• News
  • Film and TV
  • Music
  • Tech
  • Features
  • Celebrity
  • Politics
  • Weird
  • Community
  • Advertise
  • Terms
  • Privacy & Cookies
  • LADbible Group
  • LADbible
  • SPORTbible
  • GAMINGbible
  • Tyla
  • UNILAD Tech
  • FOODbible
  • License Our Content
  • About Us & Contact
  • Jobs
  • Latest
  • Topics A-Z
  • Authors
Facebook
Instagram
X
Threads
TikTok
YouTube
Submit Your Content
Woman angry after restaurant charges her $681 cancellation fee

Home> News

Published 17:31 1 Apr 2023 GMT+1

Woman angry after restaurant charges her $681 cancellation fee

She said she woke up to find an email saying the amount would be charged to her credit card

Claire Reid

Claire Reid

A woman was charged more than $600 after cancellng a booking at a fancy restaurant.

Australian Lorida Quiambao, 36, booked a table for six at Restaurant Navi in Yarraville, west of Melbourne on Saturday.

But on Thursday she started to feel ill so decided to cancel the dinner, which she had planned as an early birthday celebration.

Quiambao said she then woke up on Friday to an email from the restaurant informing her she had been charged $1,020AUD ($681) for the cancellation.

Advert

Speaking to the Daily Mail, Quiambao said: “I saw that they'd charged my card with no additional information. They could have at least spoken to me first to explain.”

Quiambao said she appreciates that restaurants need to charge cancellation fees but thinks the one given to her by Navi was a little on the steep side - insisting that they had charged her ‘the absolute maximum they could have’.

Lorida Quiambao booked a table for six at Restaurant Navi.
Facebook

Navi serves a set menu that costs $170AUD ($113) and uses fresh, locally sourced ingredients.

Advert

The restaurant charged Quiambao for six of these set menus, as her booking had been for six people.

Navi chef and owner Julian Hills told the Daily Mail that for bookings of five people or more the restaurant requires at least five days' notice for cancellations.

He said: “Failure to do so may incur a cancellation/no show fee of the full menu price. In light of current circumstances with COVID19 this is not always feasible, but we do ask for as much notice as possible.”

Hills said that some dishes started prep four days prior and that he also needed time to order ingredients from suppliers.

Advert

He also pointed out that a table of six would take up a quarter of the restaurant’s capacity.

She was hit with a hefty cancellation fee.
Facebook

“So to lose 25 percent of a night’s bookings means a big financial loss for us when margins are small,” he said.

The chef said that people who are on the restaurant’s waiting list are sent a text message when a cancellation is made and that 'all efforts to fill the spot (and therefore offer a refund to the patron when/if the table is able to be filled as advised) were engaged'.

Advert

“Customers who cancel late are refunded when we are able to fill the cancellation in part (ie a table of four even if the booking was for a table of six) or in full,” he said.

“When customers call us we make all efforts to try and action this even faster.”

The restaurant has since told the Daily Mail that it was able to fill Quiambao’s booking and has since refunded her.

Featured Image Credit: Facebook/Lorida Quiambao

Topics: Australia, Money

Claire Reid
Claire Reid

Claire is a journalist at UNILAD who, after dossing around for a few years, went to Liverpool John Moores University. She graduated with a degree in Journalism and a whole load of debt. When not writing words in exchange for money she is usually at home watching serial killer documentaries surrounded by cats.

Advert

Advert

Advert

Choose your content:

7 hours ago
9 hours ago
10 hours ago
  • 7 hours ago

    'Ozempic economy' explained as research suggests drug could save US taxpayers $173,000,000,000 a year

    The diabetes drug could help to reform the US economy

    News
  • 9 hours ago

    Legendary actor Michael Madsen has died aged 67

    Madsen was best known for his roles in Reservoir Dogs and Kill Bill

    Film & TV
  • 9 hours ago

    Kanye West has been banned from entering Australia over one of his songs

    Kanye West will not be touring in Australia anytime soon

    Celebrity
  • 10 hours ago

    Donald Trump makes shocking threat to deport New York mayor candidate Zohran Mamdani

    Zohran Mamdani has responded to the POTUS' threats against him

    News
  • Restaurant sparks debate after charging customers a $17 fee for making reservation mistake
  • Man sells his home for over $600,000 but operators take over $205,000 of the fee as costs charged
  • Woman 'steals' winning $175,000 lottery ticket after coworker takes her gift card
  • Woman fired after boss used keystroke technology to track her working at home