Hey guys, Genuinely curious as I can’t find anything online that explains how they make money. I assume they charge the restaurants for the stars yearly but anyone have conclusive answers? #tech #food
Pay to win
Want stars? Gotta grease them palms boiiiiii!
They don’t charge the restaurants, but municipalities/countries/etc chip in
This is true, but that’s only in extreme circumstances and they only get like $1M for that year to just enter. Doesn’t seem like a viable main revenue driver. Must be something else
(They also sell paper copies, but in the end, tire company revenue is $100B or so, so guide publishing expenses are less than 0.1% of that)
It was always an advertising play from Michelin the tire company. Initially to get people to drive more, now I would assume for brand recognition
They sell tires. The idea is they make you drive more off route to visit restaurants and wear out your tires more so you replace them more frequently.
Governments trying to boost tourism and corporate sponsors are a couple ways I know of.
It was to sell tires, they have been making deals with tourism boards to have them review in their regions.
But guys, the notion of selling more tires was back in early 1900’s. Michelin Guide def ain’t helping them sell more tires now, so it must be something else. The inspectors go out 3/4 weeks in a month traveling to eat 2-3 meals a day, all paid for by the company. And there are hundreds of them shipped around the world. It must be a revenue driver in some way
They include the restaurants in a Michelin Guide but don’t give them a star. The restaurants use the title “Michelin Guide “ restaurant. Kinda like a local foodie award type thing the restaurants have to pay into to win.
By selling tires. Michelin loses $24-30M a year on producing the Michelin guide, but they also have a highly profitable tire business which makes almost $50B a year in revenue. The Michelin restaurant guide was actually an anomaly and was created as a European roadmap of the best gas stations, convenient stores, and restaurants and somehow took off as the top standard for rating fine dining restaurants. The Michelin guide was a marketing idea which is a net loss to Michelin tires but has so much posterity and influence around the world that they keep producing the guide.
Interesting
Can’t use interesting. Can use answers :)
I think they charge the restaurants. But don’t quote me on that, might be an old info