Roland T. R.
Yelp
We were in Odense as part of a large international conference, and a reservation for 9 people was booked by the organizer. Unfortunately, the organizer's mother died, and she had to fly back to her home country to take care of arrangements. Therefore, she was preoccupied with many things other than our restaurant reservation, and did not inform the restaurant that she was not coming. Another of our party also did not show up, unexpectedly. The restaurant waited until the very end of the meal to notify the seven people who showed up that we would need to pay for nine, even though we made it clear at the start of the evening that one person (and maybe two) may not be able to make it.. This was very unfair to the seven people who showed up, who had not made the reservation, and who had no fault in the other two people not showing up. I think that given the large profit the restaurant already made on our seven people, the restaurant should have accepted the slightly lower profit, rather than charging the people who actually showed up extra, when it was not our fault that the other two people did not show up. In essence, the restaurant is penalizing innocent customers for lost profit that the restaurant should realize is the cost of doing business with reservations for large groups. For large groups, there will almost inevitably be some shrinkage in the reservations, due to unforeseen events. That is not the customers' fault, especially when the organizer has an unavoidable emergency. Thi who showed up (and paid) did not make the reservation, and should not have to pay for people who did not show up, when this was not the customers' fault who actually showed up.