Hotel Opening In Japan To Be Staffed By Multilingual Robots

A hotel will soon open in the Netherlands-themed Huis Ten Bosch amusement park in Nagasaki, Japan. It will have 72 rooms with fees starting at $60 per night. And it will be staffed by 10 humanoid robots.

The hotel’s blinking and “breathing” robots will be able to make eye contact, respond to body language, and speak fluent Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and English. They will check in guests, carry bags, make coffee, clean rooms, and deliver laundry.

How much do you tip a robot?

The robot staff will be assisting a human staff person for now. At a news conference in Japan, Huis Ten Bosch president Hideo Sawada said, “In the future, we’d like to have more than 90 percent of hotel services operated by robots. Guests will be able to unlock their rooms through facial recognition software, and radiation panels capable of detecting body heat will monitor and adjust room temperatures. The hotel is scheduled to open July 17, 2015.