"Mechanic yet somehow human"

September 8, 2018 10:53 AM

The English-speaking receptionist is a vicious-looking dinosaur, and the one speaking Japanese is a female humanoid with blinking lashes. “If you want to check in, push one,” the dinosaur says. The visitor still has to punch a button on the desk and type in information on a touch panel screen. From the front desk to the porter that is an automated trolley taking luggage to the room, this hotel in south-western Japan, aptly called Weird Hotel, is “manned” almost totally by robots to save labour costs. TripAdvisor rates it #1 of 5 Specialty lodging in Sasebo.
posted by Johnny Wallflower (22 comments total)

h/t Fizz
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 10:53 AM on September 8, 2018 [1 favorite]

My family owned and operated a hotel for 15+ years. If my dad had told me one day that I was being replaced at the front desk with a robot dinosaur, I wouldn't even be mad about it.
posted by Fizz at 11:10 AM on September 8, 2018 [25 favorites]

From one of the Trip Advisor Reviews:

“Upon arrival we realised this is really a hotel operated by robots and only robots. I was expecting at least 1 human receptionist but it is really what was shown on the website. We were checked in by the dinosaur. There was a mini robot Trolly which brought us to our rooms and carried our luggage. The rooms was a good size and was sufficient for 2 adults and 2 kids. The children really enjoyed giving commands to the toy robots in the room. The breakfast buffet at the restaurant was managed by humans and had a good breakfast spread. Overall the room seems rather overpriced. However, the children really loved the hotel and were fascinated by everything about the robots thus if you have kids that love robots, this is definitely worth the trip!”

:D
posted by Fizz at 11:16 AM on September 8, 2018 [5 favorites]

Sure, as long as it's cute who cares about people losing jobs? Kawaii makes even homelessness adorable.
posted by gusottertrout at 11:55 AM on September 8, 2018 [2 favorites]

Japan's population has been declining since 2011. The cultural context around job automation is completely different.
posted by J.K. Seazer at 12:26 PM on September 8, 2018 [14 favorites]

Yeah, Japan has an unemployment rate of 2.4% and a labor shortage.
posted by thefoxgod at 12:28 PM on September 8, 2018 [1 favorite]

Good to know. The response was to Fizz's comment which, as much as I like Fizz, struck me the wrong way since I do work in the hotel industry and don't find constant push to reduce labor all that enjoyable. While Japan's situation is different, automation won't simply stay there because of that difference, it'll be put to use wherever it shows a financial advantage over hiring humans as long as people accept it. So, yeah, this hotel alone is fine, but when I see something that paints my job as expendable, I'm not too keen on it.
posted by gusottertrout at 12:37 PM on September 8, 2018 [4 favorites]

Yep, fair enough. Its definitely something each society has different problems with (the more your well being is tied to your job, like in the US which has much less public services than Europe or Japan, the worse this can be, also). And even in Japan you could argue it will influence the national debate over immigration (which has very slightly opened up in the past few years due to the labor shortage). No one is likely to lose their job in Japan because of this), but in the long run it might have an effect on who lives there (especially for non "high skill" jobs/immigrants).
posted by thefoxgod at 12:41 PM on September 8, 2018 [1 favorite]

I was being a bit snarky gusottertrout, I apologize if it came across as insensitive. Your concerns about job security are valid and I'm glad you brought them up. It can definitely be a part of this conversation, as fun as dinosaur robots are, no one likes to lose their job or know they're replaceable. So thanks again for your comment.
posted by Fizz at 12:47 PM on September 8, 2018 [3 favorites]

Saw automation kill the boom in (Electronic) Tech jobs that all the community colleges were fueling grads into in the 70-80s. You'd see the constant adds about how it was a great job to get into. I learned it in the Military and joined the last wave of Techs hired by Tektronix before it really started to lose it. Went to school for Electrical Engineering (partially) to get out of that whole mess. Then after graduating watched *that* whole field get slammed as they moved manufacturing offshore. On my 3rd (4th?) "career" now. I expect a lot of the software field to get automated pretty soon.
posted by aleph at 1:01 PM on September 8, 2018 [5 favorites]

No need to apologize Fizz, it's just the awareness that the automation is coming, whether I like it or not, has me a little touchy on the subject since my situation isn't as adaptable as I'd like. If it comes down to it, I suppose I'd rather lose my job to animatronic dinosaur than a vending machine. That's something anyway.
posted by gusottertrout at 1:06 PM on September 8, 2018 [4 favorites]

