A hotel kitchen never stops. Breakfast buffets run from 6am. À la carte lunch service follows. Afternoon tea. Dinner. Room service through the night. At every one of these service windows, food is prepared in volume — and at every one of these service windows, some of it goes unsold.

For most hotels, the end-of-service ritual has always been the same: the leftover food gets covered, sits briefly, and eventually gets discarded. It's not malicious — it's operational. A kitchen team running on adrenaline after a 14-hour day has no capacity to manage a separate food rescue programme. The bin is fast, and fast is what a depleted team needs at midnight.

But the numbers are striking.

The scale of hospitality food waste

South Africa's hospitality sector is one of the country's largest generators of avoidable food waste. A full-service hotel with a breakfast buffet, restaurant, and events kitchen can generate tens of kilograms of surplus food every single day — multiplied across hundreds of properties nationally.

Globally, hotels waste an estimated 28% of food purchased (WRAP, UK Hospitality Food Waste Report). In South Africa, where food costs represent 28–35% of a hotel's revenue, that waste represents a significant and unnecessary cost — not just to the environment, but to the bottom line.

The types of surplus are consistent across properties:

Breakfast buffets: Prepared in volume to ensure abundance; surplus is predictable and daily.

À la carte restaurant service: Mis-en-place and mise en place surplus, unsold specials, garnishes.

Room service: Items prepared but not delivered, returned trays.

Banqueting and events: The most significant single-event surplus category — often hundreds of portions after a function.

What three South African hotels are doing about it

In 2025 and 2026, three South African hotel properties joined Refreshi — and together, they've become the platform's highest-performing category by per-outlet volume.

The President Hotel in Bantry Bay, Cape Town, has been on Refreshi since July 2025. Operating across a main restaurant and Botany Café, the property generates consistent daily surplus from two distinct service formats. To date, The President has sold over 1,413 Surprise Bags.

GINJA at the V&A Waterfront — Newmark Hotels' restaurant at one of South Africa's most visited precincts — joined in October 2025. GINJA serves à la carte covers and event service, making it a natural fit for end-of-service Surprise Bags. 807 bags sold to date, making it one of the fastest-growing outlets on the platform.

Kashew at Catalyst Hotel in Sandton joined in March 2026, targeting a high-traffic CBD and business-traveller market. At early stage and building volume, Kashew represents the model's applicability to the Gauteng hospitality market.

Combined, these three properties have sold 2,403 Surprise Bags — diverting an equivalent of 6.0 tonnes of CO₂e from the atmosphere, saving 1.4 million litres of water, and protecting 4,806 m² of land from waste.

Why the hotel model works so well

Three factors make hotels particularly well-suited to Refreshi:

Volume and consistency. A hotel kitchen generates surplus daily and predictably. Unlike a small café that might have occasional surplus, a hotel with multiple service periods has a reliable stream of high-quality food that fits the Surprise Bag model every single day.

ESG alignment. Hotels face growing pressure from corporate clients, investors, and guests to demonstrate sustainability credentials. Refreshi provides structured, documented reporting on food diverted, CO₂ avoided, and water saved — data that feeds directly into ESG and CSI reporting.

Zero disruption. The Refreshi model integrates into existing close-down routines. No new equipment. No additional staff. Surplus identified at end of service is packed, listed on the app, and collected by customers — the kitchen closes at exactly the same time it always did.

Is your hotel or hospitality property ready?

If you run a hotel, guesthouse, lodge, or hospitality venue anywhere in South Africa, our team would love to talk. Getting started takes a single conversation and most properties are live within a week.

External references: WRAP UK Hospitality Food Waste Report | FoodForward SA