As part of an ongoing effort to manage growing concerns around reservations, Bern’s Steak House (“Bern’s), announced today that effective immediately they will require credit cards to secure bookings.
All no-show reservations and reservation cancellations made within 24 hours or less of the booking will be subject to a $25 per person charge.
One hundred percent of the monies that result from the cancellations will benefit Feeding Tampa Bay, a 501c(3) focused on providing food to about 1 million food-insecure families in the 10-county area of West Central Florida.
Bern’s migrated to an online booking platform in 2017 but continues to maintain the ability for guests to call for reservations.
Contributing factors to the reservation challenges include a change in May of 2022 to open six days (instead of seven), as well as continuing to operate the dining room at 85 percent pre-COVID capacity.
Most talked-about concerns surrounding the reservation system include speculation of a third-party company utilizing Internet bots to book reservations.
A detailed investigation has revealed that this is user abuse, with people posing as interested guests who work the reservation system and benefit from the sale of securing prime-time reservations.
This issue is being legally investigated.
The new reservation policy allows Bern’s to cancel or decline any reservation that is suspected to have originated via a trade or unauthorized third-party website, app, or social media platform.
Reservations are released on a rolling 60-day booking and are released at 12:00 a.m. each morning.
Reservations can be made online by visiting https://bernssteakhouse.com/reservation/ or by calling 813.251.2421 during regular business hours.
Reservations are non-transferable and now, may require identification upon check-in.
For more information or to review the complete reservation policy, please visit here.