On the night of July 16, 2021, three diners who had booked a table ten days earlier at the prestigious Amelia restaurant by chef Paulo Airaudo, in San SebastiánThey did not come to enjoy a tasting menu. At that time, the average ticket was valued at around 300 euros. From this gastronomic space, they were called “by protocol and they gave no signs of life,” explains Xabier de la Maza, director of Grupo Amelia. The clients, who were going to stay on July 16 at the Villa Favorita hotel, where the Amelia is housed, changed their stay to the 17th of that same month. That same morning, they went to the restaurant to confirm that everything was in order and there they were informed that they had lost their place at the table.
“There had been a mix-up and they wanted a table at that moment, when the restaurant was full,” De la Maza alleges. They were offered to return in the following 15 days so as not to lose the money of the reserve. However, he points out, customers “shut down and filed a lawsuit, alleging that the clauses and the price charged on the card were abusive.”
It is not the first time that something similar has happened, but, on this occasion, the courts have agreed with the restaurant. The Court of First Instance number two of San Sebastián dismissed on March 1 of this year, in a ruling to which El Periódico de España has had accessfrom the Prensa Ibérica group, the lawsuit filed by clients for having had to pay 510 euros -170 per person- for their no showas it is known in the hospitality industry to not show up for a reservation.
In this case, “we are talking about a restaurant that reserves its places well in advance and that allows cancellation, as long as it is given sufficient notice,” says Emilio Gallego, general secretary of the Spanish Hospitality Business Confederation. At the time these three clients booked, the minimum time to cancel the appointment was 72 hours; now, it is 96 hours and the penalty amounts to 291 euros. Michelin-starred restaurants “have closed and previously organized menus,” which forces them to have “a system for purchasing food and beverages and even hiring workers to meet demand,” reflects Gallego.
Not appearing on a reservation is understood as rude”
Director of the Amelia Group
This same restaurant “knows that, if someone doesn’t show up, they’re not going to cover the table on the fly“, assesses Rubén Sánchez, general secretary and spokesperson for the organization Facua-Consumidores en Acción. However, he believes that the type of restaurant “has influenced the judge’s decision”, while, if it were the “bar on the corner “, it would be different, since there the diner can spend on average “10, 15 or 20 euros”.
Reservation systems and cancellation policies work with other types of tickets, from airline and bus tickets, to movie, theater, festival and hotel ticket reservations. “It’s not something new and, for customers, We are not talking about something different from what they are already doing in other sectors”Justifies the General Secretary of Hospitality of Spain.
Beyond that consideration, this cancellation policy is increasingly common in restaurants, not only in Michelin star restaurants, but also in neighborhood bars. Xabier de la Maza maintains that “not appearing on a reservation is understood as impolite”. The conditions must be shown to clients in a “transparent and clarified” manner, with the aim that no client “feels surprised by the consequences of their actions,” says Emilio Gallego. When entering the Amelia website to set a date, the restaurant’s cancellation policy appears developed.
With reservations, it is difficult to establish doctrine
Despite the fact that restaurants like Amelia itself, due to the international trajectory of its staff, already established these conditions in 2017, with the Covid this trend was increasingly introduced. “Before, it was easier to go to a restaurant without making a reservation,” recognizes the lawyer from the Litigation Department of Zurbarán Abogados Fernando Fernández-Cotta Andrade.
This professional reasons that it is very difficult for this type of litigation to escalate to the higher courts and the Supreme Court, so that it establishes doctrine on how restaurants and customers should act in these situations. “The problem is that, due to the amount, could not appeal to higher courts, because it has to be equal to or greater than 3,000 euros. For this reason, in this case in which there are 510 euros, what the court says goes to mass, because they do not have the possibility of appealing. If he had decided otherwise, the restaurant would have had to abide by it,” he concludes.
Also, if there is a class action lawsuit from multiple customers who are dissatisfied with this policy, it should go “to a single restaurant, because each one has its own cancellation and penalty policy.” “You have to go case by case“, shows this lawyer.
Request card details
Xabier de la Maza maintains that he is receiving messages from colleagues from all over Spain that they are going to change their reservation systems “to be much clearer”. For Emilio Gallego, the introduction of these criteria “is nothing more than a sample of the evolution and sophistication of the economic system that our country has.”
It would not occur to me to go to a restaurant that asks me these conditions, either with 10 or with 200 euros”
General Secretary of Facua
Related news
“There are plenty of hotels in Spain. Are we really going to complicate our lives by giving our credit card details to a restaurant that, by the mere fact of canceling, is going to penalize us? I wouldn’t do it. I don’t know I would go to a restaurant that offers me these conditions, be it 10 or 200 euros,” he explains. ruben sanchez. It reflects that the restaurants that do not take these measures is because “trying to retain customer loyalty.”
The director of the Amelia Group believes that the controversy has been unleashed in Spain because “we have a culture of not asking for the data and of reducing it to a small group of Michelin star restaurants”, but reflects that abroad it is “absolutely normal, even paying in advance and that you cannot change the reservation or get your money back up to 15 days in advance”. “When restaurants ask for some money, what they are going to get is that the customers they want come,” he says.