ITC Hotels expands dining outreach with Zomato partnership

ITC Hotels on Monday said it has partnered with food delivery platform Zomato to offer its customers dining experiences in the comfort of their homes.

This partnership comes after the hospitality chain's partnership with Swiggy, announced in May this year.

ALSO READ

Zomato’s burn to be under $1M, revenue close to 60 pc of pre-COVID-19 peaks

The association with Zomato further strengthens ITC Hotels' pan India distribution footprint for home delivery and takeaway. This will widen the outreach of the chain's signature culinary offerings to thousands of customers, ITC Hotels said in a statement.

Zomato, as an online aggregator, will not only enable 'contactless' deliveries on all prepaid orders, but will also provide patrons of ITC Hotels the option of takeaway menus via this platform, it added.

Earlier in June, the Delhi-based foodtech unicorn rebranded its membership offering Zomato Gold to Zomato Pro, with a "money-back guarantee". The Zomato Gold annual membership would get consumers benefits such as, 'buy one, get one free' on food and drinks, delivery priority etc., from the startup's partner restaurants.

Zomato CEO and Co-founder Deepinder Goyal in a tweet said, "If you don’t save 2x the subscription fee of Zomato Pro within the subscription period, Zomato will auto-refund your subscription fee at the end of the year. No questions asked!"

Zomato Gold members across 10 countries will automatically get upgraded to Zomato Pro starting August 1, 2020, and will continue to enjoy existing offers (on Zomato Gold) across restaurants, the company said. Zomato Gold's fee was Rs 1,800 per year. It was not immediately clear if the membership fee for Zomato Pro remains the same.

The startup also highlighted the restaurant industry's struggles during the COVID-19 crisis, and said that it hopes that Zomato Pro can be an important lever in driving growth, and "helping restaurant businesses cover up the losses incurred in the last few months". The restaurant industry has been among the worst affected sectors amidst the coronavirus pandemic.

(Disclaimer: Additional background information has been added to this PTI copy for context.)