Robot Hotel Loses Love for Robots

Turns out, robots aren't the best at hospitality. After opening in a blaze of publicity in 2015, Japan's Henn na, or "Strange," Hotel, recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records as the world's first robot hotel, is now laying off its low-performing droids. So far, the hotel has culled over half of its 243 robots, many because they created work rather than reduced it. "It's easier now that we're not being frequently called by guests to help with problems with the robots," said one staff member who has worked at the hotel for three years. Robots and other devices that could be useful to the hospitality industry were all over the CES consumer-technology show last week in Las Vegas. Self-driving shuttle buses can move visitors around; a Lenovo Smart Clock with a built-in Google assistant can turn the lights on or read you a bedtime story; and a delivery robot called Segway-Ninebot Loomo Delivery can zip goods around a building complex.