Over the past few years, many hotels have been incorporating the use of robots. The Yotel in New York and the Henn na in Hotel Tokyo Ginza are only a few of the hotels that have introduced the use of robots. They are being used to assist hotels in serving their guests to the best of their ability while helping them with tasks such as room service, maintenance, and even checking in the guests of the hotels. Although they may seem to be very helpful, they are also very controversial for some who do not like the thought of having robots serve them.

One of the first hotels in the world to use robots was the Henn na Hotel in Tokyo, Japan, with them being used all around the hotel, replacing all of the employees. These new robots, although they may seem extremely useful, are replacing the jobs of many people. For example, the Henn na Hotel hired 250 robots in place of humans in 2015. With these changes, according to Business Insider, only 7% of people reported to be comfortable with the robots in the hotel, while 41% reported to be uncomfortable with them.

These robots are quite controversial since people do not know what they are doing with any information they might get. The robots could be equipped with cameras that have the ability to record people..

“I think it could be an invasion of privacy for some people. The robots could take be taking pictures or recording audio of people which wouldn’t be ok,” said junior Seth Lenhof. 

These changes in hotels can be helpful with jobs like room service, which may take a while for humans to do; however, they still may be done better by people. With the use of robots, room service might be easily accessible since specific robots can be doing specific tasks on each of the floors of the hotel. For example, one of them could be cleaning a room while  the other could bring food to guests who order it. Along with helping in the rooms of the hotels, the robots could also check the guests in at the front desks.

With these changes to hotels  comes controversy with how the robots would work and how they would interact with people. Many people prefer to have a human service them rather than a robot since the robot won’t provide the same experience as a person would. 

“I don’t believe robots should be in a hotel due to the fact that customer service and human interactions are very important to many. They are essential to people feeling secure in hotels and that they could have more confidence in the hotel,  ” said junior Emily Scoville.

Robots have been taking many hotels or even businesses by storm, replacing people who worked there previously. These robots, although may present many benefits to society with their advancement and helpfulness in the world, also present worries for people who do not believe or are comfortable with robots serving them.