Applications of Robot Staff in Hotels

摘要

Service robots are being increasingly employed as hotel staff in the hotel industry. This study explored how hotels can better use and implement service robots for their operation. Four hotels using robots as their staff are chosen as examples for investigating what positions the robot staff do and the comments from customers. It was found that the acceptance of robots in delivering transfer services (eg. Carrying luggage, delivering room service, etc.) are higher than when they provide services at the front desk. These results demonstrated that customers have expectations in engaging with heartwarming interaction with staff when they stay in the hotel, which the robot staff are not providing such interaction in current technology. Therefore, it is suggested that the hotels can arrange the robot staff with the position that do not interact with customers in the current stage. The robot staff can assist the human staff in providing service until they can develop a sophisticated system in two-way interaction.