ITC Hotels expands its Responsible Dining outreach across India

ITC Hotels has announced its partnership with Zomato, India’s leading food delivery platform, to offer customers responsible dining experiences in the comfort of their home, now across the country. Zomato, as an online aggregator, will not only enable ‘contactless’ deliveries on all pre-paid orders, but will also provide patrons of ITC Hotels the option of Takeaway menus via this platform. 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’ ten-year strong ethos of ‘Responsible Luxury’ underscores the chain’s culinary brands and initiatives to present innovative cuisine experiences while adhering to superior standards of food safety and hygiene. In keeping with the same, ITC Hotels has introduced 2 unique gourmet experiences, viz. ‘Gourmet Couch’ and ‘Flavours’. These initiatives have received an overwhelming feedback from diners across India and are now available on Zomato as well.

‘Gourmet Couch by ITC Hotels’ is the chain’s most recent and unique culinary offering that encompasses a luxury dining experience with exclusively curated menus from ITC Hotels signature brands, delivered at the guest’s residence under stringent ‘WeAssure’ hygiene and safety protocol. Additionally, the specially curated menu under the brand ‘Flavours by ITC Hotels’ showcase an array of authentic global culinary delights and also celebrates indigenous flavours of the region with the chain’s culinary initiative – ‘Local Love’. Thus, diners can enjoy the subtle flavours of different cuisines, authentic to a region and culinary style.

Anil Chadha, COO, ITC Hotels said, “ITC Hotels has always showcased the finest culinary traditions through its globally acclaimed signature brands. However, in a world where change is the order of the day, it has been our endeavour to ensure our patrons continue to enjoy their favourite cuisine through an outreach dining experience in the comfort and safety of their home. As part of ITC Hotels, Responsible Luxury initiative, the ‘WeAssure’ programme follows a stringent hygiene and safety protocol for pan-India home delivery of food to their valued guests.  The collaboration with Zomato will further assist us in responsibly delivering our unique culinary experiences using their advanced distribution network across the country.”

“ITC Hotels are known not just for their luxurious hospitality but also for their culinary delights and we are glad to partner with them. With the growing trend of celebrations at home, we believe that ITC’s exclusive gourmet and indigenous food offerings powered by our wide on-ground delivery network will offer great food delivery options for consumers celebrating small and large occasions. Zomato will ensure that its 8 Max Safety measures are well implemented in every delivery to provide an experience as close and unique as ITC Hotels,” added Mohit Sardana, COO-Food Delivery, Zomato.

Zomato has implemented 8 Max Safety measures to ensure utmost safety of food. These measures include– restaurants follow WHO practices; contactless delivery; both restaurant staff and delivery partners wear masks; temperature checks and sanitization stations for both kitchen staff and delivery partners; and mandated use of Aarogya Setu app.

Crafted with care at ITC Hotels and handled with utmost hygiene to ensure wellbeing, the mindfully curated menus will bring unique culinary experiences for gourmet aficionados across all major cities in India.  ITC Hotels has also implemented stringent measures and protocols, including mandatory temperature checks for all Chefs and Food & Beverage associates. Moreover, the special take-out counter at each ITC Hotel has been enhanced with hand sanitizers and thermometers to corroborate the health parameters of local food delivery partners.

ITC Hotels would commence the home delivery and takeaway venture with Zomato with several properties across India. These would include ITC Maurya (New Delhi), ITC Maratha (Mumbai), ITC Grand Central (Mumbai), ITC Royal Bengal (Kolkata), ITC Grand Chola (Chennai), ITC Gardenia (Bengaluru), ITC Windsor (Bengaluru), ITC Kohenur (Hyderabad), ITC Kakatiya (Hyderabad), ITC Rajputana (Jaipur), ITC Mughal (Agra), ITC Grand Goa (Goa), Welcomhotel Chennai, Welcomhotel Bengaluru, Welcomhotel Vadodara and Welcomhotel Coimbatore.

Since pioneering the concept of ‘Responsible Luxury’ in 2009, ITC Hotels has commissioned numerous planet positive initiatives, which range from use of renewable energy which today powers more than 57% of ITC Hotels electrical requirement to an over 50% reduction in water consumption over the last five years to name a few. With the decade strong ‘Responsible Luxury’ as its guiding premise, ITC Hotels is committed to delivering luxury experiences with sustainable practices embedded in the process – an endeavour which has manifested in the coveted LEED*® Platinum rating for all its luxury hotels, making ITC Hotels amongst the ‘Greenest’ luxury   hotel   chains   in the world.