Majority of Quebecers in favour of a no-show penalty at restaurants: poll
Posted October 23, 2023 10:45 am.
Last Updated October 23, 2023 12:29 pm.
A new survey by Léger shows 69 per cent Quebecers are in favour of charging customers a no-show penalty fee for those who don’t respect their reservations at restaurants, while 25 per cent disagree. Six per cent did not take a position.
More than half thought it would be reasonable to deduct an amount ranging from $5 to $20 from the credit card of customers who leave their table empty without warning, with an average of $17.
No-shows result in an average annual losses of nearly $50,000 for establishments that have to deal with it, according to a survey conducted earlier this year by the Association Restauration Québec (ARQ).
According to La Presse, the ARC has held several meetings over the past months with the Office de la protection du consommateur (OPC) to give restaurant owners the right to impose a user fee on customers.
Currently, by law, restaurateurs cannot charge a no-show fee. But the OPC is analyzing possibly solutions.
Speaking to La Presse the ARQ said the waiting time for the analysis of the file was starting to drag on so it decided to survey the population in September, in order to prove that the idea of fining “bad” customers was “socially acceptable”.
