Robots to run Japanese hotel

Robots to run Japanese hotel
By Daisy Melwani


The Henn na Hotel within the Huis Ten Bosch theme park is planning to use robot staff and face recognition instead of room keys in a bid to embrace cutting-edge technology.

The Japan Times reports the two-story hotel in the Nagasaki Prefecture which is slated to open on July 17, will be promoted with the slogan “A Commitment for Evolution”.

The paper reports the name of the hotel reflects it will “change with cutting-edge technology,” a company official was quoted, playing on the word “Henn” which in Japanese means change.

The robots are expected to provide “porter service, room cleaning, front desk and other services” and facial recognition technology will be implemented instead of traditional room keys.

“We will make the most efficient hotel in the world,” company president Hideo Sawada said at a press conference, the paper reported. “In the future, we’d like to have more than 90% of hotel services operated by robots.”

Using robots is expected to keep staff costs down, shown in the anticipated daily room rates, however room pricing also heeds against the traditional norm.

While single rooms are priced at ¥7,000 per night (A$76), and a twin room per night at ¥9,000 (A$98), during peak seasons rooms will be auctioned to the highest bidder, with an upper limit of ¥14,000 (A$152) for a single room.

The hotel will be opened in stages, with the first building in the complex with 72 rooms to open in July.

The theme park is expected to deliver authentic experiences of the Netherlands to Japan, filled with actual-sized copies of Dutch buildings.

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Image credit: Featured image: NBC. Inside post: KYODO (Japan Times)

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