After Uber, meal-sharing sites under fire in France
First taxis rose up against Uber, then hotels challenged Airbnb and now, restaurants in France are taking on meal-sharing sites they believe create unfair competition and could sap jobs.
The websites, where hosts offer to cook a meal at their homes for a price of their choosing, are increasingly popular among travelling food-lovers who want to meet locals on top of the usual tourist visits, particularly in gourmet havens like France.
Spooked by the success of Airbnb in the accommodations sector, restaurant owners in France are getting concerned that they will take some of their business away.
"At the moment, these sites have around 3,000 offerings in France, which you could say is not so worrying," said Didier Chenet, the head of restaurateurs' union Synhorcat who is to raise the issue with Commerce Minister Martine Pinville on Monday.
"But if you look at Airbnb, in 2012 they had 7,000 homes in France, now they have 50,000," he said, adding that in three to five years, there could be 20,000 "illegal restaurants" as he calls the hosts' offerings.
From macaroons in Paris, spaghetti carbonara in Rome to an Italian aperitivo in New York or a gluten-free Cantonese dinner in Hong Kong, the sites operate like Airbnb, with hosts given reviews and marks according to the quality of their service.
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