ONE of Irvine's most popular venues have warned they may need to start charging for "no shows".

The Ship, on the town's Harbour Street, had four larger parties fail to turn up to their tables in just one night.

The bookings - for seven people, six people and two tables of five people - meant that 'The Ship's Crew' had left space for 23 people, and could not set others as they waited for their bookings to arrive.

While staff at the popular gastro pub say that the understand that "things can come up last minute" they urged visitors to phone ahead and cancel if this is the case.

They added that if situations like they had last week continue, they may be left with no option but to charge those who do not cancel.

A social media post explained: "Last night, we had a table of seven, a table of six and two tables of five not show up for their booking.

"We understand things can come up last minute, but if you know you’re not going to make it, please give us a call to let us know.

"Currently we do not charge ‘no shows’, but moving forward we may have to reinstate this process unfortunately."