Hotel staffed by robots to open in Japan
A new hotel soon to open in Japan will be hoping to provide a unique ‘personal’ touch to hospitality, staffed predominantly by robots.
The Hen-na Hotel, which loosely translates as ‘strange hotel’ will open soon in Huis Ten Bosch theme park outside Nagasaki and will be the world’s first deploying humanoid androids.
The female uniformed androids will have human mannerisms and the ability to speak Japanese, Chinese, Korean and English.
They will man the check in desk, clean rooms and serve meals in the restaurant.
The hotel operator says its aim is to keep operating costs down and showcase its technological advances.
Other tech used in the 72-room hotel include facial recognition entry for guestrooms.
Due to the fact that androids don’t require a salary, a night at the hotel costs just 7,000 yen (US$60), around a third of the price of other hotels and the theme park.
The robot workforce will be supplemented by 10 human members of staff and is slated to open in the summer.
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Editor for TravelMole North America and Asia pacific regions. Ray is a highly experienced (15+ years) skilled journalist and editor predominantly in travel, hospitality and lifestyle working with a huge number of major market-leading brands. He has also cover in-depth news, interviews and features in general business, finance, tech and geopolitical issues for a select few major news outlets and publishers.
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