Japan’s H.I.S. company has found its robot-staffed minimalist hotels so popular it plans to open 10 more of them over the next two years, including in major city locations.
The hotels, which feature robot receptionists (humanoid and lizardly, among other shapes), robot cleaning staff and carefully-monitored minimum use of water and power, go under the name of Henn-na Hotel, or ‘strange hotel.’
The three open so far have all been paired with theme parks. But their popularity, including with international visitors has prompted the company to put up an investment of around $270 million to open six new sites in Tokyo, starting in December, followed by one in Fukuoka, two in Osaka and one in Kyoto.
While it seems a novelty, it is also a necessity. Japan has an imploding population and doesn’t have enough workers to fill all its job requirements. Rather than import foreigners to do the work (aside from key spots like education), as the western countries are doing, they have decided to cope in their own way which includes more automation and increased use of robotics. They prefer to retain their nationality and culture more than they want the extra hands.
It will be interesting to see which of these two decision paths will turn out to be the correct one in the long run.