Robot Butlers now Helping out the Staff in High-Tech Hotels


BotlrAloft hotels will be employing a new type of help, a 3-foot tall cyber associate named A.L.O. Botlr, short for “robot butler”. Somewhere between Rosie from the Jetsons, R2-D2, and Wall-E stands the cuteness that is A.L.O. The bot is programmed to help hotel employees with anything from delivering amenities, to moving towels and linens from laundry room to guest rooms. Brian McGuiness is a global brand leader of specialty select brands for a parent company of Aloft. He sees Aloft as “looking to target the next-gen traveler, someone more technologically savvy” who would find Botlr fun and exciting.

Botlr1Yes, if you're wondering, he will in fact be wearing a butler uniform. Funny enough, items that need to be delivered to rooms are stored in a little compartment on top of A.L.O.'s cyber head. When a guest needs something, whether it's room service or toiletries, Botlr will call up the room's phone, or simply show up at their door and open the container on his head to display the items. The robot also has 4G and Wi-Fi connections so it can call elevators when it needs a ride to and fro.

Botlr2Pretty adorable is how A.L.O. accepts appreciation. Guests may try and give him a cash tip for his duties, but all Botlr asks for in return is a Tweet. Yep, Botlr hopes guests of Aloft will log onto Twitter to leave a note about their experience with him. He also has a 7-inch tablet display screen made for interacting with the guests and staff. On the screen, guests can give him a rating, and if he gets a high rating, he does a dance. According to McGuiness, guests who have interacted with A.L.O. during early testing have received him in a positive manner.

The first lucky Aloft location to introduce Botlr will be its high-tech location in Cupertino, California on August 20th for a pilot program. Aloft Cupertino has tested out other technological advancements such as smartphone check-in, and keyless entry. If successful, 100+ Aloft Hotels will have one to two Botlr bots as part of their staff. Although a sign of innovation and things to come, McGuiness promises these robots will not take the jobs out of the hands of any human employees.

Topics: Technology News Gadgets & Peripherals Inventions & Innovations

Join the conversation!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.