It's important to have the right head count when you make reservations.

in #life7 years ago

Today at work we had a 50 people reservation.

We set up the back half of the restaurant which took us almost an hour to get ready.

These people bought several cakes and brought them yesterday so we knew that they would be coming.

We had all of the water, and all of the glasses, and all of the bread ready to bring out.

Everything was completely ready for our table of 50 people.


Source: Giphy.com

The first person showed up and it was a woman with two babies.

This is a bad sign because there were not supposed to be any kids for this retirement party.

It might sound like a bad thing to say but women with babies aren't typically looking to tip very well because they are short on cash themselves.

The next guest showed up and they also had several babies all over them.

This retirement party which had brought several expensive looking cakes in ultimately ended up with seven adults and seven babies.

We had set aside half the restaurant for a party of 50 people which we were thinking would bring in at least $1,000.

Maybe even more like $2,000.

The bill was about $150.

I don't think they were thinking about the restaurant and the servers and how we each have to make money in our own way.

It was really unfair because no one really made any money today even though we spent a great deal of effort setting this party up.

It's important to have the right head count when you make reservations.

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wow , that is so inconsiderate - i have to say that sometimes new mothers seem to be selfish and i think it is a hormonal thing, that is part of protection of the babies. Tomorrow is a new day and i hope it brings plenty of income to the business and servers.............. excuse me . on another topic, that minnowbooster above , how much did you invest to get a $16.92 return ?. i see the minnowbooster above is a lot of money , how much did that cost you ? thanks

10 sbd

I have worked in the industry a while ago, and know that every table, or the lack of them count. I once had a big reservation of 20 people that all ordered food and we only had one chef in the kitchen. The place I worked in was a place where you can eat in the daytime, but people mostly come to party in the evening/night. It was a makeshift club/cafe and the kitchen was open until later for the hungry drinkers.
If we would have been warned that there would be so many food orders, there would be more cooks. And there I was, a server having a big reservation for the first time, feeling so uncomfortable, because the time the first and the last person received their dishes was an hour apart.
Ahh, got to love the waitressing gig :D

Well it puts food on the table. Not the best gig in the world though.

Hard work and extra hours cleaning the tables after work, but when the tips came in, in the end of the day it it was good. Especially from tourists, they tipped much better than locals, but then again, wages are not the best in Latvia.
I feel the pain, though, there is a lot of times when you put an effort and it turns out to be for nothing, a lot of people do not realize that service workers are people, too. But in the end, each job has it's own bad and good sides.

When people don't think. They become thoughtless. When people think they also can become thoughtless.

I think that a lot of people are completely clueless about anything which is not directly related to their life. they don't understand how much work goes into set up, that the space is reserved and other parties might get turned away.
It is a good idea to know a little about all kinds of things to avoid mistakes like that.

It's nice to think of it as a mistake and I prefer to think of it that way.

Better to think about it that way. More peace of mind. If we start thinking that people are doing all kinds of stuff on purpose - it is going down a deep dark road. I just find that people are very clueless in so many ways....

It sounds like the party was a halfway flop if they reserved enough for 50 people and only had 14 people half of which were adults. Shame the rest of the guests didn't show up because maybe you'd have earned more. I wouldn't blame the mothers though but for the party planners for not planning better. If they'd have gotten RSVPs or something they'd have known 50 people weren't going to show up.

I think the mothers were the party planners.

That's a strange turnout for a retirement party.

Yeah I'm thinking this lady must not have been very well liked.

Yeah, that's what it sounds like.

Calling @originalworks :)
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Man that sucks; how can they make such a big error? I would have felt very embarrassed to walk in and see half the restaurant laid out for my 6 friends with their (non tipping) children.

Cg