Robot Hotel Now Open

I’ve stayed at a lot of hotels over the years. Depending on where I am at, the hotel staff can be quite interesting at times. Never before though have I been at a hotel where I have had my needs taken care of by anyone that wasn’t human. A five star hotel in Japan called Henn-na Hotel, recently opened its doors and is giving travelers that stay at their hotel a unique experience. It is staffed, not by humans, but by robots.

The Experience

When guests walk to the reception desk, they will have to check-in with a robot. For guests that speak English, they will need to “speak” to a robotic dinosaur while guests who speak Japanese will check in with a humanoid robot. Each robot can have an intelligent conversation, although guests are probably not going to be successful at getting any upgrades out of these robots. After check-in, another robot will help guests put their luggage on a cart and get it to their rooms. One of the nice things about these robots is that you don’t need to tip them. The robots aren’t the only thing that are futuristic about this hotel. Guests will not need room keys because the doors to their room will use facial-recognition. There isn’t a need for air conditioning thermostats either as a radiation panel will detect a person’s body heat and adjust their room’s temperature accordingly. When a guest needs something, there’s no need to pick up the phone since they can request items such as extra towels and pillows through a tablet.

Getting A Room

During the peak season guests will need to bid for their room price rather than paying a fixed price. Whoever bids the highest will get the room. However, there will be a $60 price cap for a single room and a $153 price cap for a triple room. Room rates may vary if there is a high demand for them. Guests can bid on rooms by going onto the hotel’s website.

Why Robots?

One of the reasons why the hotel is staffed by robots is that it will keep prices low. The goal is to have about 90% of the hotel run by robots. The company who designed this hotel, Huis Ten Bosch, hopes to build 1,000 more hotels throughout the world that are similar.

The name of this 72 room hotel translates to Strange Hotel, and some people might think it’s a very strange concept. Currently, it’s in its first phase with stage two expected to be completed in 2016, which will add about 72 more rooms and probably a lot more robots.

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