Impacts Of Robotic Technology In Hotel Industry

Selection of technology that will affect the hotel industry

Robotic technology is one of the most significant technologies that is anticipated to impact the hotel industry in the coming years. The robots are currently the helpers in the hospitality industry, particularly in the hotels and restaurants in developed nations. A spectrum of countries such as Japan is relying on robots that can provide service operations in hotels (Murphy, 2017), providing their value in the restaurant sector along with meal preparation and taking orders including delivery of orders of foods to respective hotel customers, thereby becoming a growing trend in the industry. The technology is at its escalation stage, whereby the majority of the companies in the sector have acknowledged their cost-effectiveness to build the robot (Gretzel, 2017). On the other hand, the tool is currently attaining cultural acceptance among multiple entities, where individuals have accepted robots to work and live with humans. In that regard, it is anticipated that in the coming years, robotic technology will be typical to every organization, particularly in the hotel industry, where they will be employed to execute all human operation in the institution (Gretzel, 2017). Significantly, such a take will impact the human employment level, but more benefits will be accorded to the organization.

In the year 1920, two brothers; Karel and Josef Capek came up with the word robot when they were in the process of their play of the artificial creature that they had created. In the year 1944, other scientists such as Isaac Asimov opted to expand on the coined robotic for his personal use. Later in years, the term robotic became famous in his books (Kuo, 2017). However, the father of mechanical engineering; Archytas constructed his first bird through the use of wood and used steam to drive the robot. The Harvard community currently own robotic technology, and soon, the technique will be applied in almost all sectors of the world economy, thereby replacing human work. Additionally, engineers along with other scientist are looking forward to creating robots that could meet all human requirements, either in homesteads along with working environments (Kuo, 2017). The ideas will be adopted and get embraced by every firm due to their efficiency when executing various operations in the company, mainly in the hotel industry. Notably, advancement in technology and all other factors of production will rely on the help of robotic technology in the coming years (Kuo, 2017), which will make work easy for people.

How robotic technology will impact the hospitality industry

In the next 5-10 years, robotic technology is anticipated to affect the hotel industry by doubling the number of people who will be assisted by the technology. It is essential to note that service robots that are meant to deliver service in hotel rooms, cleaning of hotels along with providing entertainment to children will become familiar soon (Ivanov & Webster, 2017). Report from Silicon Valley says that the role of robots that have been associated with doing dirty works in the past, helping people to do various jobs in insecure places, will soon change. In the coming years, such approaches will shift people to start making use of robots differently. In 5 years’ time, organizations such as the hotel industry and other people will change, where robots will be used in the hotel industry to give direction to customers, clean places in the hotel (Ivanov & Webster, 2017), carry bags from one area to another and also do some low-level tasks that could free up the hotel staff, who will be expected to spend much of their time to assist customers in the hotel.

On the other hand, the hospitality industry will be pioneering for the human-robot interaction. For instance, in the assembly industries along with factories, which are majorly kept in the cages and caves for safety, which train technicians, the hotel industry will have a different approach. In this industry, restaurants and other hotels will use the robots efficiently and will provide safety for everyone (Ivanov, 2018). The application of robots in this sector are expected to be approachable and also non-scaring to people and will give help to management for servicing their customers. Further, robotic technology will impact hotel industry in a manner that they will communicate to all customers concerning what they are doing and also what they are expected to do, thereby making people get excited (Chung & Cakmak, 2018). In that regard, the current hospitality robots will be fundamental for future designs concerning the technology, mainly collaborative robots will get applied in human environments. Besides, scientists in the future will learn which robot features can appeal to people in the hotel industry and also get to identify which of them that make people feel uncomfortable (Chung & Cakmak, 2018). As such, they will be in a position to build and create robots that have proper size, shape, good sound, better movement and those with better personalities that appeal to people. In that view, the best robot designs will encompass some psychological principals that will enhance success in the long run.

Positive and negative impacts of robotic technology in the hotel industry

In the future, robots will have a positive effect on guest experience in the hospitality industry. Due to an escalation of telephone technology, phone applications, and touch screen computers, robotic revolution is also rising, and customers could wish to have a faster and friendly approach to get services in the hotel (Ivanov, 2018). Guests also need information and answers at the click of their button. Another area that robotic technology will have an impact is in the check-in and out for customer experience. In the future, a significant number of hotels will not have a choice but to replace personal front desk staff with robots, because they are believed to provide excellent services to various customers in the industry. All visitors can have opportunities to check-in and check-out all their requirements as robots will be available to respond to their concerns (Ivanov, 2018). As a result, it enables individuals and customers to have good interaction with the machine, thereby archiving and obtaining their desired goals for satisfaction. 

On the contrary, expansion, and use of robots in any particular organization will automatically replace human workforce, thereby creating unemployment in any given economy. In that case, the hospitality industry will experience similar challenges where the majority of workers will lose jobs if robots will get embraced to execute operations that they were doing. For instance, if hotel starts using robots to serve their customers in the hotel, make deliveries on the orders made and also prepare meals as per the customer requirements (Chung & Cakmak, 2018), millions of job opportunities will be lost, as the owners of the business will find the effectiveness of using robotic technology as compared to human efforts. On the other hand, some customers will get a negative experience when interacting with the robots. In that regard, the aspect will discourage the majority of customers who will tend to avoid all those firms that use robots to achieve their objectives. Significantly, incorporating robots in small hotels in the industry will be ineffective as they will require high costs of capital to install the technology (Chung & Cakmak, 2018). In that regard, robotic technology may not be the best to use in the hotel industry, as it will adversely affect employees in the industry.

References

Chung, M. J. Y., & Cakmak, M. (2018). Exploring the Use of Robots for Gathering Customer Feedback in the Hospitality Industry.

Gretzel, U., Murphy, J., & Hofacker, C. (2017, May). Service Robots in Hospitality and Tourism: Investigating Anthropomorphism. In 15th APacCHRIE Conference (Vol. 31).

Ivanov, S. H., & Webster, C. (2017). Designing robot-friendly hospitality facilities.

Ivanov, S., Webster, C., & Bezerina, K. (2018). Adoption of robots and service automation by tourism and hospitality companies. Revista Turismo & Desenvolvimento, 1(27/28), 1501-1517.

Kuo, C. M., Chen, L. C., & Tseng, C. Y. (2017). Investigating an innovative service with hospitality robots. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 29(5), 1305-1321.

Murphy, J., Hofacker, C., & Gretzel, U. (2017). Dawning of the age of robots in hospitality and tourism: Challenges for teaching and research. European Journal of Tourism Research, 15, 104-111.