Dinosaur receptionists were on standby on Wednesday as a second hotel staffed mostly by robots and automatons opened in Tokyo.
Media were invited ahead of customers to check out the nine types of robots that help check guests in, clean the lobby, and entertain guests. Humans staff are available and help maintain the 140 automatons on site.
The first ‘Henn-na hotel,’ which literally means “strange hotel” in Japanese, opened in Nagasaki in 2015 and was recognized as “the first robot-staffed hotel” in the world by Guinness World Records.
This second hotel, operated by low-cost travel agent H.I.S., has opened very close to Tokyo Disney Resort, a top Japanese tourist destination.
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Manager Yukio Nagai says the ‘hen’ in the hotel’s name which means strange in Japanese can also mean change, and illustrates the hotel’s potential to evolve.
The hotel main evolving attraction, he added, is the AI robots in every room.
When the hotel first opened in 2015, 30 humans were still needed to check the grounds and maintain the robots. That has been now cut down to only seven in each hotel now.
Hideo Sawada, CEO of low-cost travel agent H.I.S. insists he will take this business model global.
Room rates begin at 14,000 Yen ($122 USD) for two people per night.
The third Henn-na hotel is scheduled to open this summer in central Japan.