City hoteliers have decided to withdraw their boycott of food aggregators temporarily following an agreement to hold talks.
Kerala Hotel and Restaurants Association general secretary G. Jayapal said on Tuesday that the boycott, started on December 1, would be relaunched and extended to the entire State if the talks failed.
Inconvenience
He said the hoteliers took into consideration the inconvenience for the public as well as the hoteliers due to the abrupt end to the alliance with the food aggregators, who had sought more time to sort out the issues raised by the hoteliers. Representatives of two of the online food suppliers had contacted the hoteliers and reached their office to hold talks. Parleys have been on for more than two days now, he added.
The hoteliers, Mr. Jayapal said, had demanded that the online companies should not engage in practices that damaged the interest of the traditional hotel industry. The hoteliers, while launching the boycott, had alleged that the online companies were offering deep discounts and demanded commissions that hurt the profitability of the traditional food sales business.
The hoteliers want the online companies to consider fixing the discounts as well as the commission they offered to their customers and hoteliers respectively. The online food suppliers are expected to carry forward the talks after they consulted their senior officials.
However, Mr. Jayapal said that the hoteliers in Kerala were thinking in terms of launching their on food app on the lines of the services being now offered by the food aggregators. It will take some time for the app to be developed.
