A New Cast of Characters at the Hotel Show: Service Robots
Amid labor shortages and public health challenges, hotels are increasingly turning to robots to support their operations. These AI-powered service providers fill crucial roles, especially in housekeeping and customer service, where human resources are limited. They provide round-the-clock service, maintain high cleanliness standards, and help enhance the overall guest experience.
A hotel is like a theater, where each guest is the star of their own show and the hotel staff is the supporting cast, working tirelessly behind the scenes to ensure that every moment is a memorable one. However, making sure that everything goes off without a hitch is increasingly difficult for hotels in the face of lingering labor shortages and public health and safety concerns. To make sure the show goes on, hotels are writing robots into the script to fill talent gaps, rev up revenue, inspire rave reviews, and enhance operations.
Hotels deploy service robots for different reasons, sometimes novelty and sometimes necessity. For luxury hotels, robots provide high-end guests with an elite experience. But, for limited- and select-service hotels where convenience must remain king, robots have become mission critical.
The Hotel Yearbook Technology 2023
The 2024 edition of "The Hotel Yearbook (HYB) Technology," curated by EHL's Ian Millar, offers a comprehensive outlook on the emerging technology trends and innovations poised to shape the global hotel industry. It amalgamates insights from a multitude of industry thought leaders, spotlighting key foresight in several tech-oriented fields. This includes anticipated evolutions in the future tech stack, which will drive operational efficiencies, the 'human stack' that explores the intersection of human resources and technology, and the application of Generative AI in creating novel customer experiences. Overall, this HYB edition serves as an essential guide for understanding how technology and innovation will redefine the industry landscape.