Reservation research reveals customer preferences

Research carried out by experts at Cornell University recently revealed that the practice of taking credit-card guarantees to secure reservations, which is becoming increasingly common SOPs of many of Dubai's most popular venues, is generally supported - if somewhat reluctantly - by restaurant-goers.

Respondents to the Cornell survey also said that, while staying too long at a table might interfere with a restaurant's efforts to honour reservations, they resented being rushed, said the author of the report, Sheryl Kimes, who surveyed 1,230 visitors to restaurant websites in the US, including the New York Times Diner's Journal blog, where the research questionnaire was posted."One thing that restaurants should be careful about is how to manage the pacing of a meal during busy times," she warned. "As I've seen in other studies, these guests were adamant that they did not want to be rushed or asked to move if they were using a table longer than expected."

The survey also found that customers were not keen on several policies designed to prevent no-shows, late-shows, or short-shows (when some, but not all of a party arrives). For example, while the survey respondents generally supported the idea of giving away the table of a late-arriving party, for instance, they disliked policies that call for an entire party to be present before anyone is seated.

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