North Somerset restaurant 'heartbroken' over deluge of fake bookings
Lo Rapitenc Spanish Deli Shop and Tapas have called it a 'cruel joke' when they found out dozens of bookings weren't real over the weekend
'Increíble' and 'muy molesta' - those are the words the owner of a Spanish deli and restaurant in North Somerset used to describe the past weekend after being hit with a deluge of fake bookings.
Lo Rapitenc, based in Frome, were the victims of a 'cruel joke' on Saturday night (May 13) after they discovered a number of the tables which had been booked out has been reserved by a completely bogus customer.
Out of the 40 people who were set to come to the restaurant that day - just 14 turned up.
They say they found out 'too late' to recoup their losses that night, wasting food and earnings which they say 'will have an impact on our livelihood, our staff, and our young family'.
The bookings which later turned out to be fake were drip-fed throughout the week, with some having allergic and special requirements, which of course meant more food had to be used to make sure all of their needs were met.
They originally didn't think the bookings weren't right - that was until Saturday night, when it was too late.
After a number of bookings didn't show up, the restaurant tried to chase their customers, but the numbers which were given were all fake - except one, under the name of 'Rachel'
Marc Brunet Pascual, the owner of Lo Rapitenc, was told by the perpetrator that he'd been planning the supposed prank 'for days'.
Since the incident, Marc told us the community response has been really positive.
He said: "We've got a hospitality WhatsApp group in Frome, and when I asked them, most people just thought it was a usual 'no-show' situation, but it turned out to be more than that.
"The most important change that we've made now is to our booking system so it doesn't happen again.
"After what happened, it's really nice to feel all the support from local businesses, and it's great to see the community coming together to support a place like ours.
"Everyone realises the prank is not a good thing to do, and a lot of our customers have popped in and asked us if we're OK - it's really nice."
Marc also has just one message for the perpetrator.
He said: "I feel really sorry for him.
"As a human being, I feel really sorry for him for have had to do that for 'fun'. I don't know what he's looking for, but I just really don't understand why he had to impact our business like this."
And if you don't speak Spanish, the words used by Marc at the top of the article, translated, were 'incredible' and 'very annoying'.