[Ansteorra] Feast Reservation Manners

[clarissa]

I have lived in kingdoms where all feast reservations were paid
reservations. I think it worked out very well. Cancellations were much,
much less. The cook knew how many folks to cook for and knew the feast
was paid for as well. Folks actually communicated ahead of time (when
making the reservation) the food allergies they had.

The small shire where I lived in the East Kingdom could not have afforded
to lose money because folks didn't attend. Groups typically returned the
reservation fee if the reservation was cancelled 2 weeks in advance or if
the event could sell that feast reservation to some one else. Sometimes
something would come up at the last minute and I wouldn't get to the
event. C'est la vie! I just donated $5 or $8 to that group.  As a cook, I
understood that once the food was bought, the group could not get their
money back. I looked at it this way: I had agreed to let them make
various food purchases on my behalf by making a reservation and I had the
responsibility to protect the group from loss incurred by my inability to
show (regardless of my excuse).

Its been my experience in this kingdom that the reservation turnover rate
is sometimes 50% which makes it almost not worth the hassle of tracking
reservations, quite honestly. Gilli is quite right. If folks can't get a
reservation, they make other plans and so the group will not replace all
the no shows when they finally open up feast to the waiting list.  Thus,
groups can and have lost money on the feast AND a lot of food is also
thrown away (which breaks my little cook's heart).  Having to absorb
these losses has the by product of groups setting their breakeven on
feast much lower than expected attendance, thus raising the fee for each
of us.



Clarissa di Firenze
clarissa at supportyou.com