HOTELS & HOSPITALITY
THE FUTURE OF HOTEL CLEANING?
Hotels around the globe are turning to AI and technology to fulfil various cleaning tasks. Does this mean the industry is about to be revolutionised by robots? Or will there still be a place for the human hotel housekeeper? Jeremy Bennett from Tork manufacturer Essity gives his views.
A Chinese company has just unveiled a humanoid cleaning robot that has been purpose-built for the hospitality industry.
The Zerith H1 is said to be able to tackle everything from cleaning the showers, toilets and sinks in the hotel bathrooms to vacuuming rooms and restocking amenities.
Manufacturer Zerith Robotics claims its invention, which can also stoop to pick up items from the guest room floor and organise footwear in a shoe rack, is an AI-powered fix for an industry that has been dogged with staff shortages and rising operational costs.
Meanwhile, the owner of the Premier Inn chain has announced that it will use robot vacuums from now on to clean hotel rooms in a bid to offset rising employment costs. Owners Whitbread claim the automation of some cleaning tasks is essential and will form part of a £50m cost-saving programme on its part.
So, are robots - and technology in general - the future of hotel cleaning? Or will there still be a place for humans?
Robots are by no means a recent introduction to the hotel sector. In 2015, one Japanese hotel decided to make the groundbreaking move of staffing its property almost entirely with robots.
Guests at the Henn-ah Hotel in Nagasaki were greeted by automatons when they checked in and were allotted their own in-room robot concierge. And the majority
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of cleaning, vacuuming and portering duties were also carried out by machines.
In the same year, international hotel chain Crowne Plaza piloted a delivery robot at its Silicon Valley property in the US. This three-foot tall machine named Dash was used for delivering towels, amenities and various room service items to guest rooms. And it was able to navigate between floors, operate lifts and communicate with guests via a digital touch screen on its ‘face’.
Since then there has been a quiet robot revolution in practically every area of the hotel. Automated ‘chefs’ with articulated arms are increasingly being used in hotel kitchens to carry out repetitive actions such as chopping, stirring and assembling ingredients, for example.
Some of these machines incorporate sensors and cameras that gather data about the food to be cooked, recording details such as the temperature and colour of the dish being prepared. They can also be programmed to follow specific recipes.
Robot servers are also being deployed in hotel restaurants around the world to supplement humans as staff shortages continue to bite. For example, the BellaBot from Chinese manufacturer Pudu is said to be capable of navigating its way around a restaurant, avoiding obstacles and interacting with guests as it does so.
However, in a less high-profile context, cleaning machines have quietly been entering the hotel kitchen as well.
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