The worst counties for not showing up for salon appointments have been revealed

As businesses across Ireland prepare to reopen, hairdressing salons will be hoping that people who are making bookings will actually turn up for their appointments.

Salons will be permitted to reopen on May 10 but if it’s anything like last year, there will be plenty of people not turning up after making a booking. According to new date by Phorest (software used by Irish salons to take online bookings), when salons reopened in July 2020 after the first lockdown, a national average of 6% of people didn’t show up for their appointments without giving any notice. This cost the industry an estimated €519,086 every day in lost revenue. The worst culrpits? People in Westmeath.

The study found that 9% of bookings in Westmeath resulted in no-shows, followed by 7.2% in Waterford and 7.1% in Longford. Of the 26 counties in the Republic, people in Leitrim were the best-behaved with just 3.1% of bookings not showing up.

Speaking about the findings, Ronan Perceval, CEO of Phorest Salon Software said: ‘Much has been made throughout lockdown about supporting local businesses, but it’s important to remember that many salon owners, already struggling with reduced capacity due to social distancing measures, will be left with empty seats and an opportunity cost of thousands of euro if people book appointments and don’t show up.’

He added that ‘this time around we have armed salons using our software with the ability to charge larger deposits upfront when taking online bookings, which should help to deter people from making bookings at multiple salons and not showing up for appointments. In the UK, where some of our client salons have been using the feature since reopening in April, it has helped to reduce their no-show rate by 65%.’

The full list of no-show rates for each county can be found below:

• Westmeath 9.0%

• Waterford 7.2%

• Louth 7.1%

• Monaghan 6.9%

• Kerry 6.8%

• Dublin 6.3%

• Wexford 6.2%

• Tipperary 6.0%

• Cavan 6.0%

• Meath 5.8%

• Limerick 5.6%

• Laois 5.1%

• Kildare 5.0%

• Wicklow 4.9%

• Kilkenny 4.8%

• Longford 4.7%

• Donegal 4.2%

• Cork 4.2%

• Mayo 4.1%

• Carlow 4.0%

• Clare 3.9%

• Sligo 3.8%

• Galway 3.8%

• Roscommon 3.4%

• Offaly 3.1%

• Leitrim 3.1%

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