Some restaurants impose cancellation charges even two weeks beforehand, if they think they're unlikely to get a fresh booking. They've probably taken your credit card details so they can charge you automatically without contacting you. They'll only waive the charge if there's a good reason for cancelling, like a death in the family.
As far as I know none of our local restaurants take cancellation charges, so maybe people in our area are more conscientious about keeping a booking. Certainly Jenny and I always honour a booking, or we cancel in plenty of time if there's a good reason why we can't make it.
I think cancellation charges are totally justified, given that an empty table means a big loss for the restaurant, on top of the rocketing prices they're already paying for food, energy, equipment and experienced staff.
It doesn't take much to get out your phone and cancel a booking well in advance. I don't understand why people are so arrogant they think it's quite okay to make a booking and then just not turn up.
There are even cases of people making simultaneous bookings at several restaurants, deciding on the day which one to go to and forgetting about the others. Do they really think that's acceptable behaviour? The mind boggles.
Cancellation charges are here to stay, but only because of an epidemic of utterly self-centred individuals.
