Aberdeen bar sees over 20 no show bookings this past weekend

Six Degrees North on Little John Street said it was disappointing and means they turn away potential paying customers in a time with restricted capacities.

Author: Lewis MichiePublished 8th Jun 2021

Aberdeen Pub six degrees North say they had 20 bookings no show their time slots on just Saturday alone this past weekend.

Venues are still restricted on capacity due to social distancing measures, meaning many end up booked out over the weekends - preventing any walk up business.

But many bars and pubs have reported high numbers of no shows, meaning tables that have been reserved go unused.

Six Degrees North Manager Sam Pitt told Northsound:

"No shows have sadly been a fairly regular occurrence throughout the last few weeks, as well as every other time we've re-opened throughout the pandemic.

"The impact is greater now because like most places we are operating at reduced capacity, with fewer tables and seats, which means we hit our capacity much more quickly than we used to."

Sam says they do try and avoid this, but because they try and give the benefit of the doubt that a reservation might be late, it means they often struggle to fill a no-showed table with a walk up.

He said:

"We try and provide it a grace period of about half an hour just in case they are running late.

"This often causes us to turn away customers without a booking, only to find out a table with a booking doesn't turn up, which means we could have given those customers that table had we known

"We do try and give those customers a call, but more often than not they answer."

On what well meaning customers who can't help but miss a booking should do, Sam said:

"Most online booking systems there will be a link in the email confirmation that lets you cancel and change the booking.

"Failing that if the customer gives us a quick call or a message on social media it means we can reallocate that table."

Sam says he acknowledges people can feel anxious about cancelling a booking, but says there is no hard feelings, and in fact the bar are thankful to be notified.

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