The hospitality industry by its very nature is built around personal touches. Yet hoteliers can apply robots and maximize their effectiveness in numerous roles without losing that hard-earned special connection with their guests.
“Hospitality is a people business, and we believe robots can play a critical role in creating a memorable synergy with staff to help improve the client experience,” said Matthew Casella, president of Richtech Robotics.
Casella noted that the economy has begun to rebound to pre-pandemic levels, with customers returning to dine out, get coffee and stay at hotels. Although customers have returned, the hospitality and restaurant industries have struggled with staffing shortages. Robotic support can help address this challenge.
According to Casella, Richtech’s AI-powered hospitality service robot, ADAM, provides an example of how the service and hospitality industries can maximize their human capital. By deploying robots to perform routine tasks while employing humans for the jobs that require more nuanced decision-making, robots such as ADAM can help staff complete tasks and serve clients in a consistent and efficient manner while freeing up the staff to forge customer relationships.
“Richtech Robotics is focused on developing practical physical AI solutions that generate revenue for business owners and support growth while also reducing product waste and boosting consistency,” Casella said.
Benefits for Guests and Staff
Jonathan Vassallo, GM, Hospitality, Relay Robotics, noted that guest preferences are changing. Many guests want the same experience at their hotel as they have in their homes: convenient, contactless delivery to help them get what they need while maintaining safety and security.
“Some guests prefer more interactions with staff, but others are looking more for convenience and technology,” he said. “Understanding the guest and delivering based on their preferences becomes easier when you combine technology into regular staff workflows.”
According to Vassallo, robots benefit both guests and staff—guests enjoy on-demand delivery of items when they need them, and the tasks handled by robots are taken off the staff’s plates.
“Guests do not want to have to wait for a clean towel, and they love having their coffees delivered to them as they get ready in the morning,” Vassallo said. “All this is possible with autonomous delivery robots like Relay. Staff also love the robots as they make their jobs easier. Imagine you are busy at the front desk and someone needs something in their room. With autonomous delivery robots you can be in two places at once. Robots help keep staff focused on guest experiences and not walking hallways.”
Boost Satisfaction and Profits
Robots that can do some of the “heavy lifting” and handle tasks that contribute to employee dissatisfaction and high turnover–for example, cleaning bathrooms or changing bed linens—are likely still years in the future, according to Gavin Niu, principal, Boston Intelligent Robotics Technology. Today’s robots, however, can be very effective in roles that can increase guest satisfaction and boost hotels’ profits.
“I think having robots that can clean toilets or make beds isn’t possible right now, and likely won’t be for at least three to five years,” Niu said, citing the complexities of the tasks. “But there are guest-facing tasks that make even today’s robots feasible and profitable for hoteliers.”
Niu noted that robots already have proven themselves to be capable in security roles such as patrolling hallways and parking lots, and he suggested they also could be very effective as delivery bots. Many hotels have created “grab-and-go” micro markets to meet guests’ needs, but some guests would prefer the convenience of not having to go down to the hotel lobby. Robots would be a perfect solution for those guests.
“Some guests just want a bottle of water—they don’t want to talk to anyone to get it. Robots can generate revenue streams by delivering convenience items such as bottled water or soft drinks, or sleeping aid products such as eye masks or pillows,” Niu said.
This ecosystem would increase convenience for guests and also eliminate the need to have a minibar in every guest room, as the robot could basically serve as a roving minibar. In addition, the margins are very attractive.
“Guests will pay $3 or $4 to have a bottle of water delivered to their room, and that bottle might have cost the hotelier 10 cents to purchase,” Niu said.
Maximizing Human Value
In an era of economic uncertainty and trepidation over the growth of AI, Marianela Nanninga, CEO of ToDo Robotics, stressed that her company’s various robots are designed to enhance hoteliers’ daily operations while maximizing human value.
“Hoteliers can implement robotic solutions for fast, consistent service, freeing their staff to deliver exceptional attention that makes a difference to guests,” Nanninga told Hotel Management. “I firmly believe that the idea with all robotics and all robot machines is to facilitate the jobs for humans. In the case of hospitality, robots can provide the hotel staff with more space to actually further the human touch, because that is the part of the job that robots cannot do.”
As an example, Nanninga cited food delivery by server robots. In most hotels, this task is performed by either kitchen staff or bellboys, and it is often a pain point for many operators. Turning delivery over to robots allows efficient delivery without needing an extra person to go back and forth from the kitchen to the guestrooms again and again. This enables kitchen help to stay in the kitchen and bellboys to focus on guest-facing tasks such as helping with luggage, valeting cars and assisting with directions and other basic concierge services.
Nanninga said she understands that some guests may have negative perceptions of robots as taking jobs away from humans, and some guests may be concerned by stories they have heard of AI and its potential for a science fiction-like hyper-intelligence in robots. So how do guests react to robots?
“It is a mixed reaction,” she said. “As you can imagine, in operations that are very family-oriented, the kids go crazy. They love the robot, and they want to talk to and interact with it. Kids and young people are drawn to the technology, and they love it. What has surprised us is the number of older people who are pleasantly surprised about the technology, but in a different way. I often hear comments along the lines of, ‘Look at another thing I lived to see.’”
The key, Nanninga added, is to remember that robots are here to liberate human employees to concentrate on the task that humans can do better: connecting with other people.
“I would never think to have a robot in a very high-end restaurant, for instance, because you go there to have a different kind of experience,” she said. “You want to be pampered by your server, and that kind of interaction cannot be given by a robot. We can build very sophisticated AI algorithms for robots, but they’re still never going to be a person.”
Our Robotics Future
“In a world where technology evolves at lightning speed, robots are no longer a fixture of science fiction but a tangible reality reshaping industries across the globe,” said Elad Inbar, CEO of RobotLAB and the author of Our Robotics Future. “I predict a dynamic future where humans and robots team up to drive unprecedented levels of efficiency, quality and safety.”
According to Inbar, robots can provide a real return on investment and deliver the assistance that business owners need when people don’t want to do specific jobs. For example, he said, it’s very difficult for hoteliers to find people to push a vacuum cleaner for eight hours a day—and even when those people can be found, it can be very difficult to retain them. That leaves hoteliers with two options: overwork the few employees that they can find, or make employees’ lives easier by providing assistance through automation.
Implementation of robots can be a challenge, Inbar said. In many cases the staff will just assume that they’re being replaced by technology, and they won’t cooperate. So hoteliers need to be clear in their purpose, making sure that the staff has buy-in from the beginning.
“Robots are not a replacement for staff, they are a tool that management has put in place to help them,” Inbar said.
Another important point for hoteliers is to choose the right robot for the environment.
“There is no one ‘best’ robot,” Inbar said. “Ninety-nine percent of our customers call us and say, ‘I want the best robot.’ Well, best for what? It’s important to understand what robots can do and what they cannot do.”
In such a dynamic environment, hoteliers need to be aggressive and keep up with the Jetsons.
“Don’t fall behind, because your competitors are already using robotics, and workers will go to where they can basically work less for the same pay,” Inbar said. “That’s the value proposition behind everything we are doing: Making sure that when we need to clean, it’s being cleaned; when we need to cook, it’s being cooked; and when we need to provide security, we’re providing security, regardless of the availability of labor across the board.”