Technology enters room service
Aloft Hotels in Savioke, California is trialling a 1m high robot called Botlr as a concierge replacement.
On August 20, the Aloft hotel will begin testing this robotic bellhop, a wheeled service vehicle designed to shuttle items from the hotel lobby desk to guest rooms.
In a hotel lobby across the street from Apple’s corporate campus, a hotel clerk places a razor in the bin of the robot and taps in a room number on a display. The robot totters off to an elevator and its room destination.
Aloft insist that they are not interested in automation as a labor-saving tool. They say they are simply polishing the small hotel chain’s tech-embracing brand while hoping to add some efficiency.
“I see this as an enhancement to our customer service,” said Brian McGuinness, Starwood Hotels’ senior vice president for its Specialty Select brands that include the 100 Aloft hotels expected to be opened in 14 countries by next year. “It’s not going to be a replacement for our human talent.”
Starwood uses the Aloft hotel near the Apple campus as a test bed for the technology-oriented hotel chain’s newest gadgets and services. They experiment with things like easy ways to get digital content from your smart phone and tablet onto your hotel room’s television screen. And, of course, you can unlock the door of your hotel room with an app on your smart phone.
