catering and event professionals worried about cascading cancellations

With the cascading cancellations of the festivities, professionals are worried. A stone’s throw from the Champs-Elysées (Paris), the Paillettes restaurant team fears that its tables will remain desperately empty on New Year’s Eve. “We had 148 cancellations. I hope we will have new reservations to be full again, but 148 cancellations is unheard of”, comments Michael Fox, the restaurant manager. A loss of several tens of thousands of euros is looming for the establishment.

Same scenario at Lyon Rouge, a cabaret in the Lyon region (Rhône), where about fifteen shows were canceled in December, for lack of customers. Only about fifty reservations were recorded for New Year’s Eve, out of the 150 seats. “People are reluctant to commit to taking a reservation with us or elsewhere, knowing that we are prohibited from making people dance at the end of the evening. (…) That also puts a brake on”, explains the director, Thierry Dematons.