Robotics technology may transform hospitality – but when it comes to the hotel experience, sometimes only the human touch will do.
Since George Devol invented the first digitally operated and programmable robot in 1954, hoteliers the world over have been trying to replace that ridiculously expensive and unreliable cost called “personnel” with automation.
Devol’s first machine, the Unimate, was installed in 1961 in a General Motors plant in Trenton, New Jersey, to lift and stack hot pieces of metal from a die-casting machine. Extraordinarily enough, the 669-room Yotel New York today uses a direct descendant of this machine in its lobby to receive guests’ luggage and store it in individual lockers.
Japan’s Henn Na Hotels has also been pioneering the use of robotics. Its first property opened in Nagasaki in 2015 with robots serving all sorts of functions; the brand also has hotels in cities such as Tokyo, Osaka and Kyoto. No longer do business travellers have to put up with surly front-desk staff, a concierge who doesn’t know where the nearest train station is, or room service that never arrives.
Instead, an android called Nao welcomes you and directs you to the reception desk, where a humanoid and two robotic dinosaurs explain how you check in using the touchscreens. A facial recognition system completes the security checks. On entering your room, you are greeted by a version of Alexa, called Churi; a computer disguised as a doll, who sits at your bedside and answers your every question.
All very well, except that this year Henn Na has had to make 243 of its robots redundant because maintenance and repair required too much (hu)manpower. On top of that, some tasks became impossible to replicate. For example, the velociraptors at check-in had problems photocopying passports, while Churi had a habit of waking guests in the middle of the night because it confused their snores for questions.
MODEL BEHAVIOUR
Other global hospitality brands have also investigated the idea. In 2016, Hilton announced a partnership with IBM to develop a concierge information system called Connie, named after founder Conrad Hilton. IHG’s Crowne Plaza San Jose-Silicon Valley has a robot called Dash that delivers items direct to guestrooms, phoning when it is outside the door.
At its Hotel EMC2 in Chicago, Marriott International has two robotic members of staff, Cleo and Leo. Dressed to impress with name tags and coattails, they are three-feet tall and always available to deliver an extra towel, a snack or toothbrush. All of these machines can monitor their own power consumption and return to their charging point when required.
Marriott Bonvoy’s Aloft brand uses a room delivery robot called Botlr that operates in the same way. Early models were troublesome as they couldn’t answer guest’s queries, but newer ones are now able to respond to simple requests.
One potential pitfall of the technology is that many of these robots use similar voice recognition software as multiple-choice telephonic systems, and we all know how much irritation they cause when they don’t understand you and hang up. Similarly, travellers may be left shouting outside their door at a machine that looks like a photocopier on wheels, which promptly turns around and trundles off without a reply.
KEEP IT SIMPLE
A Cornell University study of robots in 88 Chinese hotels found that guests’ satisfaction levels were highest when the machines were used for simpler in-room tasks such as switching lights on and off (68 per cent satisfied) or tuning in the TV (48 per cent). High frustration was experienced when a robot couldn’t recognise operational commands. The most critical question of the Cornell survey was whether the robot-assisted room delivered value, and two-thirds of respondents felt it did, while economic analysis of hotels employing robotics found that they were cost-effective.
So what other services are we to expect? Will we see automated bed-making and a robot-cooked breakfast? While last year’s Global Robot Expo in Madrid had plenty of technology on offer for everything from check-in and luggage delivery to in-room information systems, that appears still to be some way off. Robot sophistication is not yet sufficiently advanced for it to know the difference between marmalade and jam, let alone how to make hospital corners with the sheets.
Derek Picot has been a hotelier for more than 30 years, and is author of Hotel Reservations.
