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The listening exercises in Business Spotlight Plus (p.15) are based on the article “Restaurants fight back” (Names & News, p. 9). Here, we provide you with the audio file and transcript.
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Restaurants fight back
It’s never been easier to book a table at a restaurant. Online booking services provide to provide access to sth.Zugang zu etw. anbietenaccess to a wide variety of styles and cuisineKüche, Kochkunstcuisines — sometimes so many that customers have trouble making up their minds and so book more than one table for the same time.
Now, restaurant owners are taking action against “no-shows” — people who book tables but do not to show up (ifml.)erscheinenshow up to claim them. Some restaurateurRestaurantbesitzer(in), -betreiber(in)restaurateurs are publishing the names of no-shows on social media, requiring depositAnzahlungdeposits before accepting reservations, or selling tickets for tables.
Damian Wawrzyniak of the House of feastFestmahlFeasts in Peterborough told The Guardian that no-shows had cost his business £3,000 in a single weekend. “Usually, they are big groups — of 8, 12 or 20 people — who book and then simply don’t turn up,” Wawrzyniak says. “We’re left with empty tables and have probably had to to turn sth. downetw. ablehnenturn other bookings down in good faithin gutem Glaubenin good faith that those with reservations would show.”
No-shows at weekends or on traditionally busy dates such as Mother’s Day are particularly problematic. Bristol restaurateur Peter Sánchez-Iglesias said his tapas restaurant loses up to ten per cent of bookings on Saturday nights. “It’s massive. For us, it’s cripplinglähmend; hier: ruinöscrippling,” he said.
Meanwhile, online booking services say they are to respond to sth.hier: auf etw. reagierenresponding to the problem. OpenTable, for example, says it prevents diners from booking two places for the same time.