Bail on a restaurant reservation? That could soon cost you

For the owners of Edmonton restaurant RGE RD, taking reservations wasn't the problem keeping them was.

Increasingly, the same scenario was playing out on weekends: the small restaurant's book would fill up a week in advance, but come Friday and Saturday, five groups on average would either cancel at the last minute or fail to show up at all.

After months of consideration, co-owner Caitlin Fulton borrowed an idea from restaurants in bigger cities and in October, she started charging a $10 depositper person for online weekend reservations.

Pushback she had feared from customers never materialized, and the policy has worked, almost eliminating no-shows.

"It's one less stress," she said, "and we're not turning people away."

No-shows and last-minute cancellations have long plagued the restaurant industry, but that could soon change. Multiple Edmonton restaurant owners told CBCNews this weekthatthe pandemic has put restaurants in a more precarious financial position than ever, motivating themto finally address the problem.

Pampa Brazilian Steakhouse, which has locations in Edmonton, Calgary and Red Deer, implemented a deposit policy for groups of 15 or more about a month ago.

Co-owner Oscar Lopez said rising food costs, particularly for beef, means he has to watch every dollar.

"The pandemic and the financial strain that is placed upon the restaurant industry has forced the industry to really start dealing with a problem that was always there," said Allen Anderl, co-owner and front-of-house manager at Corso 32, Uccellino and Bar Bricco.

Anderl's restaurants have cancellation policies for groups of eight or more, requiring 24 hours notice to avoida penalty of $75 per empty seat.

Anderl said he is considering applying that policy to smaller groups too and switching reservation platforms so the restaurant could more easily collect credit card information in advance.

The many costs of cancellations

Daniel Costa, another co-owner of Corso 32, Uccellino and Bar Bricco, still remembers the sting of a no-show during Corso 32's first two weeks in operation.

It was New Year's Eve and a group of 12 had booked a table at the front of the restaurant.

"We spent hours and hours preparing all of this intricate food for a tasting menu, but they were a no-show no phone call or anything," he said.

"We took a big hit that year."

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Reservations help restaurants plan how much food to buy and how many servers to hire per shift.

When plans change, that can result in lost revenue and tips, overstaffing and food waste, Costa said.

Filling empty tables can be difficult even for restaurants with waiting lists because most people don't expect a popularrestaurant to be able to accommodate walk-ins during prime hours.

And from6to 8 p.m., "most people have decided what they're going to do," said Christian Mena, who co-owns Sabor Restaurant and the Bodega restaurants in Edmonton and St. Albert. The latter don't accept reservations, in part, because of no-shows, he said.

New tech tools

There's a reason RGE RDis not charging deposits for reservations made over the phone.

"People who phoneto make a reservation are more likely to let us know when they can't make it," said Fulton.

Though she believes online sites have made it easier, psychologically, for people to book and abandon reservations, technology is also becoming part of the solution, giving restaurants more ways to prevent no-shows and recoup lost revenue.

To start accepting deposits, Fultonsimply changed the settings on the reservation platform Tock, which has a deposit feature.

Tock's chief marketing officer, Bryan Ferschinger, told CBC News the company has seen a 137 per cent increase in its customers requiring a deposit for at least one experience through the platform since the beginning of the year.

He said the company's data shows that when restaurants charge a deposit, no-shows decrease considerably.

OpenTable, another reservation platform, added more tools to prevent no-shows in August, including a "Four Strikes and You're Out" policy that suspends frequent no-show diners from booking on the site.