Prospect of the Hotel Robots

Technicians and futurists have been keen to study Internet of Things( IoT) and artificial intelligence. There are also many people discuss the intelligence migration. The robots have more powerful computing capabilities, artificial intelligence also makes robot looks more and more "realistic." Checking the reports of the robot, people could find that whether driving, running, or the recently defeated world chess champion Shishi Lee, everything is strong evidence of robot applications are constantly evolving.

From the hotel industry, for example, as long as guest holding the RFID chip card, they will not be lost in large hotels because the inductions nearby could recognized by RFID cards, which could tell the guests their orientation and navigation. Another example: eating breakfast, the sensor at the entrance of restaurant could automatically identify whether guests could have free meals.

So how about the progress of the hospitality industry’s using of robots? Especially in terms of customer services, and others hotel business? In fact, many hotels have been using robots for a long time. Starwood, one of the world’s largest hotel companies, is rolling out two robotic “Botlrs” inexplicably named A.L.O. in their Cupertino Aloft Hotel.

The robotic butlers, built by Savioke, are able to perform tasks in the front of the house and the back of the house, as well as navigate around guests and use elevators. For the most part, it seems that the Botlrs will be delivering amenities to guest rooms in lieu of actual humans, “freeing up existing talent’s time and allowing them to create a more personalized experience for guests.” When a guest calls down and asks for a toothbrush or extra towels, hotel employees simply load up the robot with the requested items, dial in the room number, and the Botlr handles the rest. Using a combination of sensors and WiFi/4G connectivity to communicate with the hotel and the elevator software, the ROS-powered robot can get to and from the rooms without breaking anything or injuring anyone. When the robot arrives at the room, the guest can enter in a rating on the robot’s touchscreen, or offer a “tip” in the form of a tweet to the hashtag #MeetBotlr.

    The Aloft Hotel in Cupertino, Calif. has been using a robotic butler to deliver amenities and snacks to guests, differentiating the business from its rivals.

For the next 3-5 years, more and more hotels are using robots to instead of human power, but initially, hotels only give robots a few simple works. Of course, the service provided by robots could surprise guests and make their stay become very interesting. However, robots does not replace staffs, because this stage is only the beginning of the era of robots. Robot is going to play a important role in hotels, in the future, for example, the front desk reception or some tasks requires a complex interaction. However, this is a matter of a few years later. At present, AI is not yet universal, but will soon pop up. For instance, the reservation center’s system could do the speech recognition, semantic analysis and processing reservation. As another instance, robots with AI could properly handle guests’ complaints and take appropriate measures to appease, or completely replaced people for revenue management, pricing decisions.

                              Toshiba company shows their hotel robot on ITB Berlin

To face this trend, the most important thing is to connect all internal systems. What else, hotel need to analyze their business models and business processes to ensure compliance with technology needs. Finally they need to establish a monitoring mechanism to ensure the technology is safe and controllable bacause security is one of the biggest concern, if a lot of decisions are made with AI machines, sometimes they might be out of control. Therefore, the hotel must ensure the normal operation of the robot.

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Source:

http://travel.sohu.com/20160328/n442505740.shtml

http://www.computerworld.com/article/2895791/hotel-guests-open-the-door-to-a-robotic-butler.html

Jingyao ZHU

Yuanyuan WU