A hotel in southwestern Japan, aptly named the Weird Hotel, has opened with a workforce composed almost entirely of robots, from the reception desk to the porter service. The Henn na Hotel, as it is called in Japanese, features a dinosaur robot that speaks English and a female humanoid robot that speaks Japanese at the front desk, alongside automated trolleys that deliver luggage to guests' rooms.
Hideo Sawada, who operates the hotel as part of an amusement park, emphasised that the use of robots is not a gimmick but a serious effort to leverage technology for efficiency and to keep costs down. Staying at the hotel starts at 9,000 yen ($80), a bargain compared to typical prices for nicer hotels in Japan.
The hotel employs facial recognition technology instead of electronic keys, as robots are not adept at handling lost keys. A giant robotic arm, usually found in manufacturing, serves as a locker system, lifting boxes from a wall for guests to store items. A concierge robot provides information on breakfast and events, though it cannot perform tasks like calling a taxi.
Despite the high level of automation, the hotel still relies on humans for security, with cameras monitored by real people. Sawada noted that robots are also unable to make beds. He plans to open another such hotel in Japan and eventually abroad, and aims to add languages like Chinese and Korean to the robots' vocabulary.
The hotel was shown to reporters on Wednesday before its opening on Friday, but an overnight stay for media was cancelled at the last minute as the robots were not yet ready. Sawada is keeping the hotel half-filled for the first few weeks to ensure everything runs smoothly.
