The next time you order room service from a hotel, your order could be delivered by a robot. A startup company called Savioke in San Jose, California has created a delivery robot to integrate at hotels nationwide. The robot is called Relay.
Relay robots are being installed or used at more than 70 hotels nationwide. At Rising Start Sports Resort in Mesquite, Nevada, a Relay robot named Champ is helping staff out delivering food to guests.
Cassandra Cousineau, the Director of Communications at Rising Star says, “it is definitely a unique experience to be working at a facility that offers this to guests as a means of guest services.”
Savioke designed the robot to help staff, but never to replace one of their positions. It’s more about the overall guest experience, than it is saving hotels money.
Cousineau says, the kids love Champ. “They see Champ and they are curious. So, Champ is very friendly and allows them to actually inspect him and Champ can walk with them to a room or he delivers things to a room.”
As for the staff at Rising Star, they were surprised at how easy Champ was to use.
Front desk manager Lili Cortez says, “When we’re super busy you put it in, you don’t have to worry about it. And he comes right back.”
Many people believe robots will take over our jobs, but Cousineau says not in the hospitality industry.
“I think most hotels that specialize in guest services because that is how we survive that the human interaction is mission critical. So, people will always be interacting with people.”
Although Champ doesn’t replace any staff member at Rising Star, they look at him as their resort mascot.
