By Ian McConnell

GLASGOW is second in the league table of restaurant no-show hotspots in the UK, according to a survey by booking platform TheFork.

The restaurant booking platform estimated that what it described as a “new spread-booking craze”, where consumers make reservations at multiple restaurants to ensure they have options to choose from but only intend to honour one of them, could cost UK restaurant owners £6.2m over the next four weeks.

The research by TheFork found that "the most loyal and devoted diners with the least amount of no-shows" were Liverpudlians and Edinburgh residents. 

London was the worst for no-shows, the survey found, with Manchester in third place just behind Glasgow.

Nineteen per cent of UK residents admitted to failing to arrive for a restaurant reservation since indoor dining returned after the most recent lockdown, research by TheFork showed.

And the survey showed 30% of respondents who failed to show up for a recent booking were no-shows because they were "spread booking".

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Patrick Hooykaas, managing director at TheFork said: “It’s great to see demand for dining returning and reservations increasing across the country, but restaurants still face a huge challenge to get back on their feet. It is more important than ever that diners show their support for local businesses, and the biggest way they can do that is to only reserve the tables they really need.

"When diners no-show for a booking, it results in a loss of revenue that restaurants can ill afford. In the UK, it is costing businesses millions. Of course, there are times when diners have to change their plans and can’t fulfil a reservation, but when that happens our advice is to always give the restaurant as much notice as possible so they can offer the table to another customer."

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He added: "It is also important that booking platforms play their part by not facilitating unfair behaviours such as spread booking. Here at TheFork, we do not allow customers to make more than one booking during the same time period on our site. The message from us is simple, if you do not plan to attend your restaurant booking, cancel. We can all do our bit to help get this important industry back on its feet.”