Restaurant bodies want Zomato to tweak ‘gold’ further

Two restaurant and hotel associations have once again asked food aggregator Zomato to further amend its Gold membership programme, which offers one dish or drink free with each order. The National Restaurant Association of India (NRAI) and the Federation of Hotels and Restaurant Association of India (FHRAI), which held a press conference in Mumbai on Wednesday, have also protested against the food delivery company’s high commissions.

The two associations said they were putting out guidelines that the Gurugram-based restaurant aggregator needed to follow, and one of these is to reduce discounts even further, because “discounts funded by restaurants are not acceptable.”

The two bodies have called Zomato for a meeting to solve the differences. “These aggregators, who are heavily funded by private equity, have to recognise that their role is that of a marketplace… they cannot decide or dictate commercial terms to and on behalf of the industry,” said Gurbaxish Sigh Kohli, president, hotel and restaurant association of India (HRAWI) and vice president, FHRAI.

“All of these are baseless allegations, and we would only classify them as false propaganda,” a Zomato spokesperson said.

Zomato recently claimed that the number of restaurants adopting its Gold programme have gone up after the #log out movement by the restaurant associations, instead of decreasing. NRAI dismissed that out of hand. “Almost 3,000 restaurants have logged out because all of the top restaurants have left. And others are on notice period,” said Jimmy Shaw, member, FHRAI.

Originally, Zomato said it had 6,100 restaurants registered on Gold. Shaw said the associations have started targeting micro markets like malls and were talking to restaurants about Gold.

“We have done this in two micro markets in Gurugram and Mumbai and we’ll take it all over the country,” he said.

“They’re asking us to go to particular labs to test food or they would give us a lower rating,” Shaw said. Anurag Katriar, president, NRAI said, “We don’t want to fight with any aggregator but if they want to, we’ll be happy to.”

Source:- https://retail.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/food-entertainment/food-services/restaurant-bodies-want-zomato-to-tweak-gold-further/71624440