In this article
- The benchmark: 2.33% of advance reservations
- How to calculate your restaurant’s no-show rate
- How no-show rates differ by country
- Which reservations no-show more often
- Late cancellations: the problem the headline hides
- Comparing your rate fairly
- Method and caveats
- Frequently asked questions
- Using the benchmark in the restaurant
According to the Resos No-Show Index (Resos booking data, Aug 2025–Jul 2026), restaurants recorded no-shows on 2.33% of advance reservations between August 2025 and July 2026. That is 87,953 recorded no-shows out of 3,768,761 reservations at 2,417 restaurants using Resos. The figure is a recorded, booking-weighted reservation rate.
The Index page is the canonical dataset. This page is the explainer: what the 2.33% includes, how to calculate the same rate for your own book, and how to compare it without mixing unlike services. Marking is the other half of the number, and how to track restaurant no-shows covers that routine.
The benchmark: 2.33% of advance reservations
The headline is one year of mature advance reservations, from 1 Aug 2025 to 31 Jul 2026, extracted on 17 Aug 2026. It is the share of those reservations that staff, or an integration, marked as a no-show.
What counts as a no-show in this figure
Resos counts a no-show only when staff or an integration mark the reservation as a no-show. In the Resos data, 72.9% of restaurants recorded at least one no-show. Among the 1,761 restaurants that actively recorded no-shows, the recorded rate was 2.49%.
Restaurants that never mark no-shows pull the recorded rate down, so the true rate is likely higher. A booking still marked as “approved” counts as attended after 72 hours. Walk-ins, cancellations, declined booking requests and waitlist entries are excluded.
Why survey figures look much higher
Surveys measure self-reported behaviour. Someone is asked whether they have missed a booking, and the answer is about a person, often over a long period. The Index measures recorded outcomes per reservation. Those are different questions, so the percentages are not interchangeable. This page does not repeat survey percentages.
How to calculate your restaurant’s no-show rate
Use the same definition as the Index:
Recorded no-shows ÷ (honoured reservations + recorded no-shows), on advance reservations only.
Exclude walk-ins and cancellations. Exclude declined booking requests and waitlist entries.
The Index is the worked example, labelled as the dataset rather than as one venue. Honoured reservations plus recorded no-shows is the denominator: 3,768,761 mature advance reservations. The numerator is 87,953 recorded no-shows. That is a recorded no-show rate of 2.33%.
How no-show rates differ by country
Recorded no-show rates in the Resos data range from 0.49% in Switzerland to 5.88% in France. The rate was 1.48% in the UK and 3.17% in the US. The twelve published countries cover 86% of the dataset.
Country is each restaurant’s current country. The cuts are descriptive. They can reflect venue type, marking habits and booking source.
| Country | Recorded no-show rate | Reservations | Restaurants |
|---|---|---|---|
| United Kingdom | 1.48% | 2,033,392 | 1,089 |
| United States | 3.17% | 309,604 | 316 |
| Australia | 1.41% | 251,804 | 213 |
| Italy | 4.71% | 118,488 | 45 |
| Spain | 2.18% | 104,047 | 65 |
| France | 5.88% | 101,795 | 60 |
| Canada | 2.98% | 78,759 | 60 |
| Switzerland | 0.49% | 71,230 | 64 |
| Germany | 1.30% | 58,523 | 51 |
| Georgia | 2.95% | 54,131 | 46 |
| Denmark | 1.31% | 28,606 | 30 |
| Sweden | 1.75% | 26,984 | 35 |
Cells under 30 restaurants or 1,000 reservations are not published. Every row above meets both thresholds.
Which reservations no-show more often
These cuts describe the reservations in the dataset. They are not a claim that party size, lead time or the day of the week causes a no-show.
Party size
In the Resos data, tables for one or two recorded the highest no-show rate (2.63%), and parties of 10+ the lowest (1.15%).
| Party size | Recorded no-show rate |
|---|---|
| 1 to 2 | 2.63% |
| 3 to 4 | 2.13% |
| 5 to 6 | 2.28% |
| 7 to 9 | 1.73% |
| 10+ | 1.15% |
Every party-size row meets both publication thresholds. Tables for one or two are 1,860,642 reservations at 2,399 restaurants, and parties of 10+ are 155,583 reservations at 2,122 restaurants. 65 invalid or missing rows are suppressed.
A lower rate is not a smaller loss of covers. When a 10+ party does no-show, more covers are empty. A 10+ booking carries three times the expected lost covers of a table for two: 0.154 covers per booking against 0.051 (ratio 3.00).
