No-show. The booked table that stays empty, with no cancellation.
A no-show is a confirmed booking for which the customer does not turn up, without letting anyone know. For a restaurant, a hotel or a practice it is a slot prepared and not sold.
Booking.com defines it with a precise time: for accommodation there is a no-show when the guest has not arrived by midnight on the planned check-in date.
In a sample of 212,000 bookings in 300 Italian restaurants, from January to August 2025, the average no-show rate was 12.8%. With a deposit or card pre-authorisation it fell to 5.4%.
Reminders reduce absences: a meta-analysis published in BMJ Open, on 21 healthcare studies, measures 25% fewer missed appointments among those who receive a notification.
This entry is part of the glossary of AI and automation, where the term appears as no-show. Here the definition widens: what a no-show means, the platforms' rule, what it costs, what reduces it and how it is measured.
What no-show means
No-show means «did not turn up»: a confirmed booking that stays empty, with no cancellation. It differs from a cancellation, which comes earlier and leaves time to resell the slot, and from lateness, where the customer arrives anyway. The term is used for tables, rooms, flights and appointments.
For accommodation Booking.com sets a time: «A no-show is when a guest hasn’t arrived for their booking by midnight on the planned check-in date». The property can report it on the platform from midnight on the arrival date until 48 hours after the planned check-out date, and decide whether to charge the fee.
What a no-show costs
A no-show costs the margin of the slot left empty, plus what had been prepared. For a restaurant it is the covers not served, the ingredients already bought and the staff on shift. For a hotel it is the room that can no longer be resold for that night. For a practice it is the hour of work lost.
An example, built to explain the calculation and not taken from a real client. A restaurant with 60 covers booked per evening, for 25 evenings a month, has 1,500 booked covers. Applying the 12.8% share to covers, it loses about 192 a month: with an average bill of €35 that is €6,720 of lost takings, before counting those who could have taken their place.
What reduces it
Two levers have a measure: the deposit and the reminder. In the Italian sample of 212,000 bookings, a deposit or card pre-authorisation brought no-shows from 12.8% to 5.4%, a 58% reduction. Reminders by SMS, WhatsApp or email reduced them by a further 32%.
| Lever | Measured effect | On which sample |
|---|---|---|
| Depositor card pre-authorisation | No-shows from 12.8% to 5.4%, that is 58% fewer. |
212,000 bookings in 300 Italian restaurants, January-August 2025. |
| ReminderSMS, WhatsApp, email | A further 32% fewer. |
The same sample. |
| Digital notificationsbefore the appointment | 25% fewer absences: 15% against 21%. |
21 healthcare studies, over 16,000 patients, BMJ Open 2016. |
| Reassigning the slotwhen it frees up | Depends on how early the cancellation arrives and on demand that day. |
Calculated on each venue's previous months. |
The BMJ Open meta-analysis adds a useful detail: several reminders work better than one. In practice it pays to send one message at confirmation and one close to the appointment, with a simple way to cancel, because a cancellation received in time is a slot that can still be sold.
Deposit or reminder: where to start
In the Italian sample the deposit reduces more, 58% against a further 32% for the reminder, but it adds a step at the moment of booking. The reminder costs little and does not change the way people book. A prudent route is to start with the second, and ask for a deposit only on the busiest evenings.
In any case the conditions have to be written clearly at the moment of booking: what is paid, when, and until when you can cancel at no cost. On the detailed rules, such as the amount of the deposit and the fees, it pays to ask whoever advises the business.
How to measure it
The no-show rate is calculated in one line: bookings not honoured and not cancelled, divided by confirmed bookings, over the same period. It pays to read it split by day of the week and by booking channel, because between a Tuesday and a Saturday, or between the phone and a platform, the number can change.
To calculate it you need all bookings in one place. If they sit between a notebook, management software and a platform, the number does not come out, and without the number you cannot tell whether a deposit or a reminder is working. It is one of the most useful KPIs for anyone who works by booking.
How Itria tackles it
Itria's booking recovery sends the reminder before the appointment, contacts again whoever does not confirm and flags in time the slot that frees up, so that it can be reassigned. It is a workflow with rules written beforehand: what is sent, when, and what happens if the customer does not reply.
Automatic messages state that they come from a system, and everything that touches money or fees goes through a person. The share of slots that can be reassigned depends on how early the cancellation arrives and on the venue's demand: it is calculated on your previous months, before any quote.
Related terms
KPI
The indicator that tells whether a goal is being reached. The no-show rate is one of the most useful for anyone who works by booking.
Workflow
The flow of work with its rules. Reminder, confirmation and reassignment are three steps of the same flow.
First response time
How long whoever writes to book has to wait. A slow reply loses the booking even before the no-show.
Reactivation
Getting back in touch with customers who have not returned for a while. The slot freed by a no-show can be offered to them.
Questions and answers
What does no-show mean?
No-show means the customer did not turn up: it is a confirmed booking for which the customer does not arrive, without cancelling. In Italian it is called mancata presentazione. It is used for tables, rooms, flights and appointments.
It differs from a cancellation, which comes earlier and leaves time to resell the slot, and from lateness, where the customer arrives anyway.
What does no-show mean on Booking.com?
For Booking.com there is a no-show when the guest has not arrived by midnight on the planned check-in date. The property can report it from midnight on the arrival date until 48 hours after the planned check-out date, and decide whether to charge the fee.
If the fee is charged, commission is paid on that amount; if the fee is waived within the 48 hours, no commission is paid.
How common are no-shows in Italian restaurants?
In an analysis of over 212,000 bookings in 300 Italian restaurants, from January to August 2025, the average no-show rate was 12.8%. With a deposit or card pre-authorisation it fell to 5.4%.
The analysis is signed by a company that sells booking technology and was picked up by the trade press: it is the largest Italian sample available, with that limit.
How do you reduce no-shows?
With three levers. The deposit or card pre-authorisation, which in the Italian sample brought no-shows from 12.8% to 5.4%. The reminder by SMS, WhatsApp or email, which reduced them by a further 32%; in healthcare a meta-analysis in BMJ Open measures 25% fewer missed appointments with notifications.
And reassigning in time the slot that becomes free.
What is the difference between a no-show and a cancellation?
A cancellation arrives before the booked time, and leaves at least some time to resell the slot. A no-show never arrives: the customer does not turn up, and the slot stays empty.
That is why property policies often distinguish between free cancellation up to a certain date, late cancellation and no-show, with different fees.
Notes on sources
- The definition, the 48-hour window and the commission rule come from the guide for properties by Booking.com, Marking guest no-shows at your property, read on 26 September 2026. A platform's rules change: it pays to reread them before acting.
- The 12.8%, 5.4% and 32% come from an analysis of over 212,000 bookings in 300 Italian restaurants, January-August 2025, reported by Horecanews on 23 September 2025. It is signed by a company that sells booking technology and has no study available alongside the press release: we report it because it is the largest Italian sample available, and we flag its limit.
- The 25% comes from Robotham et al., Using digital notifications to improve attendance in clinic: systematic review and meta-analysis, BMJ Open, 2016: 21 studies, 8,345 patients with notifications and 7,731 without. It measures healthcare appointments, not tables or rooms.
First you count how many bookings stay empty. Then you decide which lever to use.
The first step with Itria is a fifteen-minute video call: we look at where your bookings come from, where they are written down and how many stay empty. Write us a line about what weighs on you. We take the first step: what a customer sees when they look for you, and what we found there. Even if we don't end up working together.