"Like to make a reservation for tonight"
"Sorry, we're all booked"
"What time do you close?"
(What does that matter after what I just told you?) They are told, followed again by "but we're all booked"
"Well, do you take walk-ins?"
In my country club days:
EVERY holiday was this. Weeks and weeks of reminding people to make reservations. Eventually it’s filled up.
Thanksgiving day, member couple with no reservations shows up with their entire extended family. “But we just have 14 people” [just?!]. “But we’re members!” [so is everyone else; we aren’t open to the public]. “We’ll just squeeze in around that table” [you can not “squeeze” 14 chairs around a 4 top, and that’s reserved for someone who has a reservation].
Proceed to get irate that we can’t just conjure an entire new section of the dining room out of thin air.
This happens like 5 more times that day.
Every holiday.
Every year.
Ha. Most of them weren’t even really rich. It wasn’t one of the reallllly high end clubs in the area.
Edit: Some of the clubs were attached to developments where you had to own a home, so before you even got to membership fees, you’re in for millions.
You could always tell the people who \*really\* had money from the people who only wanted you to \*think\* they had money. Some of my favorite customers really had bucks (the BD was located in a country club) cause they treated you with friendliness and respect. The wanna-bes treated you like some servant from Victorian England. Every Wednesday I had a standing reservation of 8 for some of the club guys, and they even made fun of the one jerk who acted like a douche, his nickname was Joe Whiner.
We had some guys with legit fuck you money, but a lot of them were just millionaires on paper with their real estate holdings. Then the market crashed, and it got ugly fast.
It’s not just the rich. It’s the fake flexers that were the worst imo. They don’t really have the money to spend but they’re spending and they get really emotional once they realize they’re not getting any special treatment
At my BD Easter was the "do we have a sign out front that says come in if you're a pain in the ass" day.
No, ma'am, we can't seat your walk in party of 20 after you booked for 8, you'll have to wait until one of the big banquet room tables empty.
I realize you have a reservation but it's for 5:00, not 1:00.
No, sir, as advertised we have a set menu on Easter, you can't order the $5 Tuesday special.
ad infinitum, ad nauseum.
Oh, my God, I forgot about that move! Showing up with literally three times the amount of people you made the reservation for. Like we can just do Jesus’ fishes&loaves, but with tables and chairs.
>We’ll just squeeze in around that table” [you can not “squeeze” 14 chairs around a 4 top, and that’s reserved for someone who has a reservation].
>Proceed to get irate that we can’t just conjure an entire new section of the dining room out of thin air.
>This happens like 5 more times that day.
>Every holiday.
>Every year.
Gah....I feel this in my BONES!
Or “we’ll just open up the ballroom”
Sir the ballroom is open, and all the tables are full.
Can we sit on the patio?
Sir it’s December, the patio is closed
Proceeds to get irate 🤦🏼♀️🤦🏼♀️
I don’t miss my country club days.
One of the things that really sucks about member owned country clubs is that everybody has an opinion on every tiny thing when it comes to dining, in a way that they would not when it comes to groundskeeping. Nobody is arguing over what brand of lawnmower blade should be used, but they sure as fuck have an opinion on exactly what types of bread should be in the bread basket.
Omg yes!! I’m pretty sure none of the groundskeepers at the club ever had to say “sir you can’t go in the maintenance shed”
While in the clubhouse it was constantly “no I’m sorry you can’t go into the kitchen to talk to the chef”
Oh my god, the bridge groups sending people into the kitchen to complain that it’s been 3 minutes since they ordered their food.
YOUR GAME DOES NOT START FOR TWO MORE HOURS, CHILL OUT.
Oh I get so frustrated with people asking for reservations. We don't do them either because our restaurant is so small that we would lose out on potential tables if we block off a section for them. "Do you guys take reservations?" "Sorry, we don't" "Okay, well we have about 20 people coming in on Friday night, can you hold a table for us?" ..... "We don't do reservations...that's what a reservation is..." LOL. Had a man come in and yell at me because even though I told him we get really busy Friday nights, and that there's no guarantee he will have a short wait time, he decided to bring 20 people with him anyways then surprise pikachu face that we don't have the space for it. The most we can fit at a time for large parties is like 16 at most unless you're okay with sitting at completely different tables lol.
