A California hotel introduced a new bell hop on Tuesday: meet A.L.O, the industry's first robot butler.
Shortened to Botlr, the high tech hospitality technology will ferry amenities from the front desk of the Aloft in Cupertino to any of its 150 rooms in just three minutes or less.
The Starwood company is using its Silicon Valley location as a test bed for the the speedy R2D2-like drone.
'As soon as A.L.O. entered the room, we knew it was what we were looking for. A.L.O. has the work ethic of Wall-E, the humor of Rosie from The Jetsons and reminds me of my favorite childhood robot, R2-D2.' Brian McGuinness of Starwood’s Specialty Select Brands said in a press release Tuesday.
The 3-foot tall robot, made by the firm Savioke, features a smart vinyl collar and even a name tag.
While running everything from razors to mail to Aloft guests, A.L.O. moves at a fast clip of up to 4mph.
Meanwhile, Savioke says it manuevers through elevators and communicates easily with guests and staff.
'All of us at Savioke have seen the look of delight on those guests who receive a room delivery from a robot,' said Steve Cousins, CEO of Savioke.
Starwood and Savioke hope to use the robot as a way to funnel existing human staff toward more sensitive tasks rather than a death knell for bellhops.
With the delivery complete, the robot then asks for a review. If the guest inputs a positive remark on the built-in screen, the robot does a happy dance.
The accomplished drone then zips back to the elevator, sends a message instead of hitting the down button and returns to the lobby where it plugs itself in and awaits a new task.
According to the New York Times, the robot will arrive to guests' doors soon after they put in a request and will automatically place a call to the room instead of knocking.
When the robot's sensors indicate the door has opened, it lifts its storage bin lid to reveal the requested item.
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