Lead time
Lead time here is the local-calendar gap between the booking and the service, not an exact elapsed-hours cut.
| Lead time | Recorded no-show rate |
|---|---|
| Same day | 2.09% |
| 1 day | 2.40% |
| 2 to 6 days | 2.67% |
| 7 to 13 days | 2.57% |
| 14 to 29 days | 2.34% |
| 30+ days | 1.96% |
Lunch and dinner
Dinner reservations recorded a 2.63% no-show rate against 1.84% at lunch in the Resos data. That is a descriptive difference, not a causal effect.
Day and month
Wednesday recorded the lowest no-show rate in the week, at 2.09%. Monday recorded the highest, at 2.69%. August recorded the lowest no-show rate of the year, at 2.14%. January recorded the highest, at 2.62%.
Late cancellations: the problem the headline hides
56% of cancellations in the Resos data arrived within 24 hours of service or after the booking had started (317,541 of 566,049 cancellations). A late cancellation is not a recorded no-show. The guest released the table, sometimes with almost no time to rebook it. Track the two separately. A cancellation policy is where that rule lives, and how far ahead guests book is the companion cut on lead time.
Comparing your rate fairly
The Index is booking-weighted, so busier restaurants count more. Your venue is one restaurant. Compare your recorded no-show rate with your own country and with lunch or dinner, not only with 2.33%.
Also check that the team actually marks no-shows. A book that never uses the status will look better than the service was. How to track restaurant no-shows is the routine, and the Resos No-Show Index remains the canonical table.
Method and caveats
- Source: Resos first-party booking data, extracted 17 Aug 2026. Window: 1 Aug 2025 to 31 Jul 2026. Cite it as the Resos No-Show Index (Resos booking data, Aug 2025–Jul 2026) and link to the Index.
- Coverage: 2,417 restaurants currently active on Resos. This is not a random sample of restaurants, and it carries survivor bias.
- Recorded rate: a no-show counts only when staff or an integration mark it. Restaurants that never mark no-shows pull the recorded rate down, so the true rate is likely higher.
- Booking-weighted: busier restaurants count more. Great Britain is 54% of reservations in the Resos No-Show Index denominator.
- Denominator: mature advance reservations. A booking still marked as “approved” counts as attended after 72 hours. Walk-ins, cancellations, declined booking requests and waitlist entries are excluded.
- Including walk-ins would produce a 2.06% no-show rate, but walk-ins are excluded from the published Index denominator because they cannot fail to arrive for an advance reservation.
- Country is each restaurant’s current country. Cuts are descriptive. They can reflect venue type, marking habits and booking source.
- Cells under 30 restaurants or 1,000 reservations are not published.
- The data holds no spend per cover, so this page states no revenue loss.
Frequently asked questions
What is a normal no-show rate for a restaurant?
According to the Resos No-Show Index, restaurants recorded no-shows on 2.33% of advance reservations between August 2025 and July 2026. That is 87,953 recorded no-shows out of 3,768,761 reservations at 2,417 restaurants using Resos. It is a recorded, booking-weighted rate. Restaurants that never mark no-shows pull it down.
How do I calculate my no-show rate?
Recorded no-shows ÷ (honoured reservations + recorded no-shows), for advance reservations only. Exclude walk-ins, cancellations, declined booking requests and waitlist entries. On the Index totals, 87,953 recorded no-shows out of 3,768,761 mature advance reservations is 2.33%.
Why do surveys say no-show rates are much higher?
Surveys measure self-reported behaviour. This dataset measures recorded outcomes per reservation. The two are not the same figure, and this page does not quote an external survey percentage.
Do no-show rates differ by country?
Recorded no-show rates in the Resos data range from 0.49% in Switzerland to 5.88% in France. The rate was 1.48% in the UK and 3.17% in the US. The twelve published countries cover 86% of the dataset.
Are big groups more likely to no-show?
In the Resos data, tables for one or two recorded the highest no-show rate (2.63%), and parties of 10+ the lowest (1.15%). That is a recorded difference. When a 10+ party does no-show it loses more covers. A 10+ booking carries three times the expected lost covers of a table for two: 0.154 covers per booking against 0.051 (ratio 3.00).
Is my rate too high?
Compare it with your country and with lunch or dinner, using the tables above and the Resos No-Show Index. Then check that the team actually marks no-shows. A recorded zero can mean the status was never used. The marking routine is in how to track restaurant no-shows.
Using the benchmark in the restaurant
The Index describes reservations. It does not measure what happens when a restaurant switches a tool on. In Resos, a no-show fee and table booking reminders are separate tools, and deposits are separate again. Staff still have to mark the no-show. The setup note is the no-show add-ons.
What the same dataset shows for a delivered SMS is in SMS reminders and restaurant no-shows. Practical responses that sit next to the data are how to reduce no-shows in the restaurant industry, the cancellation policy guide, and how far in advance restaurant bookings are made.
The academy glossary of a no-show and the academy note on no-show rate are links only. They are not the source of these figures: no-show and no-show rate.
