A no-show isn't just an empty chair. It's a table you turned other guests away from, food you prepped, a server you rostered — and none of it gets paid for. We've already written about how SMS reminders quietly stop most no-shows. This post is about the bookings reminders alone can't protect: the big tables, the busy nights, the ones that really hurt when they don't turn up.
The fix is simple: a little skin in the game. The worry is just as simple: ask for card details and some guests will walk away. Both things are true. The trick isn't choosing whether to protect your bookings — it's choosing the right tool for each kind of booking.
The gentle option: a card hold
A card hold means the guest saves a card when they book. Nothing is charged. No money moves. The card just sits securely with Stripe against the booking, and if the table simply doesn't show, you decide whether to apply your no-show charge.
That's a very different conversation from a deposit. The guest pays nothing today, and as long as they turn up — or cancel in time — they never pay anything at all. Most guests read it exactly how it's meant: "we're holding this table for you, so please mean it."
In NomNom, web bookings collect the card right in the booking flow. For bookings you take over the phone, there's a one-tap card request on the reservation's Payments tab — it sends the guest a secure link by text or email, they tap it, add their card, done. The link is single-use and expires at the booking time, so there's nothing to tidy up.
The firm option: a deposit
A deposit is money up front — either a flat fee per booking or an amount per person, taken at the moment the booking is made. It lands directly in your own Stripe account, not ours. Most restaurants knock it off the final bill, which guests are completely used to by now.
A deposit does two jobs a card hold doesn't. It filters out the maybe-bookers before they ever hold a table, and it means a no-show on a big night isn't a total loss — you've already banked something towards it.
The cost is friction. Asking for £10 a head on a Tuesday table for two is overkill, and guests will rightly wonder why. Which brings us to the actual question.
So which one — and when?
Don't think of it as one policy for the whole restaurant. Think of it as three tiers:
- Everyday tables — neither. A two-top on a quiet weeknight doesn't need protecting. Reminders are plenty, and a friction-free booking is worth more than the rare no-show.
- Bigger tables and busy services — card hold. Parties of five or six, Friday and Saturday nights. The guest pays nothing, you get commitment. This is the sweet spot for most restaurants, most of the time.
- The bookings you can't afford to lose — deposit. Christmas parties, Valentine's, Mother's Day, tasting menus, anything pre-ordered or specially staffed. Real money is at stake, so it's fair for some of it to arrive early. Nobody books a Christmas party expecting not to pay a deposit.
NomNom lets you set this per session, with party-size thresholds — for example: no requirement up to four guests, card hold from five, deposit (per person or flat fee) from eight. Where both rules would apply, the deposit wins. Set it once and the booking flow quietly does the right thing for every party size from then on.
Does it scare guests off?
Less than you'd think — if the tiers are sensible. The guests most likely to baulk at saving a card are, overwhelmingly, the ones least likely to show up. That's not a coincidence; it's the filter working. Genuine bookers add a card in seconds, because they've done it for taxis, takeaways and hotel rooms all week.
What does scare guests off is a blanket policy that treats a quiet Tuesday lunch like a flight booking. Keep everyday tables friction-free and save the firmer asks for the bookings where everyone understands why.
The maths, briefly
Say your average spend is £35 a head. One six-top that doesn't show is roughly £210 of turnover gone — more once you count the bookings you declined for that slot. If a card hold deters or recovers just one of those a month, that's £2,500 a year back, for a feature that's already in your subscription. There's nothing extra to pay NomNom — deposits and card holds are built in, with only Stripe's standard processing fees on money you actually take.
Getting set up
Deposits and card holds are configured per session in the app, and payments run through your own Stripe account — if you haven't connected one yet, it takes a few minutes and we walk you through it. Start gently: card holds on larger parties only, and see how it feels for a month. You can tighten, loosen or switch it off any time.
And if you'd rather talk it through first, send us a message — we're happy to help you pick thresholds that fit how your restaurant actually runs.