Booking site Dimmis bans 38,000 “no-show” diners
Restaurants affiliated with the online booking site Dimmi have cracked down on diners who have failed to show up at a reservation in the past year – they have banned 38,000 of them.
This will have an impact on the industry with Dimmi being Australia's largest online reservation service. Dimmi hosts 4000 bookable Australian restaurants on its platform, making up about 40 per cent of Australia's restaurant market.
The industry is clamping down on “no-shows” because it’s estimated it costs restaurants $75 million a year. Some eateries, like Nel Restaurant in Sydney’s CBD, estimate annual losses of $31,000 if just two tables a week fail to show up.
According to Dimmi’s annual No Show report, there’s been a sharp increase in the number of diners not turning since March last year.
Diners who are blacklisted if they fail to show up at a restaurant booking are unable to book at that establishment for one year.
The system stores customers’ credit card details so it’s designed to deter no-shows and take pre-payments for bookings.
And there are signs that it’s working.
Since the system was set up, there’s been a 25 per cent drop in restaurant no-shows recorded in the past 12 months.
Dimmi founder and chief executive Stevan Premutico says “no-shows” are a huge issue for the industry which had shown an "overwhelmingly positive" response to the blacklist system.
"If someone is a no-show, they will be added to the list ... however, the restaurant can choose to override that,” Mr Premutico told the Sydney Morning Herald.
"Consumers in Australia don't typically 'no-show' with malice or bad intention. I just don't think they realise the impact it has."
According to Dimmi data, the most common no-shows in Australia live in the postcodes 2000 (Sydney), 4217 (Surfers Paradise), 3000 (Melbourne) and 2010 (Darlinghurst/Surry Hills).
There is also a fairly even gender split of no-show diners at 54 per cent female and 46 per cent male.
by Leon Gettler, February 22nd 2017
