Dubai restaurants wary of influencers who get free food but fail to deliver

Published: 19 August 2024

NT Bureau
Doha

Restaurant owners in Dubai have hit out at social media influencers who promise to post content about their business in exchange for free food and then fail to honour the agreement, The National daily has reported.

Fadel Fabour, owner of Big T BBQ, said he now only trusts influencers passed on to him by acquaintances and friends to avoid falling prey to people who buy followers, often bots rather than real people, to get food without paying.

“It has gotten to the point where I needed to train my employees to reject influencers coming to barter ‘exposure’ for free meals,” Fabour told the daily.

He said that many influencers have visited his restaurant but the genuine ones would wait in line, get their meals and pay for them, as opposed to the fake influencers who would demand free food.

Hricha Saraf, owner of Bol Gappa Restaurant in Dubai said she stopped hosting influencers entirely, primarily because some influencers do not have genuine followers and often take undue advantage of the restaurant’s hospitality.

“What was happening is when we invite them, we didn’t put any limit that, I thought we would give them the option to order whatever they want,” she said.

“While it is mandatory in the UAE for influencers to be licensed, there are still those who abuse the system to get as much for free as they possibly can,” the report says.

“The fraudulent ones on the other hand, if we discuss a table of two, they’d bring three or four instead and they are hardly ever interested in the concept of the restaurant and just want as much food and beverages as possible, sometimes they even ask for extra to take home,” Kevin Joshi, director of marketing and PR for Atelier House Hospitality, told The National.

Since July, any influencers making money from their social media business in the UAE must be licensed or face fines of up to Dh10,000 ($2,720).

The licence costs Dh15,000 in Abu Dhabi and Dubai but the costs vary in other emirates.