OK, so it’s not quite the Henn na Hotel in Japan that’s completely staffed by robots, but a Silicon Valley hotel is turning to robots to try to improve the guest experience – and maybe impress them as well.
The Crowne Plaza San Jose-Silicon Valley is now using a delivery robot from Savioke, which it’s calling Dash, to provide quick delivery of snacks, toothbrushes and other amenities to hotel guests.
“Typically in the middle of the night there’s one person on staff, so they’re stuck at the desk,” says Savioke CEO Steve Cousins. “Now, all of a sudden, the hotel can offer a delivery service that they couldn’t afford to offer before.”
Approximately 3-feet tall and weighing less than 100 pounds, Dash is designed to travel at a human walking pace and can independently navigate between floors, even calling the hotel elevator using Wi-Fi.
Dash is Savioke’s latest version of its autonomous delivery service, featuring automatic docking, improved autonomy, and an all new design. When Dash arrives at your hotel room, it calls you to tell you it arrived, delivers your order, does a victory dance, and then returns to its charging station in the hotel lobby.
“With more than 300 guest rooms, this is the largest hotel to use our robot technology, and as Dash becomes a fixture at the hotel, we look to hearing some great stories from guests and staff alike,” Cousins says.
Based on how the testing goes at this hotel, the Crowne Plaza brand will determine whether or not to roll out the robot at other properties.
Here’s another video from NBC News showing Dash in action.
