All Service Business should charge 50% non refundable booking deposits?

cannotlogin

Inspired by a thread of the beauty forum....

As a way of helping small businesses with cash flow and recovery, following a really difficult last 3 months, what do people think of all service businesses charging a 50% non refundable deposit for all no shows or failure to cancel within an adequate timeframe.

The amount of revenue lists for no shows for hairdresser, beauty salons, dentists, doctors and restaurants is significant.

What do people think?

s8n

are you a hairdresser, beauty salons, dentists, doctors or restaurant ?

_Brian

I’d be making a point of avoiding ANY service implementing this stupid idea.

Ted_YNWA

This is not really an AH thread. Moved to CI

hynesie08

How does a restaurant charge a 50% deposit when you don't know what the bills going to be......

L1011

hynesie08 wrote: »

How does a restaurant charge a 50% deposit when you don't know what the bills going to be......

You can take a guess at an average cost. Restaurants are about the only place that had some doing this before the current situation - usually a credit card hold. Smaller, highly rated restaurants were the most likely to do this I found.

Some major Irish restauranter - JP McMahon possibly, although I can't find it online and his Irish Times columns are online - has said that he's had issues with people using temporary card numbers that some of the apps offer to have the hold taken; and then delete the temporary number so there is nothing for the merchant to actually take if they no-show.

cannotlogin

Ted_YNWA wrote: »

This is not really an AH thread. Moved to CI

Can you move it to current affairs instead please so it can get more discussion?

kirving

My dentist has this policy, which I understand as there can be a long waiting list and it would inconvenience other patients who have waited, and they always call the previous day to confirm.

To be fair they didn't charge me when I had a genuine reason to cancel at short notice.

A restaurant or barber, in a busy city or town, who almost always have a walk-up queue in addition to bookings are not loosing any money, and would not be getting a booking deposit from me.

I'd have far more sympathy for those based in small towns.

Rodney Bathgate

I’d like to see sliding scale penalties for delays to appointments being met by the service provider. E.g. doctors appointment at 12:30 and kept waiting until 13:00, 25% penalty payable by the service provider to the customer.

PCeeeee

Long term I can't see this working. People will vote with their feet (bad metaphor but however). Places that implement it will suffer.

HBC08

My barber has been using an online booking system for a few years,it's a great system,you just book your time and walk straight into the chair,no waiting around.
The only issue is no shows or people who are so late as to encroach on someone else's time slot.
I'd be happy to pay a deposit when booking as im committed to turning up and that time anyway.
If somebody rang to cancel or whatever I wouldn't expect him to keep the deposit

JL555

cannotlogin wrote: »

Inspired by a thread of the beauty forum....

As a way of helping small businesses with cash flow and recovery, following a really difficult last 3 months, what do people think of all service businesses charging a 50% non refundable deposit for all no shows or failure to cancel within an adequate timeframe.

The amount of revenue lists for no shows for hairdresser, beauty salons, dentists, doctors and restaurants is significant.

What do people think?

Absolutely not, if the service is crap or not what you paid for, you agreed to a 50% loss beforehand. Not a chance.

Mrs OBumble

Horrific idea from a public health perspective.

If someone wakes up with COVID-19 symptoms you want them to feel free to cancel without penalty.

If your industry typically has no-shows, then overbook by an appropriate %age.

Batgurl

From a consumer perspective, I’d be super wary of this.

A nominal amount or a hold on your card that will be charged if you no-show is fine, but what guarantee would I have that a business will still be operating by the time I’ve booked and paid my 50%?

There’s real fear that many service industries will go out of business in the aftermath of lockdown so I’d be slow to pay too much in advance because of this.

BeardySi

Rodney Bathgate wrote: »

I’d like to see sliding scale penalties for delays to appointments being met by the service provider. E.g. doctors appointment at 12:30 and kept waiting until 13:00, 25% penalty payable by the service provider to the customer.

Aye you would, right up to the point you go tossed out after 10mins of a consultation so the next one could be on time and told you had to pay for another appointment another day.

Doctors, dentists etc can only book in patients based on an average duration. Some visits take longer, some don't.

If doctors booked out half hour blocks and potentially spent half of that without patients I'm sure you'd be on complaining about the lack of appointments...