Booking Analytics – No-show Patterns

Booking analytics in Vendion gives you tools to understand not just how many bookings you have, but which patterns explain no-shows and cancellations. This is critical information — a 10 % no-show rate costs an average restaurant around 8-10 % of revenue, or roughly 300,000-500,000 SEK/year for a restaurant doing 5 MSEK.

Where to find the report

Go to Analytics → Booking Analytics in the admin menu.

KPI cards (6)

No-show rate – industry benchmarks

What causes no-shows? Typical patterns

Pattern 1: Parties over 6 people Large parties no-show more often because someone in the group forgets to notify. Action: Call 24 hours before to confirm large bookings manually.

Pattern 2: Bookings 2+ weeks in advance The longer the lead time, the higher the no-show risk. People forget. Action: Send SMS reminder 48h and 2h before.

Pattern 3: Fridays and Saturdays Weekend bookings no-show more than weekday bookings. Action: Enable SMS confirmation for weekend bookings, consider credit card guarantee for groups ≥6 on Saturdays.

Pattern 4: Bookings without phone numbers Bookings with only email have 2-3× higher no-show risk. Action: Make phone number mandatory on the booking form.

The no-show trend (line chart)

Shows no-shows per day over time. Look for:

• Single spikes: A specific evening with unusually many no-shows — was it bad weather? A major holiday?
• Gradually rising trend: Is no-show rate rising month over month? Then you must act structurally.
• Weekday vs weekend: If weekend no-shows are 3× weekdays — credit card guarantee on weekends?

Heatmap: Most popular booking times

Shows bookings per weekday × hour. Darker cell = more bookings. Look for:

• Unused time slots: If 17:30 is almost never booked — consider removing, or invite guests with an "early bird" discount
• Overloaded time slots: If 19:00 is red and the kitchen crashes — steer guests toward 19:30 or 18:30 via the widget

New vs returning guests (stacked area chart)

• Gold area (bottom): Returning guests
• Green area (top): New guests

Interpretation:

• More than 60 % returning = loyal customer base, marketing is not widening reach
• More than 60 % new = no loyalty being built, guests don't come back
• 40-60 % returning = healthy mix

Top guests (table)

List of most loyal guests ranked by total spend:

Action: Buy these guests a coffee, welcome them by name, send birthday SMS via the Marketing module.

No-show list (table)

List of guests with the most no-shows:

Action: Flag these guests in the guest registry. On the next booking — call and confirm personally.

Table popularity (table)

List of which tables are booked most often:

Action: If one table is 95 % booked and another 20 %, consider raising prices on the popular table (premium zone) or making the under-booked table more attractive.

Action plan to reduce no-show rate

1. Enable SMS confirmation 24h before (the Booking module has this built-in)
2. Enable SMS reminder 2h before
3. Make phone number mandatory on the booking form
4. Flag repeat no-shows in the guest registry — require prepayment
5. Credit card guarantee for groups ≥6 and on Saturdays
6. Call large bookings (8+) manually 24h before

Through systematic implementation a restaurant can typically reduce no-show from 12 % to 4-5 % in 3 months.

Booking sources – where do bookings come from?

The "Booking sources" donut chart shows how bookings distribute across:

• Direct website (your booking form)
• Phone (manually registered by staff)
• Walk-in (direct entry)
• Third-party (TheFork, Resy, Google Reserve etc.)
• AI (guests who booked via AI Boss or AI Guide)

Rule of thumb: If more than 30 % comes from third-party, you are likely paying unnecessary commissions. TheFork takes ~5 SEK/person or a fixed monthly fee. Move that traffic to Direct website by:

1. Having a clear booking link on Google My Business
2. Sending SMS with booking link to first-time guests
3. Activating the Booking widget on your website and Instagram

Occupancy by weekday

The bar chart shows bookings + number of guests per weekday. Look at the relationship:

• If Wednesday has 30 % fewer bookings than Thursday — run a "Wednesday menu" with a special offer
• If Saturday evening is 95 % full but Friday is only 60 % — market Friday specifically

Lead time in detail

The average lead time varies:

• À la carte: 4-8 days
• Fine dining: 12-21 days
• Lunch venue: 0-2 days (walk-in dominates)
• Bar/pub: 0-3 days

If your lead time suddenly falls, it may mean you have lost repeaters who used to book early.

AI Boss booking questions

• "How are bookings this weekend?"
• "Which weekdays are least booked?"
• "Show the no-show trend for the last 3 months"
• "What's the average party size on weekends?"