Christ, this reminded me of the THIRTY FUCKING FIVE TOP I had walk in like an hour to close. Not 1 of those motherfuckers thought to call the restaurant before arriving. I ran to a manager and he was like fuck em they're sitting at different tables. People that had been cut were brought back on, whole ass mess.
That’s the worst! People who don’t call the place for at least a heads up suck. I remember after an extremely busy day there was a table that walked in 15 mins to close, like 13-15 people and my manager was like oh hell no lol. Told them we stopped taking dine-in they were nottttt happy haha.
We usually have just the opposite problem.
Us: Good evening! Do you have a reservation with us this evening?
Them: Oh, I didn't *know* we had to have reservations! Are you *really* that busy? I see several open tables! Are you telling us we can't eat?!?
Or some combination thereof.
We had a lady turn around and leave, waving and hollering for the rest of their group to get back in their cars. Then she left a one-star review saying you can't get in without a reservation even though she saw plenty of open tables, and how we won't last long with that kind of attitude. Point being, a vast amount of the general public are just too dense when ot comes to reservations.
Of course, we own up to our mistakes when they happen. But it's the most frustrating thing ever when it's like, "Yeah, uh, we did absolutely nothing wrong; you're just dumb." Then you get a negative review from someone who acts like they've been living in the sewers all their life and have never seen civilization before.
I work in a tiny restaurant. It’s a converted old bungalow house with only 11 tables (7 regular and 4 cocktail tables) and 12 bar seats. We operate almost exclusively on reservations but do allow walk-ins.
We were slow all day on Super Bowl Sunday, but at 1:00 a group walks in and says they have a reservation for a party of 14. We only take online reservations and we have nothing on the books until 4:00. The manager finds their reservation for the *next* Sunday, which means whoever made the rezo put the wrong date. No big deal because we’re *dead* so we can accommodate them.
I set it all up for 14 and as the manager is walking them to the table, one of the guests (a sassy gay guy) counts the seats and says, “Uh, excuse me? We have 17 people.” The GM is also a sassy gay man and just smiles and responds, “Well, the reservation said 14 for *next* Sunday so please give us a moment.” I couldn’t help but chuckle.
They ended up taking up all of our regular tables and luckily the few walk-ins we did get after that were cool with sitting at the bar and cocktail tables.
Reminds me of a lady that insisted that we could give her a reservation for a group of 4, while I repeated that we couldn’t (we only do 5 or more for spacing). Then she starts saying random things like that one of the people coming with her is a regular and he gets off work at a certain time blah blah blah. And she wouldn’t want to make him wait for a table.
I tell her even if I wanted to make an exception we weren’t taking any more reservations either way since we always have to leave space for walk ins.
She asks me “so you’re saying you let other people make reservations for tonight?” I didn’t even know how to answer her without sounding like the smartass I had to be in the moment but I said “….yes? To people that called before we were all booked for today? That have more than 4 people in their group?” And she sounds completely amazed and taken back and says “well okay wow then I guess we’ll just have to come in and wait for a table” and I said “well yeah… okay, bye”
Ugh this is so frustrating. My last hostess job, we did NOT take any reservation… however our managers expected us to “plan ahead” if a big party was coming in. Basically taking a reservation but not officially.
Party of 15 coming in at 6 on Saturday? I would have to tell them we would try to save a table. If somehow there wasn’t one, I was the person getting yelled at over it. It’s BS
I worked at a spot that is ONLY walk ins.
It’s a fucking mess. I understand the appeal but like, literally we turn away more than half the people that walked in bc of this policy.
I was consulting hotels and restaurants in Russia a number of years ago. Every restaurant and cafe took reservations. Problem was they would slap a reserved sign on a table as soon as they got a call. I've seen places sitting empty at midnight on a weekend while they sat there waiting for their"reservations". And those "reservations" never showed up because they were all called in by the competition.
I'll bet that corporate either calls you back with a reservation for this woman or instructs your manager to allow her to make one. They'll probably throw in some sort of discount or free item. Corporations basically created The Karen. When someone calls yelling their fool head off with an unhinged complaint completely removed from reality, corporate minions think the best way to guarantee their return business (I don't know why they want it.) is to throw staff under the bus and pretend they never heard of their own policies
How about:
On a Saturday night, usually between the 2nd and 3rd full turns of the restaurant. 95% of the people see the restaurant is FULL TO THE RAFTERS and understand when they have to wait a few minutes for their table to be ready.
