Published 5 hours ago • Updated 5 hours ago SOPA Images | LightRocket | Getty Images 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. Download our mobile app for iOS or Android to get alerts for local breaking news and weather. 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.