Autonomous floor scrubbers are increasingly being used to deep clean large industrial kitchen premises and food preparation areas after hours to remove the grease, oil and other debris that inevitably accumulates during busy service periods.


Spot-cleaning robots such as the SH1 from Pudu are also being employed to quickly clean up splashes and spills. And disinfection robots using UV-light are being brought in to santise high touch surfaces and tiled floors.


Meanwhile, technology is being used to ensure that hotel washrooms are kept clean, hygienic and well stocked at all times as well. Essity’s own digital solution - Tork Vision Cleaning – enables cleaners to monitor washrooms remotely. They are able to check footfall and dispenser status via a smartphone or tablet so that they will know in advance when a facility is likely to need a service or when one of the dispensers is running empty. And this removes the need for them to make multiple journeys to public washrooms, saving time and cutting costs.


This type of data-driven cleaning solution can reduce the number of cleaning hours required by at least 20% and eliminate an average of 24% of rounds. It can also ensure that dispensers are full and ready to use 99% of the time.


So, is technology the future of hotel management? And as staff shortages continue to bite, will there still be a place for humans in tomorrow’s hotels?


Technology is developing at a rapid pace and is likely to become much more sophisticated in the future. But at the moment, housekeeping robots still have difficulty in coping with unexpected messes and complex room layouts.


And those early models were not without their problems, either: the robot cleaners and porters at the Henn-na Hotel in Japan would frequently become stuck in corridors when trying to pass each other, while the animatronic receptionists were unable to photocopy guests’ passports which meant humans were often obliged to step in. And


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the personal concierges in people’s rooms would mistake the sound of snoring for commands and would wake the guests frequently during the night to ask them what they wanted. Around half the robot staff members were quietly replaced by humans a few years after the concept began.


Meanwhile, the Crowne Plaza chain shelved its own Dash delivery robot after the 2015 trial and the company no longer uses machines for delivering room service items.


There is also an argument that robots are currently too expensive for a full rollout to be viable for most hotel companies. Each Zenith H1 is currently priced at more than £10,000, for example, and this represents a huge investment for a hotel chain which would require a fleet of machines.


And the fact that the service industry is all about people means that many hotel guests actually enjoy making human connections. A friendly smile from a member of the housekeeping staff can lift the mood and improve one’s day much more effectively than a pre-programmed greeting from a robot.


It will take a while for people to be perfectly at ease with technology, it seems. A study carried out by Boutique Hotelier in 2023 revealed that 61% of hotel guests had had positive experiences with service robots while 28.5% were uncomfortable around them.


Experts currently believe that robots will increasingly be deployed to take on the more repetitive hotel jobs such as restocking toiletries, cleaning floors and sanitising showers while humans will be used for more valuable tasks that focus on detailed cleaning.


Humans will remain an important part of the hotel workforce – and their jobs will be enhanced by those technological innovations that make light of back-breaking tasks and that allow them to stay ahead of the game.


www.torkglobal.com TOMORROW’S FM | 25


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