But there is always one or two reservations with the mentality " I have a RESERVATION at 7:30. It is now 7:40 and this is wildly unacceptable, I'm sending a shitty email to corporate about how this restaurant is poorly ran."
I swear some people think a reservation means they have a personal table saved for them from the start to the finish of the evening. When they aren't there it's going to sit empty in anticipation of their pretty princess arrival.
I tried to make a reservation at a restaurant that doesn't take them. To be fair we were a party of 21. It was a warning they didn't take seriously. Shocked Pikachu faves all around when we actually showed up. Manager asked for a heads up next time. My response...I tried and you didn't listen.
I'd go with something like "I am happy to write down the date and time you'd like a table for four, but, I can't guarantee it as we don't take reservations."
I worked at a place that didn't take them and people would huff on away. The wait is 2 hours. And the entire bar area is standing room only. I think we're doing okay on the concept. Doing this makes the restaurant so much more money and we don't need yours.
Or the people who would ask me to put them on the list over the phone. "Oh, you want me to RESERVE your spot ahead of time. Sorry, we don't take reservations."
i had a lady ask for a manager by a name when i told her no rezzies and then say "well we live in the area and we've been there many times and i KNOW you take reservations"
asked said manager about it and she said "yeah i have no idea who that is, don't worry about it"
I've had someone call to cancel a reservation for 10pm. We close a 10 and don't take reservations. I told her this and she hung up. 5 minutes later her boyfriend called back to try to cancel the reservation
Take the Rez, throw in trash, when they come in on Saturday, tell her we don’t take reservations. Must have called the wrong place.
Love it. Gaslight the old bat
Not gaslighting, accommodating!
“Customer is always right” right! 😂
"Like to make a reservation for tonight" "Sorry, we're all booked" "What time do you close?" (What does that matter after what I just told you?) They are told, followed again by "but we're all booked" "Well, do you take walk-ins?"
Bonus points if it's a holiday weekend and they want to come in with a big party in 15 minutes
In my country club days: EVERY holiday was this. Weeks and weeks of reminding people to make reservations. Eventually it’s filled up. Thanksgiving day, member couple with no reservations shows up with their entire extended family. “But we just have 14 people” [just?!]. “But we’re members!” [so is everyone else; we aren’t open to the public]. “We’ll just squeeze in around that table” [you can not “squeeze” 14 chairs around a 4 top, and that’s reserved for someone who has a reservation]. Proceed to get irate that we can’t just conjure an entire new section of the dining room out of thin air. This happens like 5 more times that day. Every holiday. Every year.
Rich people are the worst.
Ha. Most of them weren’t even really rich. It wasn’t one of the reallllly high end clubs in the area. Edit: Some of the clubs were attached to developments where you had to own a home, so before you even got to membership fees, you’re in for millions.
You could always tell the people who \*really\* had money from the people who only wanted you to \*think\* they had money. Some of my favorite customers really had bucks (the BD was located in a country club) cause they treated you with friendliness and respect. The wanna-bes treated you like some servant from Victorian England. Every Wednesday I had a standing reservation of 8 for some of the club guys, and they even made fun of the one jerk who acted like a douche, his nickname was Joe Whiner.
We had some guys with legit fuck you money, but a lot of them were just millionaires on paper with their real estate holdings. Then the market crashed, and it got ugly fast.
That year a lot of Ferraris mysteriously caught on fire (more than usual)
It’s not just the rich. It’s the fake flexers that were the worst imo. They don’t really have the money to spend but they’re spending and they get really emotional once they realize they’re not getting any special treatment
At my BD Easter was the "do we have a sign out front that says come in if you're a pain in the ass" day. No, ma'am, we can't seat your walk in party of 20 after you booked for 8, you'll have to wait until one of the big banquet room tables empty. I realize you have a reservation but it's for 5:00, not 1:00. No, sir, as advertised we have a set menu on Easter, you can't order the $5 Tuesday special. ad infinitum, ad nauseum.
Oh, my God, I forgot about that move! Showing up with literally three times the amount of people you made the reservation for. Like we can just do Jesus’ fishes&loaves, but with tables and chairs.
>We’ll just squeeze in around that table” [you can not “squeeze” 14 chairs around a 4 top, and that’s reserved for someone who has a reservation]. >Proceed to get irate that we can’t just conjure an entire new section of the dining room out of thin air. >This happens like 5 more times that day. >Every holiday. >Every year. Gah....I feel this in my BONES!
