Restaurant no-show fees in Australia: what you can legally charge

A table for eight booked weeks ago for Saturday night, and at 7:30 pm it is still empty. No call, no cancellation, just prepped food, rostered staff and a row of walk-ins you turned away an hour earlier. Australian venues have been counting this cost for years: back in 2017, the booking platform Dimmi (which later became TheFork Australia) estimated that no-shows were costing the industry A$75 million a year, with 38,000 diners blacklisted by its partner restaurants in a single 12-month period. That figure is a dated vendor estimate, but every operator who has watched a deuce sit empty through a full service knows the problem never went away.

So can you charge for it? Short answer: yes, if you do it properly. There is no Australian statute that bans restaurant no-show fees, and none that caps them. There is also no published court ruling on them, which means the rules come from ordinary contract law and the Australian Consumer Law rather than from a neat "restaurant no-show act". This guide walks through what the law actually requires, what official guidance says about amounts and deposits, what Australian diners will tolerate in 2026, and the workflow that makes a fee enforceable. It also covers the prevention side, because a booking system with automatic confirmations and an easy cancellation link removes most no-shows before any fee is needed.

Is it legal to charge a no-show fee in Australia?

Yes. When a guest books a table after being shown a clear condition such as "cancellations within 24 hours and no-shows are charged $25 per guest", that condition becomes part of the agreement between you and the guest, and ordinary contract law lets you enforce it. No federal or state legislation prohibits the practice for restaurants.

Two doctrines put boundaries around that freedom:

• Unfair contract terms. The Australian Consumer Law voids terms that create a significant imbalance between business and consumer, and since the November 2023 reforms unfair terms are not just unenforceable, they attract penalties. A no-show condition buried where no guest would see it, or one that lets you keep money without taking reasonable steps to limit your loss, is exactly the profile of an unfair term.
• The penalty doctrine. A fee that goes well beyond your genuine loss risks being treated as an unenforceable penalty rather than a legitimate pre-estimate of damage. A $25 per head charge for a missed dinner booking reflects a real lost cover; a $200 per head charge for the same table would be hard to defend.

One honest caveat, and it matters: because no Australian court has published a decision specifically about a restaurant no-show fee, nobody can tell you exactly where a judge would draw the line. Everything above is standard contract and consumer-law reasoning, not tested case law. In practice that uncertainty cuts in favour of restraint: a modest, clearly disclosed fee is very unlikely to ever be challenged, while an aggressive one invites chargebacks, complaints to your state consumer affairs body and one-star reviews.

What the official guidance actually says

There is no ACCC page dedicated to restaurant no-show fees. The closest official guidance comes from Consumer Affairs Victoria's guidance for tourism businesses, which deals with bookings, deposits and cancellation fees for accommodation and tour operators. It is written for tourism businesses, not restaurants, but the principles come straight from the Australian Consumer Law, so they are the best available yardstick for any hospitality booking:

• Disclose before the booking is made. Customers must be aware of cancellation conditions before they book; failing to disclose them "could also be considered unfair, due to a lack of transparency". A policy revealed for the first time in a confirmation email is on shaky ground.
• Charge reasonable costs, not punishment. Cancellation fees "should not be excessive", and should be limited to the reasonable costs the business actually incurs. Terms that let a business reclaim losses without taking reasonable steps to avoid them, for instance by re-letting the table, may be deemed unfair.
• Keep deposits modest. A fair deposit is "generally not more than 10 per cent" of the total cost of the service booked, unless a higher amount is justified by the potential loss. A larger upfront amount risks being treated as a refundable pre-payment rather than a forfeitable deposit.

The ACCC's general guidance on cancelling a service covers the other direction: when the failure is on the venue's side, guests keep their consumer-guarantee rights, and no booking condition can take those away.

The practical translation for a restaurant: put the policy where the guest cannot miss it (on the booking screen, before they confirm), keep the amount close to the margin you actually lose on the cover, and never charge a guest whose table you managed to fill anyway.

How much can a restaurant charge for a no-show?

Legally, there is no fixed cap: the amount must reflect your reasonable loss. Commercially, there very much is a ceiling, and Australian diners have made it clear where it sits. A Money.com.au survey of more than 1,000 Australians, published on 29 June 2026 via Hospitality Magazine, found that:

• 51% of Australians consider card holds and cancellation fees excessive, against only 22% who find them reasonable;
• the average fee diners consider acceptable is A$15 per person, and nearly half of respondents think there should be no fee at all;
• more than 1 in 4 diners actively avoid venues with strict booking conditions.

At the same time, the industry expects the practice to spread. Wes Lambert, CEO of the Australian Restaurant & Cafe Association, said in the same report that he expects card holds and cancellation fees "to become increasingly common, and potentially mandatory, as venues look to protect what little margin remains".

Both things are true at once: fees are becoming normal, and diners resent heavy-handed ones. The workable middle ground for most venues looks like this:

• Standard dinner bookings: either no fee at all, or a card guarantee with a disclosed charge in the A$15 to A$25 per person range for a full no-show.
• Peak services and large tables: a card guarantee as standard, because this is where the loss is real and guests understand it.
• Functions, set menus and event nights: a genuine deposit, since the food is bought and the room is committed. Keep the Victorian 10 per cent guidance in mind when setting it, and spell out when it is refundable.
• Never stack: charge the no-show fee or keep the deposit, not both, and charge nothing when the guest cancelled in time or you refilled the table.

Deposits, card holds and the October 2026 surcharge ban

Three payment mechanisms get mixed up in this debate, and one new rule has added to the confusion.

