Innovation is great, but to what extent?

The Henn-na Hotel, the world's first hotel to be staffed by humanoid robots, opened in Nagasaki, Japan, on Friday, July 16. Henn-na hotel, translated into the « weird hotel », describes the human experience of a place almost exclusively run by robots.

                         Source : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FogiE8_3fPE

The hotel opened its doors in the Huis Ten Bosch theme park in Sasebo, a strategic location choice, where attractions and innovative experiences are part of the game.
After interviewing Hideo Sawada, the hotel owner, Monisha Rajesh learned that 90% of Henn-na hotel staff are robots. From robot receptionists to robot porters, everything is handled by machines from check-in to check-out through the concierge service. Guests can open their hotel rooms using facial recognition and thanks to Chu-Ri-Chan, a cute and small robot disposed in place of the awakening, lights are turned on and off using voice commands. Chu-Ri-Chan can also help guests to check the weather forecasts and provide wake-up calls!

Hideo Sawada’s aim is to equip the hotel with robots only, doing actual jobs. The owner decided to put a low rate policy in place and benefits from it. Mr. Sawada highlighted that robots, in fact, are not asking for any salary or paid leave and are exploitable 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The price of a room as well as hospitality services are accordingly less expensive than in traditional hotels. The journalist gives the example of the baggage room robot, which stores luggage in individual drawers for only 2.5 £ (approx. 3€). In traditional hotels, this amount is not even an employee tip! And yet, this service is a significant added value for any hotel!

From our perspective, there are significant limits regarding employment but as Japan is not suffering much from unemployment, with an unemployment rate of 3.3%, why not try to implement this new concept? As Monisha Rajesh points out, the importance of human interactions is critical in the hospitality industry and we think that guests are not ready to be welcomed by non-human beings at the front desk of a hotel yet. As people are more and more willing to benefit from customized and tailor-made services, we are afraid that robots are not as attractive as Hideo Sawada would like them to be for the moment.

However, this service is still in progress and needs to improve in order to perfectly meet the needs and thoughts of the customer, who wishes for fast care, personalized services and interaction.

Being welcomed by robots in hotels seems a bit weird today as human contact remains a priority in the service industry. But what a performance to have created such a machine in the hospitality industry!

Cécile ROUX & Margaux SCHERER