Robotics in Hospitality Industry: Impact, Challenges & Solutions

Wondering whether robots play a significant role in enhancing guest experience? Then, yes, it’s.

It's not a sci-fi film because robotics have become a significant part of the hospitality industry.

In the hospitality sector, robots are a game changer whether it’s greeting the guests, leading them towards a hotel room, or bringing food and beverages for them. It just adds a WOW factor to the guest's experience.

Many hotels have invested in robotics as a part of enhancing guest experience in handling frontline services.

One such popular example of a hotel robot is Henn-na which employed zero human staff to interact with customers.

The hotel has various types of robots to streamline their routine hotel operations such as cleaning robots, in-house customer service desk robots, luggage-carrying arm robots, etc. 

How do hotel robots change the game of the hospitality industry?

There are various advantages that robotics provide to the hospitality sector-

1. Provides round-the-clock support

Unlike human staff in hotels, robots don’t need any breaks, they don’t get tired, nor do they sleep.

When your hotel staff is sleeping, they are right there at the time when they check in to your hotel, deliver the goods to their room, call the guest when they reach the guest’s room, etc.

Crown Plaza San Jose Silicon Valley Hotel has been using an autonomous robot popularly known as Dash. The robot represents itself as a front desk and provides round-the-clock assistance to hotel guests.

The hotel was always interested in enhancing the travel experience for business guests. And Dash did it exceptionally well.

The hotel nearly had 300 guest rooms and the 3-foot-tall robot navigated between the floors, called for an elevator, delivered requested items to the guests, and self-charged itself.

2. Save your cost

Although some hoteliers consider that robotics technology is an expensive investment, if you think about the long term, it provides cost-saving benefits in the long run.

These AI-powered robots in hotels provide the same level of service that a normal human can do. They’ll greet the guests with a big smile and guests love such unique experiences.

Imagine a scenario where your hotel needs additional manpower during the peak season and at the same time you want to save your hiring cost. 

The best option is to use a robot that provides a high level of service to guests because the cost of using a robot is substantially lower than hiring and training human resources.

Also Read - Reduce Hotel Operating Costs with Technology

3. Offers Multilingual Capabilities

When operating a hotel globally, you can expect guests to come from different cultural backgrounds and may not speak the same language as you.

In that case, a communication barrier arises when the guest and staff speak different languages. This makes your front desk staff a bit nervous.

But robots are the future of the hospitality industry as they are preprogrammed to understand accents, speak different languages, and talk to multiple guests in their native languages. 

Mariott Hotel in Belgium has had a new employee since 2015 named “Mario”. Mario is an AI-powered robot that speaks in 19 languages and doesn’t need any breaks.

The robot works every day to delight hotel guests. Other than that, Mario is a multi-tasker who works at the front desk, handing over keys to guests and telling them about popular food items they should try. 

4. Increases Efficiency of Hotels

As compared to hotel staff, robots can almost double a hotel’s efficiency by reducing the long waiting times for guests. 

An automated machine aka robot can handle multiple check-ins of guests.

Moreover, robots use AI algorithms to learn from each guest interaction and then fine-tune their operations accordingly.

When compared to humans, robots are less likely to make mistakes, which provides better guest service resulting in increased guest satisfaction.

Hoteliers have started adopting robots because people have readily accepted them and made them part of life.

A popular example of this is Hilton’s hotel which is based out of Japan invested in front desk robots and the hotel did not hire a single human staff to manage its routine operations.

The robots' dinosaurs first greet the guests and provide a charming experience to them.

It then saved their labor costs and made the hotel a center of paradise and entertainment which drew visitors' interest and made them more excited.

The robots can do an array of conversations and help business travellers by sharing information about nearby places, restaurants, and convenience stores.

What are the different types of robots that hotels can adopt?

Robots in the hospitality industry have become intelligent machines for hoteliers whether it’s automating repetitive tasks, handling front desk processes, carrying guest’s luggage to cleaning your beds.

Now, you can’t expect every robot to be multi-functional because each robot has its specialties and is programmed to perform a specific type of task.

Let’s discuss some popular types of intelligent machines (robots) that modern hoteliers around the globe have been using-

1. Housekeeping robots

On the one hand, Hotel housekeeping staff can focus on other tasks such as making the bed and ensuring that everything looks presentable in the room.

While robots are there to play their part in the hotel. Housekeeping robots can clean hotel rooms, remove dirt from the floor, clean the toilets, and vacuum the floor and other spaces.

Example – Dolder Grand, a luxury hotel chain in Zurich uses AI robots to free up housekeeping staff.

The general manager of the hotel says that such technological advances make it possible for hotel staff to provide a perfect stay experience to their guests.

This robot can clean large-scale event rooms, and lobby areas, and staff can focus on creating unique guests experiences.

2. Room Service Robots

Room service or delivery robots are automated machines that can navigate through corridors and elevators to deliver food, beverages, or any other requested item to guests.

These bots provide convenience to guests as they never get tired nor need extra breaks that a normal human would and don’t keep your guests waiting.

Moreover, it saves hours for your housekeeping staff as they don’t have to run to multiple rooms to deliver the items that guests demand.

More importantly, automating routine tasks reduces labor expenses which takes up a significant cost for a hotelier. The hoteliers need not worry about recruiting new staff or paying them fixed salaries.

3. Food Preparation Robots

Food preparation robots are another category of robots that are taking hospitality businesses to the next level. These robots cook meals and prepare drinks for the guests. 

Thus, speeding up the food delivery process saves hours for hotel staff, and they can devote more time to enhancing guest experience and taking their guest feedback. 

4. Check-in Robots

These robots play a significant role in enhancing guest experience whether it’s related to initiating the hotel check-in process for guests, showing them a path to reach the room, answering their questions, handing over the room key, and suggesting nearby places they can try. 

3 Challenges Hoteliers face in implementing Hotel Robotics

Every coin has 2 sides, so every technology has its pros and cons. There are various challenges that hoteliers face when implementing robotics in the hospitality industry-

1. Small to medium-sized hotels find investing in robotics an expensive affair. It requires huge funds for the acquisition, installation, and maintenance of these technologies. The ongoing maintenance cost over the years adds more pressure on hotels.

While, investing in this technology brings higher returns on investment such as reduced labor costs and streamlining hotel efficiency.

2. Implementation of robots in hotels is successful when hotel staff knows how to interact with these smart machines and how to make the best use of them. Hotel managers should conduct training sessions for their staff.

3. Lack of standardization makes it challenging for hoteliers to know how they can integrate this technology on various platforms. 

As there are no standard guidelines, hoteliers are often stuck when choosing the best robot that can streamline their routine hotel operations and at the same redefine their guest experience. 

Wrapping up

These days hotel staff are leveraging these smart and automated machines to transform their businesses digitally.

As the size of hotels is increasing, hoteliers are looking for robots to free up their front desk and housekeeping staff, greet their guests, and provide individualized care to them.

But that doesn’t mean that robots are likely to replace human staff, rather it’ll increase your staff productivity with zero human errors. 

These autonomous machines will become a helping hand for humans.

Leading luxury hotels such as Mariott and Hilton increased their reliance on robotics to perform various tasks such as housekeeping, carrying luggage, serving food and drinks to guests, and smoothening check-in and check-out processes. 

Then, why not leverage the power of robots for your hotel business?

At BOTSHOT, we provide you with all-in-one hotel management solutions that take your guest experience to the next level, and you start seeing results from day 1.