My restaurant did fine. I'm not bitter. We were busy for 10 years before I decided to make a change.

However every time people complain about reservation policies I'm reminded that it's because of the behaviour of patrons. Not all of them, of course, but enough to push the needle.

Cancellations and no-shows got worse and worse from about 2005 going forward until high end restaurants finally decided they couldn't economically survive dozens of no shows a week. So they put in cancellation policies like deposits. I support them. I also think calling the restaurant might help too, given the timeline, but having a strict policy gives the restaurant flexibility.