ROBOTS FILLING IN STAFFING SHORTAGES AT SOME CALI HOTELS WITH NO TIPS EXPECTED

SILICON VALLEY, California — Hotels, like restaurants, have been hard pressed to provide attentive service due to staffing shortages during the pandemic.

In Silicon Valley, robots are filling the gap to the surprise and delight of guests.

This is how the Radisson Sunnyvale is dealing with staffing shortages – A guest would like a soft drink delivered to the room. In the past, someone from the front desk or sometimes even the general manager might step up. Now, this robot, designed by Savioke in Campbell, will handle the task.

“They’re in this kind of crunch mode where the higher paid staff are filling in for things that frankly robots can do,” said Savioke CEO Steve Cousins.

The robot needs to be trained only once to navigate the lobby and hallways. It even has been adapted to call for an elevator. Once inside, it can press the destination floor.

Hotel corridors can be tricky to navigate, even for humans, with housekeeping carts and other guests.

So what happens when this robot comes, and someone is in the way? The robot is programmed to avoid obstacles, human or otherwise, so it will try to go around. If, as sometimes happens, a person is uncertain which direction to move and does a zig-zag, the robot reacts in a similar fashion, seeming to do a dance, even spinning around in search of a safer maneuver.

It’s that playful characteristic that makes the robot almost human.