Zomato founder Deepinder Goyal has officially confirmed the launch of a 'mehmaan mode' feature on the food delivery app, following a user suggestion on LinkedIn. According to reports from NDTV Profit, the feature was proposed by Ayushmaan Agarwalla, a marketing manager at Itu Chaudhuri Design, who tagged Goyal in a post titled 'Mehmaan Mode on Zomato'. Goyal responded with 'Thanks for the suggestion. Shipping it this week' and wished Agarwalla 'the happiest festive season'. Agarwalla had called it 'a small feature recommendation' and wrote that Zomato 'should have a simple ''mehmaan mode'''.
As reported by NDTV Profit, Agarwalla described the feature as a setting that hides prices so hosts can pass the phone around and let guests choose what they want without discomfort. The host can then take the phone back and make the payment. Agarwalla noted that he had seen the practice of passing a phone around to place orders becoming more common, and summarized the benefit as 'No price, no embarrassment and no hesitation'. He added that the feature would be especially useful in the festive season, when homes tend to fill with visitors.
According to NDTV Profit, Goyal's response drew a wave of reactions from users. The post and reply did not provide details of how the feature would work, or whether it would be switched on by the host or the guest. Goyal founded Zomato in 2008 and led its parent company, Eternal, as group chief executive for nearly 18 years before stepping down in February 2026. Blinkit co-founder Albinder Dhindsa took over as Eternal's group CEO, with the company also running Blinkit, District and Hyperpure.
