Japan seems intent on cornering the market of robot hotels, with Henn-na Hotel set to open yet another location–this time near Tokyo’s Disney Resort.
Quoting a report in the Japan-based daily The Asahi Shimbun, TravelPulse reports that the new hotel will open in March 2017.
The first one opened to the general public in July 2015 in Nagasaki with about 20 human staff working to assist the robots. The new location is expected to reduce the overall human workforce to just six.
The report continues that Huis Ten Bosch Inc., the company that runs the hotels, is not content to merely have a couple of robot hotels in the area.
A third installation is expected to open at some point in the summer of next year in Aichi while a fourth is planned in Osaka later in 2017.
Huis Ten Bosch President Hideo Sawada explains there is more value at work than technology.
“Both Tokyo and Osaka continue to experience a lack of hotel accommodations. The hotels are sure to be a big success, as they will be installed near outstanding theme parks,” he said.
The original hotel has some of the world’s oddest front-desk staff in the form of an animatronic velociraptor, along with an eerily human-looking android, all of which speak multiple languages.
In addition to the check-in assistants, automated bag-carrying bellhops take luggage to the guests’ rooms, while a heavy duty servo-arm deals with the cloakroom.
The robot dinosaurs will feature prominently at the second hotel, the report says.
