23 FEB 2017: When I watched Doctor Who on TV as a kid, I used to think that the supposed-to-be-scary Daleks were somewhat silly and contrived … how I wondered could any evil empire hope to conquer the planet with an army of robotic warriors that could only move on hard, flat surfaces? When negotiating a six-inch roadside curb is a challenge, what price getting through a forest or crossing a desert?
Well the next generation of Daleks is staging an unlikely return – on the more friendly terrain of carpeted hotel corridors. In this incarnation however they are disarmed, have been stripped of the scary monotone voice and are altogether much better natured.
At the Americas Lodging Investment Summit (ALIS) in Los Angeles earlier this month robots were a hot topic. Panelists on the subject enthusiastically predicted that within as little as five years, hotel guests will no longer be surprised when an R2D2 lookalike rolls up to their door with breakfast, drinks or that forgotten toothbrush.
Needless to say, as with just about every technology-inspired innovation cost reduction is very much the name of the game: Service robots simply don’t cost as much as humanoids.
The leader in the robotic butler field seems to be the California-based technology company Savioke. Their ‘Relay’ model – which first appeared as a ‘BOTLR’ at select Aloft properties in 2014 – cannot be purchased but leases for around $2,000 a month.
The math is simple: When using a $10.00 or $11.00-an-hour plus benefits human being for relatively menial tasks such as room service delivery, $2,000 buys you maybe 160 hours a month. That same $2,000 for a droid on the other hand gets you a 23/7 service vehicle (allowing one hour off per day for recharging) that doesn’t expect overtime pay, doesn’t call in sick, doesn’t unionize, is never rude to guests and doesn’t scream and drop the tray when a guest answers the door ‘au naturale’.
Of course when discussing such things, hoteliers have to tread warily for fear of upsetting their labour relations apple carts. As one ALIS panelist, Robert Alter of Seaview Investors put it, “We feel that it pays for itself, more from a guest-satisfaction standpoint than from labour savings.” Seaview has used a Relay robot at his company’s LAX, Residence Inn for the past 18 months and found them to be a popular novelty with guests.
At the conference one hotelier using the robotic labourers for room service even claimed that the little fellows were so popular that using them has increased his revenue per available room by “at least 0.5%.” The explanation offered for this less than spectacular increase was that guests are so intrigued by the robots that they order more often from room service. The extension to this “keep the unions happy” argument being that, rather than taking jobs away, robots will attract more guests and they will have to hire more workers to handle the rush. Hmmm!
A more viable argument for substituting robotics for people might have been the one proffered by the manager of the M Social Hotel in Singapore, a city where there is already a very real shortage of people prepared to work in “dull, low-paid hotel jobs.” As with every industrial revolution going back to the 1800’s, this is another instance of certain jobs being displaced by advances in automation rather than lost to it.
Current international trends affecting the free-flow of migrant labour may also play into the argument for automating certain hospitality industry jobs.
According to an Association of British Travel Agents study on the subject, in London as many as 70% of jobs in the travel and tourism sector depend on migrant labor. If expected Brexit-driven immigration tightening severely impedes or eliminates access to this labour force and hotels are forced to pay higher wages to locals, then droids may rapidly become an appealing alternative.
Based on eerily similar immigration scenario, one has to wonder if Trump Hotels in the US might be the first to encounter this, “where did all the workers go?” situation? “Poetic justice” is the phrase that springs to mind!
Before we are tripping over swarms or hotel bots however, a more practicable use of technology comes (yet again) from Marriott’s – formerly Starwood’s – Aloft group.
This time it’s the familiar silky voice of Apple’s Siri that is waiting to improve guests’ in-room experience. To date four Aloft hotels have enlisted Siri’s voice-activated services giving guests the ability to turn specific lights on or off, adjust the temperature settings, play the music of their choice or even get concierge-like advice on nearby attractions, bars, restaurants etc. As a frequent-stayer bonus, Starwood Preferred Guest (SPG) members can even use their Apple Watches to unlock their doors.
Of course the ultimate technology advance in travel is still a long ways off. While Siri and Alexa may be the first Goddesses of voice-activated hotel rooms, my dream is getting out of my driverless car in front of the hotel and simply saying, “Beam me up Scotty.”