There should be a time which is considered acceptable for a customer to be late – we suggest 20 minutes but this an operational matter for management to decide on. If this agreed time is passed, management should be at liberty to re-sell the table to a chance customer who is prepared to accept the appropriately reduced time at table.
Where customers do arrive late and their allocated table is still free but is re-booked later in the service then they should only be seated at that table if they are prepared to leave in time to accommodate the next guests. On no account should late arrivals simply be seated at an unoccupied table (during a busy service) as this may cause chaos later on for staff and guests. By all means, offer late arriving guests another table always taking into account “Next Free Tables” – but sometimes you may simply have to politely decline to seat such late arriving guests if it will put the rest of the service in jeopardy.