What is a typical restaurant no-show rate?
It varies widely by restaurant, season and how bookings are taken, so use your own figure. Count last month’s bookings that didn’t arrive and didn’t cancel, and divide by all bookings.
Restaurant no-show cost calculator
Enter your own numbers to see what empty tables cost per week and per season. Nothing is saved or sent anywhere.
Your restaurant
Covers booked per service
Average across lunch and dinner
Services per week
Lunch and dinner count separately
No-show rate
Booked guests who don’t come and don’t cancel
Average spend per guest
Food and drink, excluding VAT
Weeks in your season
A winter season is often 16–20 weeks
Seats refilled by walk-ins
Share of empty seats you fill on the day
What no-shows cost you
Lost revenue per season
- Lost revenue per week
- €840
- Empty covers per week
- 24
- Empty covers per season
- 432
- Each 1 point lower no-show rate is worth
- €3,024per season
How it’s calculated
Covers per service × services per week × no-show rate gives the guests who didn’t come. We remove the seats you refill with walk-ins, then multiply by average spend and the number of weeks in your season. Revenue is not profit: use it to compare options, not as an accounting figure.
Bring the number down
Four habits that cut no-shows.
01
Confirm instantly
A written confirmation with the date, time and party size is the first reminder.
02
Remind the day before
A text 24 hours before, with a link to cancel, turns silent no-shows into free tables.
03
Make cancelling easy
Guests who can cancel in one tap tell you, so you can offer the table to the waitlist.
04
Ask for a card on busy services
A card guarantee on larger tables and peak days makes the booking feel real, without charging anyone upfront.
Common questions
Should I count late cancellations?
If you couldn’t refill the table, yes. A cancellation 20 minutes before service costs the same as a no-show.
Why does the walk-in setting matter?
On a busy terrace some empty seats fill on the day. At an altitude restaurant with one lunch seating, few do. The calculator only counts seats that stay empty.
Is my data stored?
No. The calculation runs in your browser and nothing you enter is saved or sent.
Fewer empty tables. Starting this season.
Text reminders, easy cancellation and card guarantees, built for mountain restaurants.