Notes you should not keep about a guest

A guest asks a restaurant, politely, to see what it holds about them. The manager opens the profile and reads it before sending it. Among the useful notes, a severe nut allergy and a preference for a quiet table, there are others: "Difficult, always complains", "Tips badly", "Came in with a different woman last month", "Looks like she's put on weight". The manager realises, with a sinking feeling, that every one of those notes will now be read by the guest.

Guest notes are one of the most useful tools a venue has, and one of the riskiest. Written well, they help the whole team look after a guest. Written carelessly, they record opinions, gossip and personal details that no guest would want kept, that could embarrass the venue and that may break data protection rules.

This guide covers the notes you should not keep about a guest and the line between them and useful ones, with examples of both, the simple test that sorts them, what the rules expect and how to clean up notes that should not be there. Every venue and figure in it is an example, and none of it is legal advice.

Notes are written quickly, often at the end of a busy shift, by people who mean well. A server who had a difficult evening with a guest writes "rude". A host who noticed something personal writes it down "for context". Over time, a profile can collect remarks that nobody would say to the guest's face.

The problem is that notes last. They are read by new staff who never met the guest, carried into other systems and, in many countries, can be requested by the guest themselves. A note that seemed harmless in the moment can cause real harm later.

The simplest test for any note is this: would you be comfortable if the guest read it over your shoulder? If yes, the note is probably fine. If you would be embarrassed, defensive or worried, do not write it.

The test works because it captures most of what matters: whether the note is respectful, whether it is relevant to serving the guest and whether the guest would expect you to know it.

Notes worth keeping help the team serve the guest better. "Severe nut allergy, carries an adrenaline pen." "Prefers a quiet table, hard of hearing." "Always orders the house Rioja." "Celebrating their anniversary every October." "Likes to chat about the wine list." "Uses a wheelchair, needs a table with step-free access."

Each is relevant, respectful and something the guest would be glad the team knew. Our guide to guest preferences worth writing down covers more examples.

Most bad notes start as good intentions. A server who wants to warn the next shift about a demanding guest writes "difficult". A host who wants to help with seating writes something personal about who the guest was with. A manager who wants to remember a dispute writes their own view of it.

In each case, the useful part is the fact underneath: what the guest needs, what happened, what the team should do. The harmful part is the opinion or the personal detail wrapped around it. Teaching the team to write the fact and leave out the rest solves most problems.

A note that tells the next server what to do is useful. A note that tells them what to think of the guest is not.

The first kind of note you should not keep is an opinion about the guest as a person: "difficult", "rude", "demanding", "a nightmare", "cheap". These describe the writer's feelings, not anything the team can act on, and they colour how the next server treats the guest before they have met.

If something specific happened, write the fact instead, neutrally: "Complained about the steak being undercooked; remade." That tells the next server what to watch for without labelling the guest.

Comments on a guest's appearance have no place in a profile: weight, age, clothes, looks, how attractive or unattractive someone is. They do not help anyone serve the guest, and they would mortify the guest and the venue if read.

If a physical detail genuinely matters for service, such as a mobility aid, describe the need rather than the person: "Needs a chair with arms."

Guesses about a guest's personal life should never be written down: who they are with, whether they are married, their health, their religion, their politics, their money. Writing "came in with a different woman" or "seems to be going through a divorce" records gossip, not service information.

Some of these are special categories of data under data protection law, such as health or religious belief, which need particular care. A guest who tells you about a dietary need linked to their religion has shared what they wanted you to know; a server who guesses their religion and writes it down has not been told anything.

Notes about children need particular care. Recording that a family needs a high chair, that a child has an allergy or that the children like a particular dish is helpful. Recording opinions about how the children behaved, or anything personal about them, is not.

Children's allergies deserve the same care as adults': precise, in their proper place, confirmed with the parents. Everything else should pass the over-the-shoulder test with the parents reading.

When in doubt, leave it out. A family will forgive a venue for not remembering a child's favourite dessert far more readily than for a note they find upsetting.

