Restaurant cancellation fees are popping up everywhere. Here’s why

Michelle Badek took a booking for 18 people last month at the Italian restaurant she runs in the trendy inner-Melbourne suburb of Carlton. Six of them turned up.

Facing a shortfall of more than $2300 from the missing dozen – based on the $195 per person Al Dente Enoteca charges for its four-course menu with drinks – Ms Badek invoked the restaurant’s policy of charging $30 per person for last-minute cancellations.