One area on which Henn na Hotel still relies on humans is security. It is dotted with security cameras, and real people watch everything through a monitor to ensure guests are safe and no one gets makes out off with an expensive robot.
posted by The Card Cheat at 1:50 PM on September 8, 2018 [2 favorites]

Correction: to ensure guests are safe and no one gets makes out off out with an expensive robot.
posted by teraflop at 2:44 PM on September 8, 2018 [5 favorites]

I'd bet there's still a lot of maintenance, house-keeping, aforementioned security and dining, and a manager of sorts. Plenty of people doing the same thing they would be doing in a normal hotel. Just robot reception, mostly a gimmick, probably costs more than people to maintain. I doubt this seriously even falls into the realm of worker replacement in the greater scheme of things.
posted by zengargoyle at 2:57 PM on September 8, 2018 [2 favorites]

The article really makes it sound like this is an idea that's not ready for prime time yet. I think there are definitely some areas of staying at hotels that could be made more efficient and shouldn't actually need a human unless something has gone wrong. Like checking in and giving me a key. I don't think there's any actually good reason why that should take 15 minutes of watching someone peck at a computer for a completely uneventful and normal check in. I'm not saying it MUST be automated but it could really be made more efficient for the human operator. And I think a robot is a much more enjoyable interface than a kiosk screen if I had to choose. I also love the idea of a robot to carry my bags since we lost that service with the advent of rolling suitcases but I'm still often carrying a lot of heavy shit. But this idea still needs work.

I'm trying to think about a hotel room that had robotic housekeeping. Maybe a couple of robotic arms that came down out of the ceiling and had remote human operators to pick up trash and make the bed.
posted by bleep at 7:06 PM on September 8, 2018 [1 favorite]

Or a mechanical structure that rolled from room to room.
posted by bleep at 7:09 PM on September 8, 2018

And to be clear, in this future fanfic I'm writing, everyone employed as a housekeeper now is off living their best life being happy and prosperous in some other way instead of picking up trash for tourists. Perhaps picking up trash for their loved ones in a way that makes them happy, if that's what they like doing.
posted by bleep at 7:10 PM on September 8, 2018 [1 favorite]

I've stayed here. It's a really lovely hotel but there's no chance the concept will spread. There's quite a number of people working there but they're mostly kept hidden, and if anything the automation of the hotel is of a sort that exists a lot of other places too. You book your room online, enter your details when you arrive to receive your key, carry your own luggage to your lodgings. That's a lot of hotels these days, and most AirBnB stays. There are vending machines that sell hot meals but there's also a damn fine restaurant next door that's staffed by breathing types. The immaculate gardens aren't maintained by bots, and the rooms aren't cleaned by them either.
Essentially the robots are there to perform, rather than do anything useful. That said, it is a really charming hotel despite the droids and is situated in a fascinating part of Japan, even if it is seriously remote. It's also super cheap and kids would love it.
Side note: what's rarely mentioned is that it's bolted onto the edge of one of the strangest theme parks around - an utterly immense Japanese rendering of a colonial Dutch city. If I recall correctly a local billionaire created it as his pet project and I can't overstate how epic and over the top the place is. Do an image search for "Huis Ten Bosch" (the park name) to get a sense.
posted by Oscar Snubs at 7:27 PM on September 8, 2018 [9 favorites]

I went to Huis Ten Bosch after hearing about it on a MetaFilter. It was the highlight of our trip to Japan, which is saying a lot because we had an enormous amount of fun everywhere we went.

The article linked from that MeFi post remains one of my all time favourite pieces of internet writing. I revisit it at least once a year.

Sadly we were there before the robot hotel was built. Two of my friends have since visited and stayed in that hotel and confirmed that it is indeed delightfully weird (even if the robots are clearly more for performance than actual utility).
posted by simonw at 10:15 PM on September 8, 2018 [2 favorites]

This looks cool and fun and if I ever go back to Japan I will try to go. But I have stayed in plenty of love hotels where there was no human interaction whatsoever. I frankly wouldn't be surprised if there was one out there with animatronic dinosaurs designed for guests to make out with. In the disco-light bathtub. With a Polaroid camera to capture the moment for posterity.
posted by Hal Mumkin at 5:02 AM on September 9, 2018 [2 favorites]

Why do the robots speak different languages? Presumably there's no technical reason that the dinosaur robot can't speak Japanese and the humanoid one can't speak English.
posted by LiteOpera at 4:24 AM on September 11, 2018

It's a union thing, apparently.

[fake]
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 2:20 PM on September 11, 2018