Nagasaki's robot-staffed Henn na Hotel gets Guinness nod

"Henn na Hotel," or "strange hotel" in Japanese, in the Huis Ten Bosch theme park in Sasebo, Nagasaki Prefecture, has been recognized by Guinness World Records as "the first robot-staffed hotel" in the world, the theme park operator said Thursday. "Our hotel will keep on moving with the evolution of robots and artificial intelligence, aiming to entertain our guests better and make them happy," Hideo Sawada, president of the operator under the wing of major travel agency H.I.S. Co., said at a news conference in Tokyo. "We want to boost the number of this kind of hotel to 100 over three to five years, including those abroad and under franchise," Sawada, who doubles as H.I.S. chairman, added. Henn na Hotel, which opened in July 2015, has 144 rooms, and 186 robots are working there, including multilingual receptionists and porters. The cumulative number of guests at the hotel stood at some 78,000 as of the end of October.