Robots in the Hospitality Industry

Robots are making a difference in our daily lives. Window cleaning robots can be purchased to do everything from cleaning your floors to trimming your grass, maintaining a sparkling swimming pool, and even cleaning glass. These tiny technological marvels are making mundane tasks easier than ever. Are robots making an impact in the hospitality industry?

I have two websites, The Travel Blogs, and Little Robot Shop. I thought it would be fun and interesting to combine the two sites and look at how robots are influencing the hospitality and travel industry.

What are the applications of robots in the travel industry
Because the travel industry is dynamic and constantly evolving, robotics integration is a constant innovation that is being improved. Robotics is becoming more popular as more travel agencies realize the benefits.

Asia, particularly Japan and China are the leaders in robotic travel services adoption. Many other brands of travel and hotels are also incorporating robots in their travel services to provide a memorable experience for their clients.

Robots are becoming more common in hotel roles such as room service, cleaning, entertainment, and customer care. The latest innovations can even be used to cook and secure your food.

In the past, robots were designed to look like animals or machines. However, there are now more trendy travel robots that mimic human behavior. Let’s look at some examples of companies and travel sectors that have adopted robotics.

Robots in the hospitality sector
Several leading hotel chains are excellent examples of the potential of robots. They use robotics for cleaning, room service delivery, and other daily tasks.

Japan’s Henn-na Hotel Group owns a chain that features robot-staffed hotels. A robot dinosaur will check you in at their hotel. This is a rather unusual but cool feature. Robots can also be used to transport luggage and deliver guests to their rooms.

The hotel chain’s management recently fired all of its robots after an experiment showed that there was no saving. They have now hired human workers. The technology is not yet good enough, I suppose.

The Hilton Hotel concierge, McLean, Virginia is another example of robots in hotels. This robot, known as Connie is able to answer all your questions about the hotel, check-out times, local attractions, restaurants, and other areas of interest.

Dash, a robot-like machine, is a member of Intercontinental Hotel, located in Crowne Plaza Silicon Valley. It navigates hotel corridors to deliver towels and toiletries to guests’ rooms.

Robots are used in the hospitality industry at Aloft Cupertino as well as Residence Inn Marriott.

Robots are not only being used in hotels; robots are also being used in restaurants.

Many Chinese restaurants employ robotic waiters and waitresses. A robot will likely deliver your food to you if you visit the majority of the He Restaurants located in at least 13 Chinese cities.

These robots can be controlled by just your eyes, depending on how severe you are paralyzed.


Robots in transport hubs
People rush everywhere to catch their flight. This is especially true when you add in jetlag and a layover. Airports can be confusing. It’s easy to lose your flight, delay, or miss it.

A few airport operators have begun to test and deploy robots to reduce queuing times and improve the passenger experience.

Recent robotics experiments have been conducted at San Jose International Airport, Geneva Airport, and Schiphol Airport. They used robots to guide, entertain, check-in, translate and carry baggage.

A fleet of robots is also being tested at airport security departments. They are already in use at La Guardia Airport in New York. The robots can be controlled by facial recognition cameras and can freely move while officers in the control room monitor suspicious activity.

Robots in Cruise ships
Robotics has been explored by cruise ships. Royal Caribbean, a major cruise ship, has robots in its crew. They have robot bartenders aboard their Anthem of the Seas or Harmony of the Seas. Two robotic bartenders can make up to 1000 cocktails per boat.

Costa Cruises has a humanoid robotic assistant as part of its staff. Pepper, an interactive robot from Costa Diadema, can entertain and give information about onboard amenities as well as the ship’s itinerary.

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