Hospitality Digital cooperates with Google: free ordering of meals via Google-search and Google maps

19 November 2020Download as PDF

Hospitality Digital, the digital unit of METRO AG, and Google are jointly launching the next step in delivery services and offering free food orders to restaurateurs - in the 2nd COVID lockdown an essential opportunity to partially compensate for the loss of the stationary hospitality business

  • Through integration with Google-Search and Google Maps, restaurateurs can offer their dishes as take-away or home delivery - without the need for an additional delivery service
  • After the start in Germany, the first restaurants recorded an average increase in orders in the first month alone 11%, other European countries to follow

The experts of Hospitality Digital, the digital unit of METRO AG, continuously work on digital solutions for the HoReCa industry. The aim: to support independ-ent restaurateurs in the digital transformation and thus contribute to their sustainable success. This includes both the development of digital solutions and partnerships. Through an integration in Google-Search as well as in Google Maps, Hospitality Digital offers the hospitality branch in Germany the option to sell their dishes as take-away or delivery - without the need to involve other service providers in the process. Especially in the COVID-19 era, many restaurateurs have developed new delivery and take-away activities as a relevant additional business pillar. So far, however, restaurants in Germany have paid between 14% and 30% of turnover for delivery services, while in other European countries the fees can be even as high as 50%. Thanks to the cooperation with Google, restaurateurs now have more flexibility and independence from existing delivery services.

"Since COVID-19, the demand for our digital tools has increased massively. Only through a courageous leap into the online world have many restaurateurs managed to survive the Corona pandemic so far," says Dr. Volker Glaeser, CEO of Hospitality Digital. "This year, every second innkeeper we talk to at Hospitality Digital has discovered the supply business for her- or himself. With the new Google function, our customers' guests can now order dishes in restaurants and receive them without contact. And all this at no additional cost to the restaurateurs," he continues. The process is simple: Google obtains the information about the restaurateur and the menu via the restaurant's existing ordering system. The technical prerequisite for using the Google buttons "Order to go" or "Order and have delivered" is therefore a separate ordering system via one of the suppliers cooperating with METRO, or from mid-January 2021 the DISH own solution DISH Order. Visually, the guest sees the buttons under the description of the restaurant in a Google-search and can order directly from there.

2 tools that can be booked via DISH - the digital platform for the digitalisation of hospitality - include already existing Google services. Google Listing ensures visibility. Restaurants, pubs and cafés can be found via Google with all essential information. Nowadays, to be found via Google-search is nearly as important as the own website of a restaurant. The other tool is Google Reservation, which is available through DISH in cooperation with Google. Similar to the new order function, restaurateurs can make reservations directly via Google. Here too, Google uses the existing technical otions that the website of the respective restaurant must have. In this case a technical reservation option. After the first 12 months of activating the reservation tool via DISH, the restaurateurs were able to see that 40% of the reservation volume was generated via Google Reservation.



Hospitality Digital was established in 2015 and actively contributes to the digitalisation of the hospitality sector. An international team of experts implements a variety of digital solutions and innovations for hotels, restaurants, caterers, and trader businesses. To this effect, the company relies on self-developed solutions as well as on solutions from start-ups promoted in the framework of the METRO Xcel programmes, and on solutions from other partners. These digital solutions reach small and medium-sized restaurants, hotels, and catering businesses through the sales channels of the METRO/MAKRO countries. In addition, the company invests into start-ups from the fields of hospitality tech, retail tech, food tech and food innovation and monitors the trends in the hospitality industry. Hospitality Digital is a wholly owned subsidiary of METRO. For more information, please visit hd.digital.



METRO is a leading international wholesale company with food and non-food assortments that specialises on serving the needs of hotels, restaurants, and caterers (HoReCa) as well as independent traders. Around the world, METRO has some 16 million customers who can choose whether to shop in one of the large-format stores, order online and collect their purchases at the store or have them delivered. METRO in addition also supports the competitiveness of entrepreneurs and own businesses with digital solutions and thereby contributes to cultural diversity in retail and hospitality. Sustainability is a key pillar of METRO’s business. METRO has been listed in the Dow Jones Sustainability Index in the last 6 years. The company operates in 34 countries and employs more than 100,000 people worldwide. In financial year 2018/19, METRO generated sales of €27.1 billion.