Restaurant to contact police after fraudster makes fake bookings for more than 100 covers
A Derbyshire hotel and restaurant is planning to contact the police after a fraudster made fake bookings for more than 100 covers over a weekend.
Alistair Myers, owner of Rafters at Riverside House in Ashford-in-the-Water, said staff became aware of the issue after ringing to confirm reservations in advance.
Myers told The Caterer: "It's a nightmare after everything that's happened this year. The first [booking] the phone number didn't have enough digits. Three or four had wrong phone numbers and emails were bouncing back. At that point alarm bells started ringing."
The team discovered the reservations via ResDiary were made by three IP addresses within a two-hour period on 3 January. Twenty-three bookings were made for 109 covers across the upcoming weekend.
"They blocked up 90% of this Sunday coming and a few on Saturday," said Myers. "We looked like we had 100 covers booked on Sunday and that went down to 16. We are going to look at the IP addresses and send the information to the police."
He said he was unsure why someone would target the restaurant and was focused on trying to refill the bookings.
Myers added: "Some people have asked who we've annoyed… but we're fair with all our staff and suppliers. It would have been easy for me and [chef patron Tom Lawson] to feel like it's a personal attack, or we can rise above it and say we're not going to be beaten by some silly game."
The restaurant has introduced a £10 deposit for bookings to try and prevent it happening again.
"It might not be enough to put off a no-show but it should be enough to stop someone making malicious bookings like this, it would cost them about £1,090 if they did it again," said Myers.
Rafters has struggled to refill bookings after 3pm on Sunday and on Wednesday afternoon had not yet filled any reservations lost for Saturday.
Myers, who also runs the Rafters restaurant in Sheffield, said the team was aiming to stay positive after the Derbyshire site won a Michelin plate recommendation in the 2022 Michelin Guide Great Britain and Ireland, and it already holds two AA rosettes.
"We're going to do the best we can to refill our restaurant and make sure our staff have hours this weekend," he said.
A ResDiary spokesperson said: "Venues can view the IP Address within each booking.
"We also advise on other facilities within ResDiary to prevent fraudulent / no show bookings, such as tokenisation, deposits, reminder emails and SMS notifications.
"Our success and support team members are always on hand to arrange online training sessions/Q and As to provide guidance, answer any questions and to assist in setting up any of the above features."
