Chronic no-shows to appointments, reservations hurting Ottawa small businesses

Appointment and reservation no-shows are becoming a chronic problem for small Ottawa-area businesses, hurting any chance at business recovery.

That’s what Tanya Farlinger, director of Exhalo Spa in Barrhaven told The Sam Laprade Show on Thursday, June 2, adding that people are using apparent COVID symptoms as an excuse to not honour appointments.

As Farlinger put it, her no-show rate is “incredibly high.”

“It’s leaving a permanent impact it seems and we would just like to get the word out there that it’s going to take a few years to come back from this,” Farlingo explained. “In the last two years, we’ve only been open an average of six months per year, and even at that with often 25 and 50 per cent capacity levels. So to say it’s been challenging is definitely an understatement.”

While Farlinger is aware COVID is still prevalent in the community, she says an “unsettling amount of no-shows” are cancelling at the last minute, despite having several bit of communication reminding them of their upcoming appointments.

With both hourly and commission-based employees at the spa, it’s a move that is hardest on employees who rely on commission.

“I don’t think people realize that when no-show, not only is the business losing money, but that stylist is out a huge chunk of their daily revenue,” Farlinger said.

“We’re service providers and if someone cancels on us last-minute, we generally always had a 50 per cent no-show policy or late cancellation fee if we didn’t fill the appointment — if we did, then there was no fee. But now, it’s increasingly harder to charge that, and obviously, we feel for people if their son or daughter had COVID and they have to stay home. But, I mean, at the same time, you should realize earlier in the morning, not necessarily before your appointment that you scheduled for three hours.”

For example, on Saturday, May 28, the spa was initially fully booked for the day. However, last-minute cancellations result in a six hour gap and the business took to their social media and scrambled to try and find others who could fill some spots.

“Our industry is still struggling, our employees are still struggling to catch up with their finances as well and we want to make sure we’re around to service everyone for self-care in the future as well.”

Listen to the full interview on The Sam Laprade Show on Thursday, June 2 below: