Quebec wants to regulate penalties for restaurant reservation no-shows

Restaurant customers who reserve a table without showing up could end up with a bill of $10 each, announced the Quebec government on Wednesday.

Justice Minister, Quebec’s Attorney General, and the Minister responsible for Consumer Protection, Simon Jolin-Barrette, and along with Quebec’s Minister Delegate for the Economy, Christopher Skeete, are proposing to regulate penalties for restaurant reservation no-shows to prevent abuse and support Québec restaurant owners.

“Clear and reasonable rules will apply for the benefit of both customers and restaurant owners,” said Jolin-Barrette in a press release.

How penalties will work

The draft regulation states that restaurant owners may, under certain conditions, charge a fee of up to $10 per person to groups of at least five people who do not show up as planned, following a reservation.

The conditions to be met will be as follows:

• The consumer can cancel his reservation free of charge up to three hours before it.
• The merchant must inform the person prior to booking that they may be charged if they do not comply with the booking.
• The merchant must send a reminder to the consumer within 6 to 48 hours before the reservation time.
• The merchant shall always provide the consumer with a means accessible to cancel the reservation.
• No member of the group shows up to honour the reservation.
• The fee imposed does not exceed $10 per person and cannot be charged prior to the time of booking.

Customers are encouraged to notify restaurant owners when they are unable to honour their reservations. This will make it easier for restaurant owners to fill the spaces that have become available, better plan the workforce necessary to operate the establishment and, ultimately, reduce the financial losses related to the phenomenon of phantom reservations.

The regulation is scheduled to come into effect on July 17, and consultations are underway in the meantime.

Penalties could prevent more than $400 million in losses for restaurants

“In the context of economic uncertainty we are experiencing, we must do everything we can to support Quebec entrepreneurs,” said Skeete in a press release.

“Every little bit can make a big difference in the vitality of our local businesses,” Skeet continued. “Ghost bookings cause significant losses for our restaurant owners, and we can all understand their frustration. It is the least we can do to cancel our reservation if we don’t intend to show up. It’s a matter of civility and respect for our local business owners.”

According to the Association Restauration Québec (ARQ), Quebec has nearly 18,000 restaurant establishments.

The association says that the phenomenon of reservation no-shows contributes to average financial losses of $49,000 per establishment each year, and up to nearly $100,000 for some restaurants. The proposed measure would allow restaurant owners to avoid losses of more than $400 million.

According to a Leger poll, nearly 70 percent of Quebecers are in favour of imposing a penalty for reservation no-shows.

Fouad Filali has owned Le Sénateur, a restaurant in Old Montreal, for 30 years. Filali says he stopped taking reservations on weekends around three years ago, in part because of no-shows.

“I lose up to a thousand dollars in sales each weekend with no-shows,” he said in an interview Wednesday.

Depending on how effective the regulation turns out to be, he said he may start taking weekend reservations again.

At Vieux-Port Steakhouse, several blocks from Le Sénateur, Noémie Archambault, the restaurant’s maître d’hôtel, says her eatery sometimes gets up to 15 no-shows of two or more customers a day, which makes staffing difficult.

Archambault welcomes the regulation, calling it “a good thing.” The government is “finally (listening to) restaurants,” she added.

-With files from The Canadian Press