contract-law breach-of-contract food
If a restaurant is booked and upon arrival it is communicated that the kitchen is closed, are potential damages entitled to be claimed?
<p>It's a hypothetical question:</p>
<p>Let's say you booked a table via an online reservation system (from the restaurant's website) for a romantic dinner with your partner from 7:30-9 PM. The online reservation form has fields for &quot;time&quot;, &quot;name&quot;, &quot;phone number&quot;, and &quot;message/special requests&quot;.</p>
<p>You leave a message under the messages section that you are going to arrive around 8-8:15 PM. The reservation is getting confirmed a few minutes after the reservation.</p>
<p>You are arriving at the restaurant at exactly 8 PM and the cashier says: &quot;Oh, sorry, we closed the kitchen! We can't serve you today! Only take away!&quot;.</p>
<p>Do you have any right here to complain?</p>
<p>BTW, even though the case was in Sweden, I believe my question was a bit more general.</p>

<p>In general, &quot;making a reservation&quot; does not create a contract, except when it is obvious that you have a contractual agreement. That would be the case with an airline reservation, and one clear sign is that you have to pay for the ticket when you make the reservation; or, it you don't, then there is no contract, and they can cancel or change the price. You would look for clear signs of an agreement, such as a &quot;agree to terms&quot; button that you have to click. Paying a deposit is another clear sign. Then you would simply look at the terms of the contract to see what their obligation is, and what yours is. They may have strongly committed to providing service in which case you might have a cause for legal action if they break that commitment, or they might have made no specific promises about service in case of intervening events (such as if the chef has a heart attack, or the power goes out). If we do think of this as a contractual matter, you breached your duty as a customer, to be there by 7:30, so even if there is a contract, they didn't break it. The note that you added renegotiating the arrival time was insufficient – it is outside of the contract, and possibly something that they didn't see (they only look at the names and official time blocks reported by the web page).</p>
<p>In lieu of a contract, there could be some statutory obligation, i.e. a specific regulation in Sweden saying &quot;if a restaurant accepts a reservation, they absolutely must hold the space available for the entire reserved time&quot;, which is an unreasonably onerous business practice that no nation requires.</p>

<h2><a href="/questions/tagged/germany" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged &#39;germany&#39;" aria-label="show questions tagged &#39;germany&#39;" rel="tag" aria-labelledby="germany-container">germany</a></h2>
<p>You booked the table from 7:30 to 9 in a Restaurant. In Germany, if you were not there by usually 15 minutes after the reserved slot started, your reservation is canceled. Some restaurants extend those 15 minutes to 20 or even 30, but general consensus is to be somewhat on time, and only to request the reservation for the time you expect to arrive.</p>
<p>Under German legal opinion reservation is not a contract for you to come and get a chair, as long as nothing is ordered: it is an offer of the restaurant and your offer to come. The actual contract happens only after you arrived and chose a meal. You <em>are</em> however liable for cost that happen from you not showing up, e.g. the cook started to make a meal you ordered or they had to send away guests he could have served instead of you due to your reservation and then not showing up.</p>
<p>As the kitchen reasonably didn't expect you to arrive at all anymore after 7:45, they closed and you have no recourse.</p>
