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Southwestern Japan can pride itself on having the only robot run hotel currently on the planet. The place is entirely managed by “warm and friendly” robots that greet guests and take care of them for the entire duration of their stay.
Dubbed “Henn-na Hotel” in Japanese and “Strange Hotel” in English, the “home away from home” was first shown to reporters on Wednesday, July 15, 205, and opened its doors to the public just a couple of days later, on Friday, July 17, 2015.
The main attraction is an English speaking dinosaur robot that takes care of check-ins and check-outs. If that’s not strange enough, the dino also wears a white bowtie and a white hat. Other robots imitate the human body, while others look like industrial robots, and others yet resemble cartoon robots.
Some of these smart machines cook breakfast, others carry the guests’ luggage, and other have the job of cleaning the guests’ rooms. On top of everything, they are expected to be able to engage in intelligent conversations with guests.
Since the Strange Hotel doesn’t have any human workers, Hideo Sawada, president of Huis Ten Bosch, has reported that the owners are saving labor costs and the project is meant to illustrate how this technology can be used to achieve efficiency.
Non-Japanese-speaking guests are met by the above mentioned dinosaur, while Japanese-speaking guests are met by a human-looking female robot. They both instruct people to press the button “one” if they want to check in.
But a robot staff isn’t the only innovation that awaits visitors of the Strange Hotel. The owners have also replaced traditional electronic keys with facial reconviction software that scans people’s faces every time they enter or leave their room.
Sawada gave a statement informing that he wanted to build the hotel in order to cut down on hotel prices and to also find a way to use solar energy to power the hotel and its robot workers.
The place is indeed cheap for the Japanese market. Prices for a stay at the Strange Hotel start at 9.000 yen ($80), while the other hotels in Japan ask for twice or thrice as much.
The rooms host no refrigerators, lights are based on motion sensing technology, and room temperatures are controlled by air conditioning system that uses a radiant panel and save energy.
Sawada also mentioned that he plans on expanding the business and building 1.000 robot run hotels around the world in the near future.
Image Source: irishexaminer.com
