Bengaluru: Bengaluru hoteliers have pushed their planned Swiggy switch-off from Aug 15 to Sept 1, giving the food delivery platform time till Aug 31 to address concerns over promotional campaigns, payout deductions and multiple platform charges.The decision followed a nearly four-hour meeting on Thursday between restaurant associations and Swiggy executives. The discussions were led by Rohit Kapoor, CEO, food marketplace, Dineout and Crew at Swiggy. Chief business officer Siddharth Bhakoo and Dineout and Scenes CEO Swapnil Bajpai were also present, people aware of the matter said.Hoteliers said the same issues were raised again. These included discounts run without consent, add-on charges, service charges on the GST component, and the break-up of several line items in restaurant payouts.“The switch-off has not been withdrawn. It has only been postponed,” one hotelier told TOI on condition of anonymity. “We are giving Swiggy time till Aug 31. If the demands are not addressed, restaurants will switch off the app from Sept 1.”Swiggy has now put in place an OTP-based consent system for discounts. This means a restaurant will receive an OTP before a discount funded by it is activated. Zomato introduced a similar system over a week ago. Restaurants have argued that many promotional campaigns were earlier run without clear approval, and deductions were discovered only later in payout statements.Swiggy has also agreed to refund unauthorised campaign fees, people aware of the discussions said. Hoteliers, however, remain cautious.“The concern is how ‘unauthorised’ will be defined,” another hotelier said. “Many campaigns were run without our consent. We do not want a legal process where every restaurant has to fight case by case.”During the meeting, some suggestions were discussed to simplify charges. One proposal was to replace a 20% base commission plus a service charge on GST with a 21% base commission and no such service charge. Hoteliers said that would not help if the total deduction remained the same.The associations have also asked Swiggy to simplify its billing and payout statements, stop unauthorised levies, and create dedicated channels to resolve accounting and payout issues.Zomato held a separate meeting with hoteliers on Thursday. Its food CEO Aditya, finance head, business operations head, city operations team, national head and HR head attended the meeting, people aware of the talks said.Hoteliers said the Zomato meeting was more productive. Zomato has already rolled out an OTP-led approval system for restaurant-funded discounts and is expected to sign an MoU with the association by mid-next week to formalise the new understanding and reduce refund-related disputes.
