Ice cream parlour charges deposits due to no-shows

The owner of an ice cream parlour and tea rooms in Staffordshire says she has started taking deposits for some bookings, as a series of no-shows have left her out of pocket.

Natalie Taylor, from Bobby's Ice Cream parlour in Werrington, said she has had to pick up the bill for staff wages and ingredients when people who booked did not turn up.

About a dozen people left her with empty tables for afternoon tea bookings recently, she said.

She added that it led her to turning other customers away, thinking that the table would not be available due to the booking.

"I understand things can happen," she said.

"If they'd let me know, I could have given that table to someone else instead of having an empty table," adding that she believed some people contacted two or more venues to secure a booking and then simply failed to show up to one of them.

Ms Taylor added: "We are a family-run business, so I just felt really upset.

"Three of them had allergies so we had to do gluten free which cost me quite a bit of money," she added.

The reaction had generally been positive to the new policy of taking bookings, and the money can then be redeemed against customers' bills.

The company is only taking the bookings for afternoon tea or larger groups, with walk-in customers still welcomed.

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