Maritime restaurants grapple with unreliable reservations

Staff at Sketti & Ball Co. in Halifax often deal with empty tables – not due to a lack of customers, but because of an increasing number of no-shows.

“It’s pretty consistent, especially over the weekend where we’ll have large parties booked from 10-to-25 people. They’ll book the space and some big tables and they’ll either turn up with four or five people, maybe half-an-hour late, or they just don’t show up at all,” said Jon Whitton, co-owner of Legendary Hospitality.

He said his business relies on reservations, which helps prepare for staffing on busier nights, but when people do not show up, it ends up wasting the restaurants money and resources.

“We would have a staff member maybe sitting with an empty table for half-an-hour to 45 minutes waiting for this table to arrive and then another an hour where they don’t turn up and then trying to refill that table,” said Whitton. “That staff member might have been in two, three hours and they’ve had no tables so they’re not making money from those tables and we’re also paying them for coming in.”

Whitton’s frustration is echoed across the country. According to Restaurants Canada, 25 per cent of restaurant reservations end in no-shows.

The impact of this trend is particularly hard on an industry already operating on thin profit margins, said Jordi Morgan, Restaurants Canada Atlantic vice-president.

“If you’ve ever been ghosted by somebody, you know how a restaurant feels, except with a restaurant it actually impacts their bottom line and has this whole sort of cascading effect,” Morgan said.

Service industries like salons and spas have adopted a cancellation fee for late notice or no-shows. Restaurants in Quebec are pushing for something similar, where those who do not honour their bookings get a penalty.

In Halifax, some people have mixed feelings about receiving a penalty for not showing up to a booking.

“Things change [and] people forget. As a matter of fact, it would discourage me if I thought that a restaurant that I wanted to patronize wanted to charge me for booking with them. I’d find another restaurant to go to, it’s as simple as that,” said one person.

“I don’t think it’s a bad idea,” said another person. “I think it would help prevent people from skipping out on reservations and it would just help with restaurants not losing that business.”

Morgan said there needs to be change in behaviour; otherwise restaurants will continue to struggle.

“Not showing up at a restaurant is basically rude. I mean it’s just bad manners, don’t do it. Understand that if you’re not going to honour a reservation that it’s pretty easy to pick up the phone ahead of time and say, ‘Look, I’m not going to be there,’” Morgan said.

In a statement to CTV News, Restaurant Association of Nova Scotia’s executive director Natasha Chestnut said there are steps operators can take to mitigate no-shows.

“Contacting the guests to confirm on the day of the reservation and/or using email or text reminders,” she said.

Restaurants Canada said there are apps that allow restaurants to charge a booking fee for a reservation or keep their credit card information in case of no-shows. So far none of the restaurants in the region are doing that, but some are considering it.