Online restaurant guide and food ordering platform Zomato on Tuesday said it has rechristened its membership programme Zomato Gold to Zomato Pro to include more discounts and privileges.

"All Zomato Gold members across 10 countries will automatically get upgraded to Zomato Pro starting August 1, 2020," Zomato Co-founder and COO Gaurav Gupta said in a blog post.

The company has launched an initiative to rechristen Zomato Gold to Zomato Pro and make it a bigger, better all-encompassing membership that unlocks amazing privileges and discounts at the best restaurants across dining out and delivery, he added.

This is in addition to some never-seen-before exclusive privileges on the Zomato app and a unique money-back guarantee for all Pro members, Gupta said.

Zomato Pro members will continue to enjoy existing offers (on Zomato Gold) across a wide selection of restaurants, he added.

Zomato Pro has been designed to be much more friendly for a wider variety of restaurant businesses, Gupta said.

"We have signed up around 50 per cent more partner restaurants on Zomato Pro than what we had on Zomato Gold across dining out and delivery," he added.

The restaurant industry is struggling during the COVID-19 crisis, and "we hope that Zomato Pro can be one of the most important levers to drive growth, and help restaurant businesses cover up the losses incurred in the last few months," Gupta said.

Pro members will get access to exclusive delivery offers, which will now be over and above any deals available to other Zomato users. Pro members will also get priority delivery on Zomato, he added.

"....we are so confident about Zomato Pro that it will come packed with a novel money-back guarantee if you don't save 2x the subscription fee of Zomato Pro within the subscription period, we will auto-refund your subscription fee at the end of the year...," Gupta said.

The company had launched its Zomato Gold programme in 2017. The programme had been extended to food delivery in September 2019, a move slammed by the industry body National Restaurant Association of India (NRAI).

NRAI had said the programme promoted deep discounts, the cost of which is borne solely by the restaurant partners.