Henn-na Front Desk. Japan opened the doors to the world’s first robot hotel. Henn-na Hotel, or Strange Hotel, is entirely robot run and promises to keep costs and its eco-footprint lower than the competition. (via Henn-na)
If you thought I, Robot was a far away dream, think again. Japan just opened the doors to a new five-star hotel that’s entirely robot-run. Henn-na Hotel, or Strange Hotel, is the world’s first robot hotel and hopes to inspire the hospitality industry with its energy-efficient, fun atmosphere and robotic dinosaur.
Imagine visiting Hius Ten Bosch theme park in Nagasaki Prefecture. After spending a day at the water park, teddy bear museum and fighting off ghosts at the The Castle of the Dead, you retire to your room at Henn-na Hotel. One of three robot hostesses will greet you. If you speak Japanese, you can speak to a humanoid. If you speak English, however, you must fend for yourself against a robotic Dinosaur that can’t wait to eat you. If you survive, you can retire to your room, to which access is granted via face-scan.
Robotic Porters - luggage carrying. (via Henn-na)
After check in, droids are on-deck to help with your luggage. Even the cleaning staff is robotic. Hopefully you won’t have to worry about the maids having sticky, robo-fingers. Robots, in fact, will run 90 percent of the entire park property.
Thankfully for lodgers, robots aren’t paid wages, so costs are kept low. The hotel goes a step further to keep prices down – visitors are asked to request toiletries on-demand, as none will be provided otherwise. Air conditioning is not an option, although each room is equipped with a radiation panel that can detect body temperature and adjust the temperature as necessary.
The hotel facility is equipped with other alternative energy solutions and the hotel not only wants to cut costs, but wants consumers to do so too. For this reason, anyone who wants to stay at the hotel can bid for a room. Each room has a bidding maximum. For a single room, this cap is $60 per night and it’s $153 per night for a triple bed. There are superior and deluxe room options, which will of course cost more.
Robotic Luggage Check (via Henn-na)
Huis Ten Bosch President Hideo Sawada believes this is only the beginning. Henn-na Hotel currently has 72 available rooms. This number will double by the end of next year and the president hopes to build 1,000 robot hotels around the world in the future (although, maybe vicious, extinct robotic hostesses won’t make the cut for the next model).
While Henn-na hotel is surely inspiration for the future of robotic technology for consumer use, its vision is controversial. For anyone who worked in early computer technology, welding or factory labor, they will remember how these industries were impacted by robotic technology. The hospitality industry was a $1.5 trillion industry in 2013. Students can major in the field and come out with incredible job prospects due solely to demand. If robots overtake the field, however, what will this work force do? Not a likely transition in our lifetime, but if your grandchildren are majoring in hospitality, they might encounter a Dead End sign in the not-so-distant future.
If only to see the novelty... this concept will make a lot of money. If I go to Japan... I would stay here.
C
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