Stars join fight against 'no-shows'

Baek Jong-won(top) and Lee Yeon-bok / Screen capture from YouTube

By Ko Dong-hwan

Star chefs have joined the government’s campaign against “no-shows”, where people do not turn up for reservations or cancel at the last minute.

Chef-entertainers Baek Jong-won and Lee Yeon-bok, who run restaurants and regularly appear in TV variety shows, had their say in a 90-second video as part of the campaign.

“This is a shame and doesn’t make sense,” said Baek, CEO of 26 restaurant franchises nationwide. “We are the world’s worst in practicing no-show the most. Some 5.6 million entrepreneurs fear the customers breaking their promises.”

Lee, a popular Chinese food cook, said: “From the moment we receive a reservation, we prepare our best to welcome the customer. But what if the customer doesn’t show up?”

The Fair Trade Commission and the Korea Consumer Agency are running the campaign. The video also features a medical expert, an employee from Korea Railroad Corporation and a hospital patient. They say the no-show practice not only irritates service providers but also customers, who are pushed back by the ill-mannered patrons and cannot use the service. Sometimes it can affect hospital patients in need of desperate treatment, according to a physician on the video from Gangnam Severance Hospital in Seoul.

The FTC and KCA will start distributing the video through websites, local governments and universities Wednesday, Chosun Ilbo said.

A survey the daily did in October showed that 15 percent of reservations at 100 places ― restaurants, hair salons, hospitals, express bus terminals and theaters nationwide ― were “no-shows.”