Diner is furious after a major restaurant charged her $1,020 when she canceled a reservation because she was sick – but the owner defends the charge
- Dinner was charged over $1,000
- The restaurant defended their policy
A caterer gets angry after a restaurant charges her a whopping $1,020 cancellation fee for her party of six.
Melbourne woman Loreda Quiambao, 36, has booked a table for Saturday at Navy Restaurant in Yarraville, west Melbourne, to celebrate an early birthday.
But after falling ill, on Thursday, she decided to cancel her reservation.
Friday morning, she said, she woke up to an email from the restaurant informing her that she had been charged $1,020 for the cancellation.
“I saw they charged my card without any additional information,” she told Daily Mail Australia.
Loreda Quiambao is distraught after paying $1,020 to cancel a restaurant reservation
They could have at least talked to me first to explain it.
Ms. Quiambao, the project manager, said she understood why restaurants would charge cancellation fees because she had previously worked in the hospitality industry.
“But they charged me as much as they could get,” she said.
Navi offers a menu with ingredients sourced from small producers and local farms.
Ms. Quiambao was charged for the restaurant’s $170 set menu six times as she had booked for six.
She said she booked Navi after having a pleasant dining experience at the restaurant last year.
I wanted my friends to experience it too. She said: That’s why it’s so frustrating.
Restaurant Navi (pictured) defended their cancellation policy
Ms Quiambao took to social media on Friday to vent her frustration with the experience.
She said no restaurant or business should be allowed to charge such an expensive cancellation fee.
It’s disgusting and not good especially at times like this. @restaurantnavijuleschef This place should be so ashamed of themselves and honestly you guys… don’t risk going here anymore,” she wrote on Facebook.
Navy chef and owner Julian Hills told Daily Mail Australia that canceling reservations for groups of five or more required “5 days’ notice” and a table of six would consume a quarter of the restaurant’s capacity.
Failure to do so may result in a cancellation/no-show fee of the full list price. In light of the current circumstances with COVID19 this is not always possible, but we ask for as much notice as possible.
Mr Hills said preparations for some dishes started four days in advance and orders from some producers required six weeks’ notice.
“So losing 25 percent of tonight’s bookings means a huge financial loss for us when margins are small,” he said.
Ms. Quiambao said an email from the restaurant said it required five days’ notice to cancel
In another message from the restaurant’s website, Ms. Quiambao was informed that the restaurant requires 48 hours’ notice to cancel.
“We’ll be offering one dinner menu, Friday through Saturday, $170 (with paired drinks $275) and one menu Saturday, $95 (with paired drinks $155).”
Mr Hills said that people queuing for a table on Saturday were sent an SMS to her after Ms Quiambao canceled and that ‘all efforts to fill the spot (and thus offer a refund to the patron when/if a table can be advised) were engaged’.
“Customers who cancel late are refunded when we are able to fill part of the cancellation (any table of four even if the booking is for a table of six) or in full,” he said.
“When customers contact us, we do our best to try to get it done faster.”
Mr. Hills said he called Ms. Quiambao to inform her of the restaurant’s policies and operations, but she put him on hold without letting him finish his job.
Ms. Quiambao said she got a call from Mr. Hills but was on her way to the doctor and told him she didn’t have time to talk.
“I have not received any correspondence since then and no response to my email requesting a refund.”
