In a bid to keep its restaurant partners appeased, food aggregator giant Zomato is tweaking its paid membership scheme Zomato Gold, significantly limiting the benefits available to the customers. Among three major changes proposed, Zomato will restrict multiple logins of one subscription effective this 15 September, Zomato founder Deepinder Goyal said in a statement to restaurant partners, a copy of which was seen by Financial Express Online. The company has also said that Gold usage will be limited to a single use per day. Further, customers will no longer be able to use more than two Gold unlocks per table. Zomato has also bumped the Gold subscription price to almost double; from Rs 1,000 to Rs 1,800, to ensure “high-quality user base via Gold”.
Doing away with the monthly trial pack of Gold, Zomato has also come up with a feedback system for customers as well. The restaurants will be allowed to rate users to “churn out users who consistently show bad behaviour at a restaurant,” founder Deepinder Goyal said. Currently, several other apps use this feature such as ride-hailing app Uber.
Clarifying the need to change the existing subscription program, Deepinder Goyal, in a letter addressed to various restaurants and hotels said: “The biggest pain point we heard was that users hop between places on a busy evening, claiming 1+1 starters at one place, 1+1 main course at another and 2+2 drinks at some another.” Hence, Gold usage will be restricted to a single user per day. Further, many customers used to share their login IDs resulting in one subscription used by multiple people. To avoid the abuse of the same, the user’s login ID will now be restricted to “a single mobile device at a time”.
Zomato has said that the revamped policies will be effective to both new customers and existing customers and the company is ready to refund the customers who do not agree with the new policy.
Zomato’s move comes days after it launched the Infinity Dining program, which might have set the motion for Restaurants vs Food Aggregators Services row. Over 1,200 restaurants across the country have reportedly delisted from the food delivery platforms due to “unfair trade practice” and “unhealthy discount policies”.
