‘No-showing’ you care for Ukraine
CHOI HYUN-JUThe author is a life economic news team reporter of the JoongAng Ilbo.
The act of making a reservation and not showing up is called a “no-show.” In Korea, a failure to fulfill reservations became an issue in the 2000s. In the domestic food service industry, fine dining culture began to expand, providing high-end food and service even at small restaurants. As an increasing number of restaurants operate based on reservations, their losses from no-shows also increased.
According to the Hyundai Research Institute, the loss from no-shows in the service industry was 4.5 trillion won ($3.7 billion) annually as of 2015. The total losses reach 8.27 trillion won if you also add on the financial ramifications suffered by related companies.
The average no-show rate is between 10 percent and 20 percent. Restaurants suffer the biggest losses of up to 20 percent because they have to prepare ingredients and hire labor to serve the number of customers with reservations. But if reservations are unfulfilled, restaurants must swallow the loss.
No-shows are also a problem in the medical industry. The rate of no-shows at 14 national university hospitals from 2016 to 2017 was 13.4 percent. It not only leads to business losses for hospitals, but also causes other patients to be unable to get treatment in time.
Some no-shows are intentional. Some fans purchase flight tickets only to see stars and celebrities on the plane and get their tickets refunded just before takeoff.
Some cases are the opposite. In July 2019, international football star Cristiano Ronaldo did not play in a friendly match held at Seoul World Cup Stadium. The organizer advertised that Ronaldo would be playing for at least 45 minutes, and fans were outraged as they had paid as much as 400,000 won for tickets to see him. After Ronaldo’s no-show issue surfaced, companies started to offer compensation and lawyers specialized in dealing with no-shows appeared.
On the 12th day of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, many Airbnb reservations in Ukraine are no-shows. People book and pay for Airbnb reservations without actually planning to visit. Instead, they want to directly donate to the people of Ukraine suffering from the ongoing war.
Prices in Ukraine are about 30 percent of that of Korea and the subway fare is around 500 won. Making a donation of one-week’s lodging expenses can buy a month’s worth of food for somebody in Ukraine. As a citizen of a divided country, I don’t think the war in Ukraine is “someone else’s business.”
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
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