No-show cost calculator
What are no-shows costing you?
A booked table that never turns up costs you the whole bill: the food you prepped, the staff you scheduled and the walk-in you turned away. Put in your covers and your no-show rate to see the year.
Your numbers
Count a month of bookings against who arrived. Even a small share adds up.
A what-if. Leave at 0 to see the cost with no deposit.
The answer
- Empty seats a year
- 520
- Sales lost to no-shows
- $20,800
- Kept from deposits
- $0
- Still lost after deposits
- $20,800
That is $1,733 a month.
The numbers shown first are examples to show how the sum works. Replace every one with your own: nothing here is a quote.
How the sum works
Empty seats are your booked covers a week, times 52, times your no-show rate. Lost sales are those seats times your average spend per head.
A deposit is an amount you would ask for per head. If it is kept when a guest does not turn up, it wins back that much of each empty seat. It can never win back more than the spend it protects, so the calculator caps it there.
This is lost SALES, not lost profit. Some of the food is saved if you prep to bookings, but the staff, the rent and the turned-away walk-in are not, so the real cost sits close to the figure.
The deposit box is a what-if. Leave it at 0 to see the cost with no deposit.
Questions about this calculator
How do I work out my restaurant's no-show rate?
Take a month of bookings and count the covers that never arrived, then divide by the covers booked. Leave out cancellations made in good time, because those tables could be rebooked.
Do deposits put guests off booking?
A fair deposit, taken off the bill on the night, rarely puts off people who mean to come. Many restaurants ask for one only for larger groups or busy nights, which is where no-shows hurt most.
How much should a deposit be?
Enough to matter and not enough to scare people off. The calculator shows what any figure would be worth over a year.
Is this lost profit?
No, lost sales. Part of the cost is food you did not need to buy, and part is staff and rent you paid anyway.
Is anything saved or sent?
No. The numbers stay in your browser and nothing is stored.
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