Every restaurant has a floor plan, and the hostess is the queen of that. There are numbered zones, and each waiter or waitress is assigned to a zone. The hostess carefully distributes customers to those numbered zones on a rotation to ensure that every member of the waitstaff gets an equal amount of tables throughout the night, which prevents zones from being skipped or being double sat. This means that everyone will end up making around the same amount of money from tips that night. A hostess that is capable of handling a rotation will keep everyone happy and equal, but a hostess that cannot follow a rotation will be giving more or less money to the servers.
There is very much a reason that every restaurant has a large “PLEASE WAIT TO BE SEATED” sign. They do not want you to seat yourself. They hate it when you seat yourself. Seating you is someone’s job, and no one knows where better to put you than the hostess.
What will happen if you seat yourself/move from your assigned seat:
You will throw off the carefully orchestrated rotation
You will not get service if you are out of zone
If in zone, you will get very poor service
On the seating chart, the table you are currently at will not be marked off, and other customers will be taken to that table as well
You will throw off the carefully orchestrated rotation
I can guarantee you, throwing the rotation out of order is the biggest offense you can commit while dining out. Most of the time, the hostess will ask you “Would you like a table or a booth?” And I bet you’d answer booth, and we are more than happy to take you to a booth. But when the hostess greets you and then asks “Is a table okay?” they are internally having a panic attack, praying to the good lord above that you say “Yes, yes a table is okay, please take us wherever you need to.” For the best experience at the restaurant: please, take the table. The hostess is asking this for a reason. They know where to seat you to ensure you get the best service, and the best service will be given when the rotation stays in order. If there are no booths available in the zone that is next to be seated, please cooperate and take a table. If you say no, a table is not alright, then you are causing all hell to break loose. A server will know that they were just skipped, and all that means to them is less money for the night. The server in the zone you are in now will not have had enough to take of care of their last table fully yet, which means they will be rushed in getting to you. The hostess is on your side and will try to get you the best available seat, but when you do not cooperate with us, we cannot promise good service.
At my place of work, every other guest that comes in says “We’d like to sit next to the salad bar, please.” Well, let me tell you something: there are eight booths near the salad bar, and three tables. What makes you think that you can waltz into a restaurant on a Saturday night, without a reservation, and request a specific section? Chances are that it’s full, and I don’t want to throw the rotation out of whack to accommodate your preference. I’m not going to skip over a server (who I know needs the money) and give you to a server that’s been overworked all night. And to be completely honest, even if it’s not full, I still won’t give you one of those precious salad bar booths, because I’d rather give it to the elderly couple behind you so they don’t have to walk very far—I would gladly screw up the rotation to make them as comfortable as possible. But you, sir, with your fully functioning legs, can walk twenty feet across the room. In a restaurant, you are the guest. Keep that in mind, and please respect the rotation.
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