In some restaurants, if customers do not honor their reservation, fees apply. A practice that more and more establishments are using, but is it really legal? Answers with Maître Baptiste Robelin, lawyer expert in hotel and restaurant law.
If you are used to booking online to get a table in a restaurant, you may have one day encountered this type of message: “Reservations for this slot are subject to the deposit of a bank imprint. This will be essential to be able to validate the reservation, but will only be charged in the event of a no-show or late cancellation.” In other words, if you don’t cancel your reservation in time or don’t come, you will have to pay a reservation fee. The amount can be more or less significant depending on the reputation of the establishment, up to 40 euros, 100 euros or 150 euros for example.
Many catering professionals use this practice, because more and more customers do not honor their reservations and this is costly for establishments. In France, in 2022, a platform was signed by 100 restaurateurs and published in the media Fooding And Konbini to denounce this phenomenon. “Wasted products, disrupted cuisine, disrupted service, shaken organization, impacted turnover… A no show, a reservation for two, four, eight or twenty which is not honored, and the whole restaurant pays.” indicated the text. But do they have the right to apply reservation fees to their customers?
According to Maître Baptiste Robelin, associate lawyer at Nov Law and expert in hotel and restaurant law, at present, “there is no specific text governing this practice, so in principle, it is legal, as long as the reservation costs have been announced in advance.” Restaurant owners are in fact required to display their general reservation conditions for “clear and fair manner” on their site to their customers. By applying it, they comply with the legal framework in terms of consumer law as well as the GDPR provisions which concern the recording of personal data and banking references communicated at the time of an online reservation.
As a customer, can I refuse to be charged these fees? “If the restaurant owner’s practice has been clearly indicated to the customer, you cannot contest it. Unless the amounts debited are greater than the amount that was announced”, underlines the lawyer. In this case and also if you were not informed, you can take legal action, but Maître Baptiste Robelin does not necessarily recommend this, because very often, the lawyer’s fees are much higher compared to the amount of the harm caused. So now you know what to look out for when you book your next table at a restaurant!