Dutch banks are increasingly replacing traditional bank cards with Visa Debit and Debit Mastercard. This creates a new opportunity for restaurants to guarantee reservations: guests can use their payment card as a guarantee without paying upfront.
Guestplan is now making this application available to restaurants. With Card Guarantee, guests link a debit or credit card to their reservation when booking. Nothing is charged upfront, but in the event of a no-show, the restaurant can charge a no-show fee according to the terms communicated in advance.
No-shows remain a problem
A reserved table that unexpectedly remains empty can often no longer be filled at short notice. This means lost revenue, while staff and the kitchen have already prepared for the guest’s arrival.
Stijn Soolsma of restaurant De Mark experiences this in practice: “In an ideal world, we wouldn’t need deposits or Card Guarantee. But unfortunately, we don’t live in that world, and we have several no-shows every week. Not showing up without letting us know feels like a lack of respect for the restaurant and other guests.”
More and more restaurants are therefore working with deposits. These provide certainty, but also create additional administrative work. With a standard reservation, a deposit ultimately needs to be refunded or settled against the restaurant bill.
From deposit to guarantee
Card Guarantee offers an alternative. When making a reservation, the agreed amount is temporarily reserved on the guest’s payment card. If the guest shows up, the guarantee is released. Only in the event of a no-show can the restaurant charge a no-show fee according to the terms communicated in advance.
For restaurants, this means fewer administrative tasks: no deposits that need to be refunded, no amounts that need to be settled against the restaurant bill, no payment requests afterwards and no transaction costs. When a guest simply shows up, no payment takes place and therefore no transaction costs are incurred.
“What I particularly like about Card Guarantee is that nothing happens as long as everyone keeps their commitment. With a deposit, every guest pays upfront, while they only get that money back when they actually show up. In my view, Card Guarantee therefore feels much more hospitable,” says Soolsma.
What has long been common abroad is now coming to the Netherlands
In countries such as the United States and the United Kingdom, it has long been common for restaurants to ask guests for a payment card as a reservation guarantee. In the Netherlands, this was largely limited to guests with a credit card.
That is now changing. Since 2023, Dutch banks have gradually been replacing Maestro and V PAY cards with Visa Debit and Debit Mastercard. This makes Card Guarantee accessible to a much larger group of Dutch guests, without requiring a credit card.
Guestplan makes Card Guarantee part of hospitality infrastructure
Guestplan is building the hospitality infrastructure for restaurants, with reservations and guest relationships as key foundations. Card Guarantee is now part of this infrastructure and works through Mollie Connect and Stripe Connect.
Restaurants can activate the feature within Guestplan and do not need a separate system to manage guarantees or potential no-show fees.
“A reservation is an agreement between a guest and a restaurant. It doesn’t need to be paid for upfront, but that agreement should have some value,” says Bas van ’t Wout, founder and CEO of Guestplan. “With Card Guarantee, we can give restaurants certainty without requiring guests to pay upfront. It brings certainty for the restaurant and convenience for the guest together.”
Card Guarantee as the new standard?
As Visa Debit and Debit Mastercard become more widely available, Guestplan expects Card Guarantee to become an increasingly attractive alternative to deposits for restaurants.
“I expect that in a few years, we will look at deposits for restaurant reservations very differently. Why would you ask a guest to pay upfront if you can offer the same certainty without actually taking their money?” says Van ’t Wout.
The guest keeps their money. The restaurant keeps the certainty.
