No-show. The booked table that stays empty, with no cancellation.

A no-show is a confirmed booking where the customer doesn't turn up and doesn't let you know. For a restaurant, a hotel or a practice, it's a place prepared and not sold.

This entry is part of the AI and automation glossary, where the term appears as no-show. Here the definition goes further: what no-show means, the platforms' rule, what it costs, what reduces it and how to measure it.

What no-show means

No-show means the customer “didn't turn up”: a confirmed booking that stays empty, with no cancellation. It's different from a cancellation, which comes earlier and leaves time to resell the place, and from lateness, where the customer does arrive. The term is used for tables, rooms, flights and appointments.

For accommodation, Booking.com sets a time: “A no-show is when a guest hasn’t arrived for their booking by midnight on the planned check-in date”. The property can report it on the platform from midnight on the arrival date until 48 hours after the planned check-out date, and decide whether to charge the fee.

What a no-show costs

A no-show costs the margin on the empty place, plus whatever had been prepared. For a restaurant, it's the covers not served, the ingredients already bought and the staff on shift. For a hotel, it's the room that can't be resold for that night. For a practice, it's the working hour lost.

An example, made up to explain the calculation and not taken from a real client. A restaurant with 60 covers booked a night, 25 nights a month, has 1,500 covers booked. Applying the 12.8% rate to covers, it loses about 192 a month: at an average bill of €35, that's €6,720 of lost takings, before counting the people who could have sat in their place.

What reduces it

Two levers have been measured: the deposit and the reminder. In the Italian sample of 212,000 bookings, a deposit or card pre-authorisation brought no-shows down from 12.8% to 5.4%, a 58% reduction. Reminders by text, WhatsApp or email cut them by a further 32%.

Lever	Measured effect	On which sample
Depositor card pre-authorisation	No-shows down from 12.8% to 5.4%, or 58% fewer.	212,000 bookings at 300 Italian restaurants, January-August 2025.
Remindertext, WhatsApp, email	A further 32% fewer.	The same sample.
Digital notificationsbefore the appointment	25% fewer missed appointments: 15% against 21%.	21 healthcare studies, over 16,000 patients, BMJ Open 2016.
Reassigning the placewhen it's freed up	Depends on how early the cancellation comes and on demand that day.	Worked out from each venue's previous months.

The BMJ Open meta-analysis adds a useful detail: several reminders work better than one. In practice, it's worth sending one message at confirmation and one close to the appointment, with an easy way to cancel, because a cancellation received in time is a place you can still sell.

Deposit or reminder: where to start

In the Italian sample, the deposit cuts more, 58% against a further 32% for reminders, but it adds a step at the moment of booking. A reminder costs little and doesn't change the way people book. A cautious approach is to start with the reminder, and ask for a deposit only on the busiest nights.

Either way, the terms need to be set out clearly at the moment of booking: what gets paid, when, and until when you can cancel free of charge. On the details, such as the deposit amount and the fees, it's worth getting advice from the people who assist your business.

How to measure it

The no-show rate takes one line to calculate: bookings that didn't turn up and weren't cancelled, divided by confirmed bookings, over the same period. It's worth reading it separately by day of the week and by booking channel, because between a Tuesday and a Saturday, or between the phone and a platform, the number can change.

To calculate it, you need all your bookings in one place. If they're split between a notebook, booking software and a platform, the number never appears, and without it you can't tell whether a deposit or a reminder is working. It's one of the most useful KPIs for businesses that work by booking.

How Itria tackles it

Itria's booking recovery sends the reminder before the appointment, contacts again anyone who doesn't confirm, and flags a freed-up place in time, so it can be reassigned. It's a workflow with rules written in advance: what gets sent, when, and what happens if the customer doesn't reply.

Automated messages say they come from a system, and anything involving money or fees goes through a person. The share of places that can be reassigned depends on how early cancellations come and on the venue's demand: it's worked out from your previous months, before any quote.

Related terms

KPI

The indicator that tells you whether a goal is being reached. The no-show rate is one of the most useful for businesses that work by booking.

Workflow

The flow of work with its rules. Reminder, confirmation and reassignment are three steps in the same flow.

Time to first reply

How long people wait when they write to book. A slow reply loses the booking before there's even a chance of a no-show.

Reactivation

Getting back in touch with customers who haven't returned for a while. A place freed up by a no-show can be offered to them.

Questions and answers