Glossary

Cover count

What is a cover count?

The cover count is the total number of guests seated in a given period: a slot, a service, a night, a week. Hosts use the per-slot cover count to pace the kitchen ("we're holding 7:00 PM to 40 covers"), managers use the nightly count to judge the shift, and owners watch weekly counts for trend. It differs from the reservation count: 20 bookings might be 65 covers. Cover count is also the number that turns a no-show policy into money: multiply lost covers by your average check and you have the real cost of empty seats, which is exactly what a no-show cost calculator does.