Strangest cancellation reasons revealed, as no-shows increase

New data has revealed 10 of the strangest reasons people provided for needing to cancel a reservation in the hospitality industry.

Taken from booking trends seen by Zonal across the UK, some of the top reasons to bring some light relief to a damaging topic include "my kids don't care" and “I wanted to ruin my fiancé’s birthday”.

Sadly, the data reveals that the amount of 'no-shows' has doubled since September last year. In fact, 12% of consumers are no-shows, which costs the sector £17.59bn per year in lost revenue and even more once wasted food and staff costs are taken into account. 

Aside from the more unusual reasons, analysis of the data shows that over half (52%) of cancellations occur due to customers making a mistake on the original reservation. For example, over a third said they had booked the wrong time, date or venue. Other issues included the group size or dropouts (17%) or being double booked (9%). 

The next most common reason for cancellation given was ‘illness’, with 19% of people mentioning this. While 12% said that a change of plans meant that they were unable to turn up to their booking. Nearly a quarter of people didn’t provide any reason for their cancellation.

The Top 10 most unusual cancellation reasons

1. “Seagull problems”

2. “I wanted to ruin my fiancé’s birthday”

3. “Sorry! Changed our minds after having breakfast!”

4. “My sister wants to eat at home”

5. “Na”

6. “My friend has an unexpected council meeting”

7. “My kids don’t care”

8. “Went into labour” 

9. “Still in the queue for the London eye”

10. “My date cancelled on me last minute”

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