AN INDIAN restaurant trying to 'survive during the pandemic' has hit out at 'no shows' for failing to cancel their bookings.

Clay's Hyderabadi Kitchen in London Street, Reading revealed the impact short notice cancellations are having on the business after facing a difficult year of Covid lockdown's.

The restaurant explained how they had experienced five cancellations on multiple Saturday's, wherein one case they were only given 30 minutes notice.

They said people may have been pinged to self-isolate from the NHS Test and Trace app but the least diners could do is phone up to cancel.

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Nandana Syamala, executive chef at Clay's Hyderabadi Kitchen, told the Chronicle: "When people don’t show up or cancel tables with us at very short notice - sometimes as little as half an hour - we are left with a table we’re unlikely to be able to fill. We have loads of wonderful customers who would never dream of doing this, but a small minority have a disproportionate effect on our business.

"We have a small restaurant at the best of times and we are operating with reduced capacity at the moment, so losing covers has a huge impact on our bottom line. It also affects the ambience of the restaurant and the morale of our staff."

The restaurant also prepare ingredients in advance based on the number of bookings they're expecting to cater for on the night.

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Nandana said: "The pandemic has caused enormous difficulties for Clay’s and many other independent businesses and just because things look more “normal” it doesn’t mean that we aren’t going to feel the effects for months to come with reduced capacity, labour shortages, higher ingredient prices and paying back government loans.

"This is why we’re making a noise about this now, because we want to make sure that customers realise their behaviour directly impacts our chances of survival.

"Cancellations at such short notice mean some of that hard work and time, and potentially those ingredients, are wasted. So please - not just with Clay’s but with any restaurant - if you can’t make your table then tell us with at least twenty-four hours notice wherever you can, so that we can try to offer that table to somebody else."

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The restaurant's plea comes after data from hospitality technology firm Zonal said one in seven customers have not turned up for a reservation without telling the venue since April.

It said 18-34-year-olds were the "worst offenders" for no-shows, with more than a quarter not honouring bookings.