Allergies and dietary needs are health information that guests share so the kitchen can keep them safe. Record them carefully, in their proper place, as the guest described them.

Do not record health information the guest did not share, or more than the service needs. "Severe shellfish allergy" is needed; "seems unwell, possibly pregnant" is not.

Notes about how much a guest tips or spends are tempting, but rarely useful and often unfair. "Tips badly" can colour how a guest is served, which is exactly what good service should avoid. Spending patterns already appear in the guest's history, without anyone's opinion attached.

Serve every guest well, whatever they tipped last time.

Complaints are worth recording, neutrally, because they help the team put things right and avoid repeating the problem. "Steak was overcooked last visit; manager apologised and offered dessert." That is useful and fair.

What is not useful is a judgement about the guest for complaining: "Always complains, ignore". A guest who complains is giving you information, and labelling them for it discourages the team from listening.

In a group, notes on a guest's profile may be seen at every venue. A note written about one evening at one venue can follow the guest to another, where the staff never met them and have only the note to go on.

That makes care even more important. Write notes that would be fair and useful to a stranger reading them at another venue. Avoid notes that would prejudice a guest's welcome somewhere they have never been.

Agree as a group what may be shared across venues and what should stay with the venue where it happened.

Sometimes a venue needs to record that a guest is not welcome, after a serious incident such as violence, abuse of staff or theft. That record should be factual, brief and kept where only managers can see it: what happened, when and the decision taken.

Do not record rumours or second-hand stories as facts. A note that a guest was banned should be one you could defend if the guest asked to see it.

In many countries, data protection law gives guests rights over what you hold about them. Under the General Data Protection Regulation, which applies in the UK and the EU, guests can usually ask to see the personal data a business holds about them, including notes, and to have inaccurate data corrected.

The law also expects you to keep only what you need, for a clear purpose, and no longer than necessary. Notes full of opinions and gossip are hard to justify on any of those grounds. Take advice on the rules where you trade.

When a guest asks to see what you hold about them, answer within the time the rules require, completely and honestly. Gather everything from every system: the profile, the notes, the bookings, the feedback, any emails. Check it carefully before sending, and correct anything that is wrong.

Do not quietly delete notes to avoid sending them once a request has arrived. Deal with the request honestly, and fix the way notes are written for the future.

A request like this is a useful moment to review how the whole team writes notes. If you would be uncomfortable sending a profile, the problem is wider than one guest.

Guest privacy is not only about the law. It is about the kind of venue you want to be. Guests who sense that a venue remembers them warmly come back; guests who sense that a venue watches them closely may not.

Make respect the habit: notes that help, written as if the guest could read them, seen only by the staff who need them.

Limit who can see full guest profiles and notes. Staff who take bookings may need a guest's name, number and allergies, but not their full history and every note. Managers may need more. Decide by role, and give each person only what their job needs.

Fewer people with access means fewer people who might read or write something they should not, and less risk if an account is misused.

Notes should not be kept forever. A note about a complaint that was resolved years ago, a preference the guest no longer has or an occasion long past adds clutter and may no longer be accurate. Data protection rules in many countries also expect data to be kept only as long as it is needed.

Decide how long different kinds of note are kept. Allergies and important preferences stay as long as the guest visits. Notes about a single visit can be removed after a while. Notes about guests who have not visited for many years may not need keeping at all.

A profile with fewer, current notes is more useful to the team and fairer to the guest.

Most venues with years of guest notes have some that should not be there. Set aside time to review them: search for words like "rude", "difficult", "cheap", "weird", comments on appearance and personal guesses, and remove or rewrite them.

Rewrite where there is useful information underneath: "rude to staff" may become "Complained loudly about the wait on one visit; resolved". Remove where there is nothing useful at all.

Explain the over-the-shoulder test to every member of staff who writes notes, with examples of good and bad notes from your own venue. Show them where each kind of information belongs: allergies in their own field, preferences in theirs, facts in a short note.

Make it clear that notes can be read by colleagues and, in many cases, by the guest. Staff who know that write very differently.

