Expensive 5-Star hotel buffet leftovers for as little as $10.50 instead of $68! Pick your treats now and enjoy!

The Treatsure app tackles the problem of food waste and allows people to feast on high-end hotel buffet offerings at the same time. Sounds like a win-win, right?

Not only can you get a high-end meal at a price just slightly higher than at a food court (especially these days!), treatsure also allows users to avail of surplus groceries from their partners as well.

The app works this way for hotel treats: Download the app and choose the hotel or restaurant where you want a sumptuous food experience without the high price.

Treatsure users can usually visit after regular buffet hours, so be prepared to have a really late lunch.

Scan a QR code at the counter and pay, after which you’ll be given a takeaway box for loading your goodies. The company’s website says reusable are also available but need to be ordered in advance.

Pick your treats and enjoy!

Mr Preston Wong, the CEO, and Co-founder of treatsure, made note of the company’s slow beginnings in a Facebook post on the company’s fifth anniversary.

“5 years ago this day, an unknown app ‘treatsure’ launched silently in one corner of the Apple App Store with the slogan to treat food as treasure. Hardly there were any downloads or impressions. We were among the pioneers in this new industry and felt compelled by the great opportunity and value we could bring to tackle food waste via tech.”​

Treatsure was first launched on Sept 4, 2017, which means it’s a few years old, but as an innovator in the food and beverage + tech industry, it’s taken a while to find its wings.

Plus, the Covid-19 pandemic pretty much shut down buffets everywhere.

The app was relaunched just last month.

The company’s website says that in 2015, there were 790,000 tons of food waste in Singapore, “a near 50% increase over a decade.”

Things have changed since the app launched, he added. 

“Having witnessed many companies in sustainability bloom and bust, little did we expect to still be around in 2022 with a much wider reach and offerings now in buffets, groceries and experiences than in 2017. Thank you all for your kind support and happy 5th birthday treatsure!”

One writer for Business Insider recently tried out treatsure at Clove at Swissotel Stamford, where lunches on weekdays cost $68.

“I had been expecting to pick through leftovers, and instead was surprised to find many buffet trays were still filled to the brim with food.

The leftover food looked delicious. I packed a dozen dishes from seafood curry to claypot rice to dessert. Other diners were busy piling food into their boxes, too — the biryani rice was especially popular,” wrote Insider’s Marielle Descalsota in a Sept 21 piece.

The downside, she added, was that some dishes were completely gone by the time her booking window began and that the food was already lukewarm when she ate her food.

Treatsure users are not allowed to eat at the venues—hence the takeaway boxes.

Nevertheless, Ms Descalsota said she could see herself using the app again, “After all, even if it’s lukewarm, it’s still five-star food.” /TISG

Singapore hotel room prices highest in 10 years; ranging S$259/night on average