Robots powered by artificial intelligence are coming to the hospitality business with some obvious benefits, but there is no replacing the human touch – well, not yet. Andrew Hennigan reports

Replacing human hotel staff with capable robots would be a cost-saving game changer. But humanoid robot characters like Star Wars’ C3-PO, which is both smart and good with his mechanical hands, are far from reality.  

Today robots work in the hotel space in two ways. There are:

• Machines driven by artificial intelligence that can converse reasonably intelligently with hotel guests, but generally stay put

• Simple moving robots that deliver room service requests to guest rooms. These robots can manage well defined manual tasks like playing ping-pong, mixing drinks and carrying things, but cleaning or ironing is a step too far

Hilton Worldwide, however, has taken aim at the intelligent end, testing a new robot concierge at their Hilton McLean in Virginia. The robot is based on IBM’s Watson, a technology platform that uses natural language processing and machine learning to reveal insights from large amounts of unstructured data.

Usingknowledge from Watson’s own ‘expertise’ and travel data from WayBlazer, which, according to its website ‘harnesses the power of cognitive computing’, the new concierge  – named ‘Connie’ after founder Conrad Hilton – answers questions from guests about local attractions, dining recommendations and hotel amenities.

Connie can interact with guests using a natural language speech interface. To make the interactions seem less artificial the conversation is through a hobbit-sized humanoid robot. (Even if the interface doesn’t look anything like a real human most people find it easier to converse with a humanoid than with a control panel).

Elsewhere in the business

Toshiba is also working on robot technology for the hospitality industry and has already installed what the company calls communication androids in Tokyo hotels and shopping malls. Toshiba, however, has chosen a more human-like approach. Their latest humanoid ChiHiraKanae, presented at ITB Berlin this month, looks human at a distance but close-up suffers from the ‘uncanny valley’ effect – that’s when a robot becomes too creepily human-like.

Taking a very different approach, the California-based startup Savioke which supplies autonomous hotel delivery bots.  More closely resembling Star Wars’ R2D2, they roll along corridors and even negotiate lifts to carry objects from the hotel reception to a guest room before returning to a charging station in the lobby. Robot butlers like Savioke’s Relay model might be limited to simple chores, but they can leave the human staff to deal with more complex tasks.

Other robots appear to be more show than substance. Royal Caribbean’s Quantum of the Seas cruise ship is equipped with a ‘Bionic Bar’ where robot bartenders by Makr Shakr serve drinks. And the famous Hen-na novelty robotic hotel in Nagasaki, Japan, has a robot arm solely for placing luggage into lockers.

But how will hotel guests react to robot concierges and butlers?

A new survey of 6,000 travellers in Asia, Europe, North America and South America conducted by Travelzoo reports that 80% of travellers expect robots to play a big part in their lives by 2020 and that they are mostly comfortable with the idea that robots will play a role in their holidays. Curiously some nations are more cautious than others. According to the survey, German and French respondents were the least enthusiastic, while Chinese and Brazilians most positive about how robotics could enhance their travel experience.

What respondents see as robotic positives are efficiency, effortless data recall and the ability to keep working tirelessly. Some respondents also believed that robots would be better at handling multiple languages.

However, Travelzoo cautions against over reliance on robotics.

“Consumers still want humans in the picture,” says Richard Singer, Travelzoo’s European president, “as otherwise there is a genuine fear that cultural nuances, humour and irony will be missed and the holiday experience could become too impersonal. If we don’t respect the desire for the human touch, we risk ‘robophobia’ setting in.”

Looking into the crystal ball, the obvious cost benefits mean that robots are coming to the hospitality business in one form or other. Some people will love them but many won’t. So, who knows? Within a generation, hotels fully operated by humans may well be a novel experience reserved for the truly premium end of the market.