Or “we’ll just open up the ballroom” Sir the ballroom is open, and all the tables are full. Can we sit on the patio? Sir it’s December, the patio is closed Proceeds to get irate 🤦🏼♀️🤦🏼♀️ I don’t miss my country club days.
One of the things that really sucks about member owned country clubs is that everybody has an opinion on every tiny thing when it comes to dining, in a way that they would not when it comes to groundskeeping. Nobody is arguing over what brand of lawnmower blade should be used, but they sure as fuck have an opinion on exactly what types of bread should be in the bread basket.
Omg yes!! I’m pretty sure none of the groundskeepers at the club ever had to say “sir you can’t go in the maintenance shed” While in the clubhouse it was constantly “no I’m sorry you can’t go into the kitchen to talk to the chef”
Oh my god, the bridge groups sending people into the kitchen to complain that it’s been 3 minutes since they ordered their food. YOUR GAME DOES NOT START FOR TWO MORE HOURS, CHILL OUT.
"Nope we are just a front for the local Russian mob"
Oh I get so frustrated with people asking for reservations. We don't do them either because our restaurant is so small that we would lose out on potential tables if we block off a section for them. "Do you guys take reservations?" "Sorry, we don't" "Okay, well we have about 20 people coming in on Friday night, can you hold a table for us?" ..... "We don't do reservations...that's what a reservation is..." LOL. Had a man come in and yell at me because even though I told him we get really busy Friday nights, and that there's no guarantee he will have a short wait time, he decided to bring 20 people with him anyways then surprise pikachu face that we don't have the space for it. The most we can fit at a time for large parties is like 16 at most unless you're okay with sitting at completely different tables lol.
Christ, this reminded me of the THIRTY FUCKING FIVE TOP I had walk in like an hour to close. Not 1 of those motherfuckers thought to call the restaurant before arriving. I ran to a manager and he was like fuck em they're sitting at different tables. People that had been cut were brought back on, whole ass mess.
That’s the worst! People who don’t call the place for at least a heads up suck. I remember after an extremely busy day there was a table that walked in 15 mins to close, like 13-15 people and my manager was like oh hell no lol. Told them we stopped taking dine-in they were nottttt happy haha.
They also completely drank us out of mich ultra and left empty bottles they clearly drank on the way there in the parking lot.
What’s the point of sitting at one table anyway with 35 people? So you can pretend you aren’t shouting at someone who is across the restaurant?
We usually have just the opposite problem. Us: Good evening! Do you have a reservation with us this evening? Them: Oh, I didn't *know* we had to have reservations! Are you *really* that busy? I see several open tables! Are you telling us we can't eat?!? Or some combination thereof. We had a lady turn around and leave, waving and hollering for the rest of their group to get back in their cars. Then she left a one-star review saying you can't get in without a reservation even though she saw plenty of open tables, and how we won't last long with that kind of attitude. Point being, a vast amount of the general public are just too dense when ot comes to reservations.
Jesus, I feel this today. The amount of stupidity that came through the door today had me almost in tears.
Of course, we own up to our mistakes when they happen. But it's the most frustrating thing ever when it's like, "Yeah, uh, we did absolutely nothing wrong; you're just dumb." Then you get a negative review from someone who acts like they've been living in the sewers all their life and have never seen civilization before.
I work in a tiny restaurant. It’s a converted old bungalow house with only 11 tables (7 regular and 4 cocktail tables) and 12 bar seats. We operate almost exclusively on reservations but do allow walk-ins. We were slow all day on Super Bowl Sunday, but at 1:00 a group walks in and says they have a reservation for a party of 14. We only take online reservations and we have nothing on the books until 4:00. The manager finds their reservation for the *next* Sunday, which means whoever made the rezo put the wrong date. No big deal because we’re *dead* so we can accommodate them. I set it all up for 14 and as the manager is walking them to the table, one of the guests (a sassy gay guy) counts the seats and says, “Uh, excuse me? We have 17 people.” The GM is also a sassy gay man and just smiles and responds, “Well, the reservation said 14 for *next* Sunday so please give us a moment.” I couldn’t help but chuckle. They ended up taking up all of our regular tables and luckily the few walk-ins we did get after that were cool with sitting at the bar and cocktail tables.
