Published 5 hours ago •
Updated 5 hours ago
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The National Restaurant Association estimates that 110,000 eating and drinking places had shut for the long term — if not for good — by Dec. 2020.
Of those eating and drinking places, bars and taverns were hit hardest, with those that stayed open seeing sales fall by 65% on the year.
As countries come out of lockdown, pub and restaurant owners have a simple plea for punters: honor your bookings.
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Drinkers and diners who fail to cancel before blowing off a reservation were estimated to cost the British hospitality industry £16 billion ($22.2 billion) in 2019. Now, after more than a year of diminished trade, what was once a social sin could prove to be a poison pill.