Restaurant no-show policy:
a UK template

This guide isn’t legal advice. Your circumstances will differ, so check your final wording with an adviser, especially if you’re taking money.

The template

Swap the parts in square brackets for your own. Keep the tone. Guests read it at the moment they book, and it should sound like you.

Booking and cancellation policy

Changing or cancelling. Plans change, and we’d much rather know. You can change or cancel your booking free of charge up to [24 hours] before your booking time. Just reply to your confirmation text, use the link in your booking email, or call us on [phone].

Confirming. We’ll text you [the day before] to check you’re still coming. A quick YES or NO helps us offer the table to someone on our waitlist if you can’t make it.

Running late. We’ll hold your table for [15 minutes]. If you’re running later than that, give us a call and we’ll do our best.

Deposits (only if you take them). For [tables of 8 or more / bookings on (dates) / our tasting menu], we take a deposit of [£10] per person when you book. It comes off your bill on the night. If you cancel with at least [48 hours’] notice, we’ll refund it in full. If you cancel later than that or don’t arrive, we’ll keep it, unless we’re able to fill your table, in which case we’ll refund it.

If we have to cancel. If we ever need to cancel your booking, we’ll tell you as soon as we can and refund any deposit in full, with no deductions.

Questions? Call us on [phone] or email [address].

Why it’s worded like that

Tell guests up front, not after

Under the Consumer Rights Act 2015, written terms must be transparent: plain, intelligible and legible (s.68). The Competition and Markets Authority’s guidance on unfair terms, CMA37 (revised 22 July 2026), says terms that might work against the customer need “appropriate prominence” (para 4.8) (CMA37).

In practice, show the policy before the guest confirms the booking, not only in the confirmation email afterwards. Put the deposit amount and the cancellation deadline next to the button, not three clicks away.

Keep any deposit small and the rules narrow

CMA37 para 6.62 is the key passage for restaurants. A genuine deposit can be kept in full if it works as a binding reservation and you make clear “at the earliest opportunity” that one is needed, and exactly when it won’t be refunded. Those circumstances “must be clear and narrow”, and the deposit “will not normally be more than a small percentage of the price”. A larger prepayment “may amount to a disguised penalty”.

That’s why the template names a fixed amount per person, a fixed deadline, and nothing vague like “at the restaurant’s discretion”.

Charge for what you actually lose

A cancellation charge is more likely to be fair if it’s “a stated sum which represents a genuine pre-estimate of loss” (CMA37 para 6.64). Para 6.63 adds that charges should reflect “any ability of the business to mitigate (reduce) any loss… for instance by finding another customer”.

For a restaurant, that’s the waitlist. If you refill the table, you haven’t lost the cover, and the fair thing is to refund. The template says so, which also makes it easier for guests to accept.

The law lists terms that may be unfair, and two are worth keeping in mind. One is a term that makes a customer who doesn’t go ahead pay “a disproportionately high sum in compensation” (CRA 2015 Sch 2, para 5). An unfair term isn’t binding on the customer at all (s.62).

Treat your own cancellations the same way

The same list includes a term that lets you keep the customer’s money when they cancel, without equal compensation when you’re the one who cancels (Sch 2, para 4). CMA37 para 6.73 says terms letting a business cancel “without acknowledging any right of consumers to receive a refund of prepayments” are more likely to be unfair, and that “applies equally to deposits”.

If a kitchen flood or a power cut means you can’t serve, refund in full, promptly, and without an admin fee (CMA37 para 6.77). That applies even to a deposit you’d described as non-refundable.

What about the 14-day cooling-off period?

It doesn’t apply to restaurant bookings for a set date. The Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013 exclude “catering or services related to leisure activities, if the contract provides for a specific date or period of performance” from the cancellation rules (reg 28(1)(h)). Your own policy decides the cancellation terms, which is exactly why they need to be fair.

These rules apply across the UK, including Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Checklist before you publish

• The policy appears on the booking page before the guest confirms
• The deposit is a fixed, modest amount, and you can explain how it relates to your costs
• There’s one clear deadline for a free cancellation
• You refund when you refill the table
• You refund in full, with no deductions, if you cancel
• At least two easy ways to cancel, one of which works out of hours
• The same wording appears in your confirmation email and text link

Keep the conversation going

A policy works best when guests rarely need it. A confirmation ask the day before catches many changes of plan while there’s still time to rebook. These text templates are a quick place to start.

Sources

Every figure above links to where it was published. We read each one on 1 October 2026.

1. s.68legislation.gov.uk
2. CMA37gov.uk
3. CRA 2015 Sch 2 · para 5legislation.gov.uk
4. s.62legislation.gov.uk
5. reg 28(1)(h)legislation.gov.uk