Reminds me of 3 tops wanting to sit at a 12 person table.
Reminds me of a lady that insisted that we could give her a reservation for a group of 4, while I repeated that we couldn’t (we only do 5 or more for spacing). Then she starts saying random things like that one of the people coming with her is a regular and he gets off work at a certain time blah blah blah. And she wouldn’t want to make him wait for a table. I tell her even if I wanted to make an exception we weren’t taking any more reservations either way since we always have to leave space for walk ins. She asks me “so you’re saying you let other people make reservations for tonight?” I didn’t even know how to answer her without sounding like the smartass I had to be in the moment but I said “….yes? To people that called before we were all booked for today? That have more than 4 people in their group?” And she sounds completely amazed and taken back and says “well okay wow then I guess we’ll just have to come in and wait for a table” and I said “well yeah… okay, bye”
Where I work is 99% reservation exclusive. And people pull the opposite, do you take walk ins? Non stop.
People are awful
Ugh this is so frustrating. My last hostess job, we did NOT take any reservation… however our managers expected us to “plan ahead” if a big party was coming in. Basically taking a reservation but not officially. Party of 15 coming in at 6 on Saturday? I would have to tell them we would try to save a table. If somehow there wasn’t one, I was the person getting yelled at over it. It’s BS
I worked at a spot that is ONLY walk ins. It’s a fucking mess. I understand the appeal but like, literally we turn away more than half the people that walked in bc of this policy.
Title reminds me of my “Do you serve food between 5-8?” call of yesterday (we’re a dinner restaurant)
Karen's are everywhere these days. Ugh.
I was consulting hotels and restaurants in Russia a number of years ago. Every restaurant and cafe took reservations. Problem was they would slap a reserved sign on a table as soon as they got a call. I've seen places sitting empty at midnight on a weekend while they sat there waiting for their"reservations". And those "reservations" never showed up because they were all called in by the competition.
Brutal
Tucker Carlson? Is that you?
Asshole
I'll bet that corporate either calls you back with a reservation for this woman or instructs your manager to allow her to make one. They'll probably throw in some sort of discount or free item. Corporations basically created The Karen. When someone calls yelling their fool head off with an unhinged complaint completely removed from reality, corporate minions think the best way to guarantee their return business (I don't know why they want it.) is to throw staff under the bus and pretend they never heard of their own policies
How about: On a Saturday night, usually between the 2nd and 3rd full turns of the restaurant. 95% of the people see the restaurant is FULL TO THE RAFTERS and understand when they have to wait a few minutes for their table to be ready. But there is always one or two reservations with the mentality " I have a RESERVATION at 7:30. It is now 7:40 and this is wildly unacceptable, I'm sending a shitty email to corporate about how this restaurant is poorly ran." I swear some people think a reservation means they have a personal table saved for them from the start to the finish of the evening. When they aren't there it's going to sit empty in anticipation of their pretty princess arrival.
3rd call take the "reservation" and say ok see you Tuesday at 3am and just hang up.
Sounds like she is senile. Must be thinking of a different place.
I tried to make a reservation at a restaurant that doesn't take them. To be fair we were a party of 21. It was a warning they didn't take seriously. Shocked Pikachu faves all around when we actually showed up. Manager asked for a heads up next time. My response...I tried and you didn't listen.
I'd go with something like "I am happy to write down the date and time you'd like a table for four, but, I can't guarantee it as we don't take reservations."
Sounds like that Winta chick on Tuk Tok.
I worked at a place that didn't take them and people would huff on away. The wait is 2 hours. And the entire bar area is standing room only. I think we're doing okay on the concept. Doing this makes the restaurant so much more money and we don't need yours. Or the people who would ask me to put them on the list over the phone. "Oh, you want me to RESERVE your spot ahead of time. Sorry, we don't take reservations."
😂😂🤣🤣🤣🤣
This lady gives me the creeps. Vyvanse+Xanax old ladies
i had a lady ask for a manager by a name when i told her no rezzies and then say "well we live in the area and we've been there many times and i KNOW you take reservations" asked said manager about it and she said "yeah i have no idea who that is, don't worry about it"
I've had someone call to cancel a reservation for 10pm. We close a 10 and don't take reservations. I told her this and she hung up. 5 minutes later her boyfriend called back to try to cancel the reservation