Let’s pretend that my restaurant is located in a coastal town with lots of high end resorts.

These resorts are very expensive and their guests are very demanding. I know from experience they are rarely told no.

These guest will arrive and request that the concierges make reservations at various restaurants round town. My restaurant being one of them.

And so said employees of these resorts will start calling my restaurant and will continue to call until their shift ends. They hardly ever leave a message. Yesterday someone from a resort called at least 17 times. And never left a message. I know they call because of the magic of caller ID. I’m on the phone when they call before 5:00. I’m greeting people when they call after 5:00.

Today it was another resort who called. They too never left a message.

Fun fact. Call once. Leave a message including what resort you are calling from and who the guest is.

Because when I call back it won’t be you who answers and no one else will know that the Smiths needed a reservation. PS. Often it’s central reservations who answers not someone at the property.

Also, get a phone number that will get me to a person. Today I called and was not given the option to leave a message, only the option to hold for the next available operator. I have 37 messages to return. I can’t be on hold for 10 minutes.

And last of all. Do not call during service to make a reservation a month from now. Call during service if you are desperate to get someone in tonight. If you need a table in six weeks call and leave a message. I promise I will call you back.

Also don’t be angry when I ask for a credit card for the reservation. One resort had a series of reservations for guests who never showed for dinner. So we require a credit card now to hold their tables.

We want to help you. We know you. We are friends. We also want to take the reservation because it’s how we make money. But seriously. Call once. Leave a message. I will call you back. You’ll get the reservations you require. And you don’t have to keep dialing. Think of the other work you can get done if you don’t spend 45 minutes calling me over and over.