Doing some interesting research for an upcoming report on intelligent hotels. While reading about Aloft’s Botlr and Crown Plaza’s Dash, as well as Japan’s robot oriented hotel, I came across Savioke.  Both Dash and Botlr were built by Savioke, which is based in Santa Clara.

In a recent Hospitality Technology article, Savioke describes itself as a “”Robot as a Service (RaaS)’ company that is leading the market in autonomous delivery robots, starting with the hospitality industry. Savioke further plans to revolutionize the way things move in hotels, elder care facilities, hospitals, restaurants… anywhere people sleep or eat.”

Will robotics increase the productivity of the hospitality industry? I believe it is a complementary activity, providing a faster level of service than throwing more manpower at non value added positions.  Just like the PC became a tool to improve productivity, becoming a gateway to another way of working, the robot as a service delivery mechanism enables new models of customer service. And this may change how we perceive customer service as a whole.

One of the pictures shown in the advertisement is a woman in her bathrobe getting something delivered by the robot.   Not having to worry about what you are wearing to get service is one comfort, I suppose.  😉