A restaurant has slammed a "fake" booking as a "deliberate and calculated" attempted to undermine them from a rival "being a snake".
The unnamed Dublin-based restaurant said it had been left devastated after being strung along for a week by a large reservation which turned out to be a no-show.
The alleged bogus booking rang with myriad queries and to constantly push up the number of diners, the Irish Mirror reports.
"We spent so much time trying to accommodate them, rebuilding the table plans, ordering in extra food, especially for them, turning away genuine bookings for regulars and locals in the meantime, and then when it came to taking a deposit, they just tried to bluff it," a staff member 'Gaz' said, posting to Twitter.
The restaurant, based in the Mount Merrion area of the city, described the experience as "so hard" adding that only for a bit of intuition would they have been left with an empty restaurant and lots of food left over, as well as a "demoralised team."
"We try so hard to make our guests happy, only to get shafted," Gaz wrote.
"Yes, it’s our fault. We should have got a deposit from the get-go But they were so convincing they had us focused on menus and allergens etc," he added.
He added: "It's so tough to swallow after a hard week."
The restaurant has a flexible cancellation policy and Gaz said that they do take cards as deposits and are "yet to charge a no show."
"My own belief is that it was somebody in the trade being a snake and I’ll get to the bottom of it, but for now, it’s time to try and save the day," he expressed.
Following the post, viewers rallied behind by booking tables and penning messages of support to the Dublin business.
One person labelled it as a "rotten way to behave" while another wrote: "Horrid. I can but wish you overflowing tables full of loyal customers!"
