Facial recognition is coming to hotels. I stayed at Alibaba's hotel of the future

Along the hallways are refrigerators stocked with drinks and snacks. But unlike most vending machines, customers use the Alipay app to unlock the door of the fridge. When an item is removed, the refrigerator automatically detects what's taken out and the customer is charged within seconds of the fridge door closing. But don't expect to see Alibaba roll out more properties like Flyzoo. The company is using the hotel as a test bed for the technology that it hopes to license to companies such as Marriott International.