A concierge is a hotel employee whose job is to assist guests by arranging tours, making theater and restaurant reservations, etc. more or less, a robot concierge has the same responsibility, the use of robots within the hospitality industry is becoming more common with uses ranging from artificially intelligent, chatbots, designed to assist with the customer service process, through to robot assistants, deployed to improve guests’ experience in a hotel.
Robots in the Hospitality Industry
The idea of automation and self-service are playing an increasingly vital role in the customer experience thus robots have emerged as a popular technology trend within the hospitality industry. The use of robots can lead to improvements in terms of speed, cost-effectiveness and even accuracy.
Hospitality industry being badly hit by the global pandemic for the last two years, robots are considered a big support to the industry’s need to fully automate their operations without sacrificing the clients experience.
Current Uses of Robots Within the Hospitality Industry
- Robot Hotel staff- Henn-na Hotel became the first hotel in the world to be entirely staffed by robots. Situated in Nagasaki, Japan. Throughout the hotel, robots are deployed to provide information, front desk services, storage services, as well as check in and check out services, with technology including voice and facial recognition.
- Robot Concierge- Connie is a robot concierge, used by Hilton. The robot makes use of an artificial intelligence platform developed by IBM, and is able to interact with guests and respond to their questions, the robot has speech recognition capabilities. The system also learns and adapts with each interaction, improving the answers it provides.
- Robot Suite case- Travelmate is an example of robotics being used for luggage purposes. Essentially, it is an autonomous suitcase, which is able to follow you on its own. It makes use of anti-collision technology, has 360 degree turning capabilities and eliminates the need for carrying, pulling or pushing a suitcase around.
- Airport and Hotel Robot Assistants- Airports and hotels are increasingly making use of robotic assistants, transforming the entire hospitality industry. These assistants are capable of carrying out various tasks, including room service and information provision. A key advantage is the ability for robots to offer support for a variety of different languages.
- Chatbot- To date, chatbots have been one of the most common uses of robots within the hospitality sector and these can be used to deliver basic customer service, or for more complex tasks, like hotel or flight bookings.
- Security Robots for Airports – Airport security is one of the most important areas where new technology is deployed and robots are in use here too. One particularly strong example of this is the Knightscope robots that are increasingly being used to autonomously detect concealed weapons, helping to keep passengers safe during their flights.
- Hotel robot butlers and robot luggage porters- Are of big use to hotel industry, they make use of a variety of technologies, including collision detection, Wi-Fi and AI, in order to navigate hotels and provide services.
Why are Hotels Using Robots?
Hotel robots provide a competitive edge over the competition. Robots can free up the time of human staff and help personalize a guest’s stay. In fact, their use is almost limitless.
Top Hotels Using Robots:
Hilton’s concierge robot
The resident robot at the McLean hotel in Virginia branch is Connie (named after Hilton’s founder, Conrad) is a concierge. In 2016, Hilton and IBM partnered to create Connie, it informs guests about nearby attractions, places to eat, and hotel information. Powered by IBM’s Watson super-computer AI.
Aloft’s butler robot
In 2014, Aloft Hotels introduced A.L.O — robotic butler or Botlr, the hotel became the first hotel brand to use robot technology. The robot can travel the entire hotel to make deliveries. Its primary purpose was to surprise guest with room delivery.
Crowne Plaza’s delivery robot
Crowne Plaza at San Jose Silicon Valley is an early adopter of robot tech with Dash, it delivers snacks, toiletries, and other hotel amenities. When called, Dash makes its way through the hotel, using a unique Wi-Fi connection. And to the surprise of many a guest, it then makes a phone call to announce its arrival. It can even monitor its own power usage and return to its charging point when needed.
Henn na Hotel‘s front desk robots
This hotel in Sasebo, near Nagasaki, the robots lead the way. When you enter, a robot velociraptor greets you at the front desk. It then asks you to check-in on a touchscreen. When you get to your room, you’ll unlock the door with face recognition. A robot in the room (named Churi San) controls the heating and lighting, tells you the weather, and more.
Yotel Hotels‘ luggage-carrying robot
The robot in its New York hotel — called Yobot — automatically collects and elvers guests’ luggage. It can handle around 300-items of luggage a day. Thus guests quickly check-in, and have as limited contact with others as they desire. However, the real purpose of this tech is to free up staff for other duties — saving time and money.
Hotel EMC2’s service robot
The Hotel EMC2 in Chicago employs two robotic staff members as stand-in for when their human counterparts are not available. Cleo and Leo. Dressed with name tags and coattails at around 3 feet tall, they fulfill guests’ needs by delivering whatever they need: an extra towel, a snack, a toothbrush. All in all, they’re a stand-in for when their human counterparts are not available.
How Effective Is a Robot Concierge?
The aim of robotics in hospitality industry is at improving guests’ overall experience.
Guests prefer services to be fast, inexpensive, and accurate they also want information and answers at the touch of a button. While hospitality industry is working towards automation and self- service. When the hospitality industry becomes successful in producing a desired of intended result of using robots in their operations and giving their clients and guests their desired type of services then Robot Concierge becomes effective.