Abstract
This study addresses the persisting issue of restaurant reservation no-shows by applying the availability heuristic principle to analyze booking behaviors. Three experiments identified cancellation policy features and factors influencing booking and no-show behaviors. Findings confirmed that a cancellation barrier (i.e., strict policy and complex cancellation method) decreases no-show intentions and negatively affects booking intentions. This research suggests that a lenient cancellation policy, an easy cancellation method, and an awareness campaign can encourage positive guest booking behavior and reduce no-shows. Applying the availability heuristic principle to restaurant management, the current research enhances the understanding of psychological factors affecting guest decisions and identifies effective strategies to reduce no-shows while supporting favorable booking behavior. Despite the necessity of understanding the psychological mechanism underlying restaurant cancellation policies, previous research has predominantly focused on hotel cancellation policies and restaurant cancellation modeling (Chen et al.
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