lleging that online e-commerce players have created a hostile environment for the hospitality industry, the Federation of Hotel and Restaurant Associations of India (FHRAI) wrote to the Centre for including the hospitality industry in the newly-introduced Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC).

Rolled out recently across five cities on a pilot basis, the ONDC is a network based on open protocol that will enable local commerce across segments to be discovered and engaged by any network-enabled application. The initiative will allow local merchants to save data of buyers to build credit history and reach out to them with their best offerings. It will also provide the local players a level playing field and enable them to compete with the e-commerce giants of the world.

Complimenting the Union commerce minister Piyush Goyal for the “revolutionary step”, the FHRAI remarked the initiative will go a long way in giving an impetus to the retail ecosystem in the country.

“We are sure that ONDC will change the whole dynamics of the online retail market in the country, benefitting the local sellers to leverage the advantage of reaching out to endless customers,” it commented.

Appealing to widen the ONDC’s ambit for the travel and hospitality sector, it said, “It is pertinent to mention that the hospitality industry has been facing tough challenges due to the monopolistic conduct and unethical business practices of online travel aggregators and food service aggregators.”

In its letter, the FHRAI asserted that the major issues the industry faces from these agencies range from charging high rates of commissions, deep discounting, unreasonable additional charges, breach of agreements, default of payments, and overbooking and underbooking of rooms.