A life-size reconstitution of a Dutch town, the Huis Ten Bosch theme park in Japan will soon welcome a new hotel with a somewhat different reception desk. On arrival, the customers will not talk to humans, but robots. The future reception staff of the Henna-na Hotel, which should open its doors in July 2015, will be composed of 10 humanoid robots, states a press release from the Japanese tourist office.
They will be responsible for welcoming customers for their check-in, cleaning rooms and taking luggage to the bedrooms. Access to the rooms will no longer need a magnetic card or a key, but will be by facial recognition. In addition, Hideo Sawada, the park director claims that in the future the company hopes that "90% of the hotel's services will be carried out by robots". Hiring robots is slowly becoming democratised in Japan, as shown by the 1,000 Pepper robots that act as salespeople in Japanese Nescafé stores.
* Photos from the See Japan site
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