A Cumbrian hotel has now been forced to take deposits after a 'no show' resulted in it paying out for food and extra staff.

The Clarke's Hotel in Rampside took to its Facebook page after a party of people failed to turn up for a function they had booked with no notification.

The post detailed that not only did the hotel staff have to buy the requested food but it also had to pay its chefs to prepare the buffet, as well as organising extra front of house staff especially for the occasion.

The post went on to read: "All at a cost to the business and as everyone knows, January is a very quiet time for the hospitality industry with actions like this being detrimental to a small family-run business, like ours."

Staff at the hotel were innovative and made the best of the bad situation by creating Buffet Boxes priced at £5 each which sold out.

It has now introduced a non refundable £10 per person deposit on bookings.

The Furness branch of CAMRA (Campaign for Real Ale) came out in support of the business and agreed that deposits are necessary for businesses.

Furness CAMRA chair Jack Summers-Glas, said: "Pubs and hospitality venues in general have had a pretty difficult time, with increasing costs and often, reducing customer numbers.

"Frequently, pubs get criticised for increasing prices where they have no choice if they are to continue providing good service.

"A lot of pubs now rely on food to provide them with income in addition to bar sales so when taking bookings, particularly for significant numbers, there is a lot of up-front cost for raw materials in addition to making sure staff are available for the event.

"Of course, there are occasions when cancellation is inevitable but to fail to turn up, or cancel just before the event, without any thought for the venue is not acceptable.

"Many other items in life require either up-front payment or a (sometimes significant) deposit to make sure the provider is not out-of-pocket so it seems inevitable that more-and-more venues will require a deposit when taking a booking.

"This not only gives the pub some compensation for loss-of-business but also may encourage the diner to make the effort to attend or explain non-attendance. 

"It is particularly unfair when the venue may have been able to re-book the event if they had some notice.

"In this case, it is encouraging that others stepped in to help offset the potential loss but this may well not be the case where this happens elsewhere.

"As they saying goes 'use it or lose it' so remember these are businesses and they cannot function unless they have income to offset the costs."