Reservation no-shows cost local restaurants time, effort and a lot of money: Andrew Coppolino

If you don't show up for your dental appointment, there's a chance you could get charged for it.

Miss your flight and need to re-book, you'll likely pay.

Skip that physio for your rotator cuff and you could get stuck with the bill.

But what about your restaurant reservation?

Changes to bookings on busy nights, granted, are a part of the industry. But they also cause more work for staff as it discombobulates table arrangements and alters staffing calculations and food orders.

Last-minute cancellations — and worse, no-shows — can have a significant impact on a business and many local restaurant owners say they've seen an increased frequency of people failing to show up for reservations since the pandemic.

"Even prior to the pandemic, we were discussing charging for reservations, but we've shied away from that for now," says Court Desautels, CEO of the Neighbourhood Group of Companies which includes Mijiidaa in Guelph and Borealis Grille in Guelph and Kitchener.

"The big impact is wait staff losing out with no-shows. A large table that doesn't show could be spending more than $500," he said. "It represents significant money that is coming out of the pocket of service staff. There is a big impact with tip-outs lost to the kitchen, too."

While tipping is altogether another issue, it is said that the most expensive part of doing business in a restaurant is having empty seats.

Could booking fees be the solution?

At the Cambridge Mill, general manager Alex Kastner says there are often numerous no-shows for their popular weekend brunch and they have considered instituting booking fees for reservations.

"Our no-shows are significant," Kastner said. "It's about 10 per cent and for a service that sells out every Sunday, that can be a huge revenue loss."

In larger centres like Toronto, Vancouver, Ottawa and Edmonton, some smaller fine-dining restaurants have recently implemented a credit card charge for a reservation, and in the case of an expensive tasting menu service, asking customers to pay up front when booking.

Those steps haven't been taken in Waterloo region just yet, but there are changes afoot.

Restaurants are reluctant to irritate their customers, but they have the option to charge additional fees that help recuperate a portion of the loss of a table to no-show diners through reservation platforms like Tock and Open Table.

Significant losses due to no-shows

In Stratford, where there is specialized dining service to co-ordinate with the Stratford Festival theatre, Larry McCabe says that during this "still wobbly recovery" reservation numbers have fluctuated "a bit more than usual."

That, he says, is the largely the result of illnesses.

"Or this is certainly the reason patrons are indicating when they cancel," McCabe said, adding that Café Bouffon does not currently ask for payment with reservation. "However, with events like wine dinners, we generally ask for 48 hours notice."

McCabe says there's a hefty cost that he and other restaurateurs have had to deal with when customers cavalierly just don't show up for their reservations.

"The losses can be pretty significant," McCabe said.

"We would have nights with a dozen or so no-shows at peak periods. I would think over the course of the summer, it would be around a $30,000 hit."

Simon Mathias, chef and co-owner at Rustico in Kitchener, says that like all restaurants, they generally schedule staff according to reservations: when no-shows happen, the entire restaurant loses but especially waitstaff.

"We might have an extra person on the floor and in the kitchen and no-shows affect everyone's bottom line — the owners, managers and the server who is left with a half-empty section," Matthias said.

It's especially difficult when the reservation is later in the evening and walk-ins are less likely to occupy the table.

New strategies to mitigate losses

It should be noted that customers using Tock and Open Table who consistently are marked as no-shows can be kicked off the booking system, but restaurateurs try to mitigate the damage.

That includes reservation strategies that go beyond merely calling customers — sometimes twice — to remind them of their reservations. They also call in the power of the algorithm of online reservations systems like Open Table, in essence, to further shape what dining room bookings look like on a busy night.

"We've now decreased the dining reservation time on our system so it thinks everyone is at 90 minutes. That's to compensate for people not showing. In a sense, we're over-booking because we know we're going to lose, on any given night, up to 10 per cent. However, that bites us some nights when a table isn't ready," Desautels said.

In Waterloo, S & V Uptown owner Jill Sadler says they've also implement a booking strategy to mitigate the impact no-shows or cancelled reservations have on the restaurant and staff.

"We use a ticketed model for our special dinners and tasting events," Sadler said. "Otherwise, we face significant losses with last-minute cancellations or no-shows that we have to absorb."

It's a reality of doing business for restaurateurs without implementing negative booking fees, which would likely drive away potential customers.

Echoing what many restaurateurs have currently only been discussing — instituting fees and upfront payment — Desautels says restaurants are becoming more familiar with online strategies to, if not generate more revenue, protect the revenue that has been booked.

That includes mimicking an Uber model that sees tiered value in the dining room and essentially selling it and implementing what he calls "surge pricing," if the trend of increased cancellations continues.

"There's an interesting system being trialled that treats restaurants like a real estate market. If you want the table by the window, or by the fireplace, that's going to cost you $50 on a Friday night at 7:30. A table in the middle might cost $20 and in the back, nothing," he said.

But the real fix might just be people who make reservations to keep them or at the very least, cancel with enough notice so the restaurant can adjust.