventional wisdom says large groups are the biggest risk. The data says otherwise: couples fail to turn up most often, and parties of ten or more are the most reliable. But a large group’s no-show takes more seats, so on average a booking for ten or more guests costs three times as much as a booking for two.
No-show rate by party size
- 1-2 guests2.63%
- 3-4 guests2.13%
- 5-6 guests2.28%
- 7-9 guests1.73%
- 10 guests or more1.15%
When people book and when they don’t turn up
Another surprise: people who book a month ahead turn up more reliably than those who booked earlier the same week. The riskiest window is bookings made two to six days ahead, so those need a reminder most of all.
No-show rate by how many days ahead the booking was made
- Same day2.09%
- 1 day ahead2.4%
- 2-6 days ahead2.67%
- 7-13 days ahead2.57%
- 14-29 days ahead2.34%
- 30 days or more1.96%
What reduces no-shows
- 1
Confirm straight away
An email with the time, the address and a calendar file: the visit lands in the guest’s phone.
- 2
Remind before the visit
A few hours before the visit, with a “cancel” button: cancelling is easier for a guest than simply not showing up.
- 3
Cancellation in one tap
The easier it is to cancel, the more no-shows become cancellations, and the table goes back on sale.
- 4
A table hold time
Say in the confirmation how long the table will wait for the guest: that way the rules are known in advance.
- 5
Large groups by phone
Bookings for ten or more people are worth confirming with a call the day before.
16%
lower no-show rate for bookings that received an SMS reminder; this is an association in the data, not a proven cause
Source: Resos No-Show Index 2026
Deposit or not
In the Resos data, bookings that required prepayment or a payment guarantee had 0.80% no-shows versus 2.47% without one. But Resos publishes these figures only as descriptive: venues that take deposits differ from others, and the study did not prove a clean effect of the deposit itself. A deposit makes sense for peak evenings and large groups, while for an ordinary dinner a reminder and easy cancellation are usually enough.
Tracking no-shows
Four tracking habits
Mark “arrived” and “no-show” every evening, while you still remember.
Look at which days and hours have more no-shows.
Record late cancellations separately from no-shows.
A repeat no-show is a reason to call the guest before their next booking.
How Vitrina does it
In Vitrina, the guest gets a confirmation email with a calendar file and a reminder before the visit by email, push or Telegram (there are no SMS reminders), and can cancel through the “my booking” link. Staff get Telegram notifications about new requests and cancellations, and mark “arrived” and “no-show” in the admin panel. Table booking has only just arrived in the product, and we are switching it on for the first venues.
Frequently asked questions
What no-show rate is normal?
In the Resos data the average is 2.33%, but it varies a lot between countries: from 0.49% in Switzerland to 5.88% in France. Compare yourself with yourself and measure your no-show rate every month.
Do reminders help?
In the Resos data, bookings that received an SMS reminder had a 16% lower no-show rate. That is an association, not a proven cause, but a reminder with easy cancellation costs little. In Vitrina reminders go out by email, push or Telegram.
Should I take a booking deposit?
For peak evenings and large groups it is an option, but the Resos data did not prove a clean effect of deposits. How to set up the booking itself is covered in our article on online table booking.