A deposit is money taken at booking and deducted from the bill. A card guarantee (or card hold) stores the guest's card details at booking and charges them only if the guest never turns up; nothing is charged when they show. Both remain perfectly lawful in Australia, and the card guarantee is the gentler tool: 100% of guests who honour their booking pay nothing extra. We cover the mechanics, the card-network rules and how to survive a chargeback in our guide to credit card holds for restaurant bookings.

The new rule is about something else entirely. From 1 October 2026, following the Reserve Bank of Australia's March 2026 Conclusions Paper, surcharging on eftpos, Mastercard and Visa payments is banned. That ban covers the extra percentage some venues added at the EFTPOS terminal to recover card processing costs. It says nothing about no-show fees, cancellation fees, deposits or card guarantees, which are conditions of the booking, not payment surcharges. If a supplier or a diner tells you the RBA "banned booking fees", they have misread the reform.

One contrast worth knowing if you follow the topic internationally: Australia has no statutory cap of any kind, whereas Québec capped restaurant no-show fees at $10 per person in 2025, with mandatory reminders built into the law. Australian law leaves the amount to you and to the penalty doctrine; that freedom is exactly why a self-imposed, modest ceiling is smart.

Writing a policy that survives a dispute

When a charged guest disputes the fee with their bank, or complains to a state consumer affairs body, the outcome turns on your paper trail, not on who was right in spirit. Four habits make the difference:

• Disclosure on the booking screen. The full condition (amount, cut-off time, when the card is charged) appears before the guest confirms, ideally on the same screen where card details are entered. Restate it in the confirmation email.
• A timestamped record of acceptance. An online booking completed after the policy was displayed is strong evidence. A phone booking where a host may or may not have read the terms aloud is weak; if you take phone bookings, send a confirmation that includes the policy.
• An easy, always-open cancellation channel. A guest who must ring during Saturday service to cancel often will not bother. A one-tap cancellation link costs you nothing, fills the table with someone else and demolishes the "I had no way to cancel" defence.
• Consistency. Charging one no-show and waiving the next on mood invites exactly the disputes you are trying to avoid. Decide the rules, write them down, apply them evenly.

Wording examples and cut-off structures are in our restaurant cancellation policy guide; the principles there apply unchanged to Australian venues.

Prevention beats the fee every time

A no-show fee compensates you for a lost table. A prevented no-show keeps the table earning, which is worth several times the fee. The full playbook lives in our global guide to reducing restaurant no-shows; the short Australian version:

• Automatic confirmations and reminders. Most no-shows are forgetfulness, not malice. A reminder the day before with one tap to confirm or cancel converts silent no-shows into usable cancellations. See our guide to booking confirmations and reminders.
• Card guarantees where the stakes justify them. Saturday nights, set menus, public holiday services. The deterrent works even when you never charge anyone.
• Deposits for functions and large tables. A party of twelve that vanishes in December is a small catastrophe; a per-person deposit rolled into the bill is standard and guests accept it. Our large group bookings guide covers how to structure it.
• A waitlist to backfill. Some tables will always free up late. A live waitlist turns a 5 pm cancellation into a seated cover, and it is also your best evidence that you took reasonable steps to limit the loss.

Where ViteUneTable fits

ViteUneTable is a booking system built for independent venues, with an unlimited free version and 0% commission: none of your covers ever generates a per-guest fee to a platform. The free version already includes online bookings with automatic email confirmations and an online cancellation link, which covers the disclosure and easy-cancellation requirements above out of the box. The Standard + Anti No-Show pack, at 49 € per month excluding VAT (the Pack Standard alone is 29 €), adds the tools aimed squarely at this problem: booking reminders and card guarantees on the bookings you choose, so the policy you disclose is enforced automatically instead of depending on a busy host.

To be honest about the fit: ViteUneTable's pricing is in euros, because the service was built in Europe first, and some Australian operators prefer a locally billed tool. In exchange you get something no local platform currently offers: a genuinely unlimited free plan with no per-booking fee, at a moment when the Australian market's paid booking tools start at roughly A$115 plus GST per month. And the system never pushes you to charge whatever you want; it automates the conditions that make a fee fair and defensible.

Frequently asked questions

Is it legal to charge a no-show fee in Australia?

Yes. No Australian statute prohibits restaurant no-show fees. The fee must be disclosed before the guest books, agreed to as a condition of the booking, and set at a level that reflects your genuine loss. An excessive or hidden fee risks being an unfair contract term or an unenforceable penalty under the Australian Consumer Law.

How much can a restaurant charge for a no-show?

There is no legal cap. The amount should approximate the margin you actually lose on the empty cover, and most Australian venues that charge sit between A$15 and A$25 per person for a standard booking. For reference, a June 2026 Money.com.au survey found the average fee diners consider acceptable is A$15 per person.

Can a restaurant keep my deposit if I cancel?

Only within the terms disclosed at booking, and only to the extent the venue actually loses out. Consumer Affairs Victoria's guidance for tourism bookings treats a fair deposit as generally not more than 10 per cent of the total, and terms that let a business keep money without taking reasonable steps to refill the booking may be unfair. A venue that resold your table has little basis for keeping the full deposit.

Does the October 2026 card surcharge ban affect no-show fees?

No. The RBA reform that bans surcharges on eftpos, Mastercard and Visa payments from 1 October 2026 targets the extra percentage added to a bill to recover card processing costs. No-show fees, cancellation fees, deposits and card guarantees are booking conditions, not surcharges, and remain lawful.

Do I have to charge a fee at all?

No, and many venues should not. If your no-show rate is low, automatic reminders with an easy cancellation link plus a waitlist to backfill late cancellations will usually solve the problem without charging anyone. Reserve card guarantees and deposits for the services where an empty table genuinely hurts: peak nights, set menus, functions and large groups.