Family of 8 demands hostess find a table for them at a fully booked restaurant, despite not having made a reservation: ‘Guests sitting at the middle table got up and left’

Author image for Lana DeGaetano
Lana DeGaetano • "Show me to me please."
Sep 25, 2025 5:00 AM EDT

Restaurant work, thanks to entitled customers who believe the world exists solely to serve them, is grueling. The average nice, generous, and normal customers are not few and far between, but even still… A bad customer has the potential to derail the good vibe any restaurant staffer has going on.

The hostess who shared this story deals with a late walk-in for a family of eight, and to any customer service veteran, you know that walk-ins on busy nights are the catalyst for disaster. It's already bad enough that the family came in late on a fully booked evening, but to demand a table for eight people and get upset when this doesn't happen immediately? That's restaurant business, baby.

Among the many pleas—"Is it ready yet?"—the hostess is trying her best not to lose her cool. Front-of-house workers are unable to defend themselves against impolite customers because it reflects poorly on the business, sure, but what about how the customer's display of impoliteness? Isn't that a testament to an immoral character?

Unfortunately, a restaurant worker is not the morality police. Scroll to read the full story.

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  • "Like... How can you demand a table in a restaurant that's clearly full? Isn't that common sense?"
    via Michael T For Unsplash+

    Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

  • "Family of eight walks in and demands a table at a fully booked restaurant."

    I work as a hostess at a five-star hotel that gets very touristy during summer and this time of the year. The hotel can
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  • host around 500 guests, but the main restaurant only has 188 seats (yes- exactly 188), which obviously makes finding tables tricky sometimes, especially for big groups.
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  • Before I start, let me clarify that my manager had the day off yesterday. We did have the F&B assistant with us, but at the exact moment all this was happening, he was and couldn't really
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  • step in (plus, he generally avoids getting involved in restaurant issues because my manager doesn't like that).
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  • Last night, a family of eight walked in during peak time and asked for a table at the very front with a sea view. Naturally, every
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  • table at the front was already taken. The only "available" options were a reserved table for seven in the back and a few scattered tables for four. So sitting together, let alone at the front, just wasn't possible.
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  • Luckily, we did have a table for two at the front, another table for two right next to it (occupied at the moment), and a table for four beside that, which was free. So I suggested
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  • they wait until the middle table became available, and then we could connect all four tables to make space for eight.
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  • After a few more minutes, I asked them to wait at the bar and assured them I'd call them as soon as something was ready. I
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  • immediately started preparing the available tables at the front so that once the middle table emptied, I could seat them right away. About seven to
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  • ten minutes later, they came back asking if there was anything available yet. When I told them no, they asked to sit at the reserved table for seven, which obviously couldn't happen because it wasn't theirs.
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  • That's when I lost it. For the first time, I slightly raised my voice at customers. I explained the situation to them for like the fiftieth time, but they just kept getting angry that there wasn't magically a table for them.
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  • Like... how can you demand a table in a restaurant that's clearly full? Isn't that common sense? like, can't you see yourself that there's nothing at the moment?
    via thesecretfemme
  • I was so frustrated that I had to walk away and ask my much more experienced coworker to step in, even though I knew there wasn't anything she could do either. I just couldn't
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  • handle the situation or their attitude anymore, simply because they just didn't listen to me.
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  • young restaurant worker serving a meal to two guests in a restaurant
    via Getty Images For Unsplash+

    Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

  • Ultimately, and very unfortunately so, it got to the point where the guests sitting at the middle table got up and left because they realized the party of eight wasn't going to stop pushing for that spot.
    via thesecretfemme
  • When the table was finally free, the family didn't even wait for it to be cleaned and reset. They just sat down immediately, which obviously looked awful for a five-star hotel restaurant.
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  • When they finally left, I greeted them politely, but only one person bothered to say goodnight back.
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  • The rest just walked away looking annoyed which has me feeling terrified at the thought that they might complain about me and the total hotel service.
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  • I feel terrible that I let myself raise my voice, even just slightly. I consider myself to be doing a great job at managing my patience as I am always trying to be as kind and approachable as possible to all the guests.
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  • Generally, I always want to be as professional as possible, not just for myself, but also out of respect for the space I'm working in and for my coworkers. But to have
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  • customers leave their table because others couldn't be patient... that really made me mad.
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  • SunsCosmos I absolutely never explain to guests how I'm going to make their requests happen. Good guests are just happy to see it happen. Bad guests will take this as an invitation to critique your solution and act like they can do better.
    via SunsCosmos
  • Langager90 Wait, you raised your voice at people who refused to understand and/or accept facts? What are you - Human?!?
    via Langager90

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customer service entitled customer entitlement customers terrible customers restaurant customer entitled customers entitled people karma food service hostess entitled r-entitled restaurant work entitled people
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