Crowne Plaza Hotel in San Jose-Silicon Valley has a new recruit: a robot for your room service! While robot butlers are common and widely popular in Japan, Crowne Plaza's android is among the first to be used in the hospitality sector. Aloft Hotels will reportedly also start using robots to do human tasks.
According to Daily Mail, the robots are created by Savioke. In Crowne Plaza, the robot is called Dash, an android that's three feet tall and weighs less than 100 pounds. Dash is in charge of room service, specifically the delivery of hotel guests' requested items. When not in use, it charges itself at the station in the hotel.
Gina LaBarre, vice president of Americas Brand Management, Crowne Plaza Hotels & Resorts, IHG, sees the android as a positive addition to the hotel. "Given the hotel's location in the heart of Silicon Valley, I expect our guests to be impressed by the technological sophistication of the robot," she said.
The hotel is yet to test and observe the robot to determine whether more units will be rolled out in other properties or not.
Savioke CEO Steve Cousins, meanwhile, said that he is hoping for a positive response from hotel guests and staff about the firm's robot technology, which is designed to provide assistance to people. "We make robots that can move around by themselves in human spaces and help people out," he said, as quoted by Bring Me The News.
In line with the news, Aloft Hotels also announced its very own robot dubbed Botlr (for robotic butler). Their specific robot is named A.L.O.
Just like Dash from Crowne Plaza, A.L.O. is in charge of delivering items to the hotel rooms. The robot will have its own uniform and name tag, and the guests' tweets will serve as its tips. The android is set to make its first appearance in the hotel on August 20.
"We are thrilled to introduce our robot to the world today through our relationship with Aloft Hotels. We've also seen the front desk get busy at times, and expect Botlr will be especially helpful at those times, freeing up human talent to interact with guests on a personal level."
Watch the robot butler in action below.
Source: YouTube/Dale Houghton Jr
