Japan’s Robot Hotel Has Velociraptor Receptionist

Why open a hotel staffed almost exclusively by robots, with a Velociraptor behind the reception desk? Because Japan, of course. Henn na, or Weird Hotel in English, uses automated systems and human-like automatons – plus one dinosaur-shaped one – to fulfil the needs of its guests. The Velociraptor, donned with the same uniformed hat as the other “staff members”, tells new guests, “If you want to check in, push one.”

The hotel’s owner, Hideo Sawada, insists that the robotic workers are more than just a gimmick, and that the endeavour is an effort to reduce costs and increase efficiency. “I wanted to highlight innovation,” Sawada said, during the hotel’s opening on Wednesday. “I also wanted to do something about hotel prices going up.”

A night’s stay at the Weird Hotel costs a very reasonable 9,000 yen ($80), which is about three times less than the average Japanese hotel.

Despite mechanoids taking over the majority of tasks usually assigned to humans, there are still some jobs that a robot can’t do. “They still can’t make beds,” Sawada laments.

Sawada has plans to turn Henn na into a franchise; a second Japanese hotel, followed by a global expansion. In the meantime, he is keen to test different languages, such as Mandarin and Korean on the first hotel’s foreign visitors.

Thank you The Guardian for providing us with this information.