No one likes being charged money for missing an appointment but on the surface, it seems some ‘no-show fees’ are easier to digest than others.
According to a recent poll by Research Co, Canadians are split on whether or not restaurants should implement this practice, with 44% are in support of the idea while 48% say it’s unjustified.
Ian Tostenson with the BC Restaurant and Food Services Association told Vista Radio if a policy like this did come into effect, most diners would take notice pretty quick.
“From our point of view, it makes a lot of sense. I think when the average diner sort of understands what happens when they don’t sort of complete their reservation or give proper notice I think it would change the poll.”
Simply put, Tostenson believes missing a scheduled reservation can be pretty costly to a restaurant’s bottom line.
“You’ll see people wanting to go for dinner and they make two or three reservations and they might include different people depending on who wants to go where. And, they forget to cancel and the restaurant is sitting there with empty space and in most cases are small and they feel it. They hold the table, can’t re-sell it and it costs them money?
“It’s the same thing if you make an appointment with your physiotherapist. If you don’t show up and, they hold that spot for you, and suddenly they are out $150. You can see with proper notice they could have filled that.”
He noted such a policy would focus more on the upper-scale establishments with limited space.
“You are not going to see this in coffee shops or in casual White Spot-type of restaurants where people are coming and going. It would be tailored to your slightly more upscale and smaller restaurants that have 50 or 75 tables and that is where I think we could see this.”
The majority of those polled in the survey do support fees for missed doctor, dental, hair and grooming appointments.
In addition, 15% of respondents said they had been charged a “no-show” fee for missed appointments over the past year.
Doctors saw the highest number of missed visits (15%), followed by dentists (11%), restaurants (9%), and hair salons (8%).
A link to the poll can be found here.
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