When a note is needed, write it neutrally: facts, not feelings; the guest's own words where possible; what the team should do next time. "Asked for the music to be turned down; prefers the back room." "Mentioned they are vegetarian." "Celebrating a promotion; very happy with the evening."

A neutral note is useful to the next server and fair to the guest. It is also one you would be comfortable sending if the guest asked.

Write a short guide on notes for the whole team, on a single page: what belongs on a profile, what does not, where each kind of information goes and the over-the-shoulder test, with a few good and bad examples from your own venue, anonymised.

Keep it where staff can see it and include it in every new starter's training. Review it when something goes wrong, such as a note that should never have been written, and add the lesson.

A team that has a clear guide writes clearer notes, and a venue that writes clear notes is one guests can trust with their details.

Most poor notes are written in a hurry, at the end of a long shift, by someone who is tired and wants to warn the next person about something. That is exactly when the over-the-shoulder test is easiest to forget.

Help the team by making good notes quick to write. Have clear fields for allergies, dietary needs and preferences, so those never go into free text. Give a few short, neutral phrases for common situations, such as "complained about the wait; resolved", so nobody has to think of words when they are exhausted.

Encourage staff to write the note the next morning if they are unsure, rather than writing something in the moment they would regret.

The notes that help guests most are often the simplest: the allergy that keeps them safe, the table that suits their mobility, the wine they always order, the anniversary the team can mark. Each one makes a visit better, and each one is something the guest would be glad to see.

Focus the team on writing those, well and consistently, rather than on recording everything. A profile with five useful notes serves the guest better than one with fifty, half of which should not be there.

When the team thinks of notes as a way of looking after guests, rather than recording them, the right notes follow naturally.

When a member of staff leaves, their notes stay behind. Look at what they wrote, especially if they wrote a lot, and check it against the guide. A departing member of staff who was careless with notes may have left several that need rewriting.

It is also a good moment to remind the remaining team that notes outlast the people who write them, and that every note may one day be read by a stranger, or by the guest.

An invented brasserie receives a request from a regular to see the data it holds about her. The manager reviews her profile and finds, alongside her allergy and table preference, three notes she would rather the guest never saw: one about her mood, one about who she was with and one about how she tipped.

The brasserie answers the request with the accurate information, removes the inappropriate notes and then reviews every profile, using a list of words to find others like them. It writes a short guide for staff with the over-the-shoulder test and examples, and limits full notes to managers and senior staff.

A year later, the notes in the brasserie's profiles are shorter, more useful and ones the manager would be happy for any guest to read.

In servearound, notes from the team sit on the guest's profile with their author and the date they were written, so every note has a name behind it and can be followed up, rewritten or removed. Allergies and dietary needs have their own places on the profile, and they show where they matter: on the booking, on the guest's table and at the head of the kitchen ticket, so they never need to be buried in a free-text note.

Who sees what follows each person's role. Taking a booking needs only a guest's name and number, so staff who book tables can find and add guests, while the full profile, with spend, history, notes and feedback, is for the roles you give it to. See Guest CRM.

Opinions about them, comments on appearance, guesses about their personal life or health, and judgements about tipping or complaining.

Asking whether you would be comfortable if the guest read the note over your shoulder. If not, do not write it.

Ones that help the team serve the guest: allergies, accessibility needs, table and drink preferences and occasions.

In many countries, yes. Under data protection rules such as the GDPR, guests can usually ask to see their personal data.

Neutrally, as facts and what was done, without labelling the guest.

Record the facts of the incident briefly, where only managers can see them, and nothing you could not defend.

Only the staff whose role needs them.

Search for judgemental words and personal comments, then remove or rewrite them neutrally.

Guest notes help the team serve guests well, but some notes should never be kept: opinions about the guest, comments on appearance, guesses about their personal life, health or beliefs, and judgements about how they tip or complain. Use the over-the-shoulder test: if you would not want the guest to read it, do not write it.

Keep notes factual and relevant, put allergies and preferences in their proper places, record complaints and serious incidents neutrally, limit who can see full profiles, remember that guests may ask to see what you hold, clean up old notes and train every member of staff on what belongs.