Picture this—It’s a cozy winter morning in Delhi and you decide to meet your friends for a cup of coffee. You book a table at your favourite spot and as the morning turns to afternoon and then early evening,
you suddenly realise how long you’ve been occupying the table for and finally ask for the cheque. A rough estimate tells you that the bill should be around Rs 500 but imagine your horror as the café asks you to cough up over Rs 1,500. As you scratch your head to make sense of the calculation, a waiter walks up to you and explains that the surcharge is for the time you “occupied” a table.
Sounds bizarre? The “penalty” could soon become the norm in India’s IT capital Bengaluru as restaurateurs, tired of prolonged table occupancy, are mulling imposing a “table charge” system for customers who use restaurants as unofficial boardrooms and discuss real-estate deals and politics for hours over just one cup of coffee.
While there’s no law that allows hoteliers to impose such fines, the Bruhat Bengaluru Hotel Owner’s Association, in their latest meeting on ‘managing’ such patrons, proposed the levy to manage table turnover during busy hours, The Indian Express reported.
According to the report, in several city restaurants, signs already remind guests that tables are meant for eating, not for property deals or long discussions. But owners say these reminders haven’t stopped groups, often real-estate agents or others talking business, from occupying seats for over 45 minutes with only a couple of coffees ordered, leaving other customers waiting.
Under the proposal being considered, anyone who refuses to free up a table after finishing their meal could be asked to pay the extra “table charge”. Some establishments have begun putting up notices stating they enforce a strict policy against prolonged meetings.
Association president PC Rao told The Indian Express that the move is intended to protect both diners and restaurant viability, saying lingering groups “take up space and disrupt the atmosphere,” especially during peak dining times.
The idea, however, has sparked a heated debate on social media, with some people defending the restaurant owners while others calling the proposal unfair.
Many people expressed sympathy for café owners, noting they’ve seen groups occupy tables for hours with minimal orders, sometimes discussing business or just socialising. “I’ve seen this in so many eateries,” one commenter wrote on X, saying owners have legitimate concerns about turnover.
Others, however, argued that cafés are inherently relaxed social spaces in a city with a strong work-from-café culture, and that enforcing time limits might feel unfair or restrictive. Some online voices compared it to how other cities manage shared public spaces.
