NOT YOUR AVERAGE HOTEL STAY

     Everyone likes to stay at a nice and clean hotel when they are on vacation, right? Would you trust a hotel that was run solely by robots? You're probably going to say that won't happen until the future. Well, the future is now! 

     Japan has opened the doors to the world's first automated, robot-staffed hotel, which replaces people with pretty, life-like lady humanoid receptionists and a bow tie-wearing, dinosaur concierge. At the Henn-na Hotel, or "Strange Hotel" in English, guests check-in, check-out, get their rooms cleaned and their luggage conveyed by a fleet of blinking, beeping and rolling robots that the hotel describes as "warm and friendly." Might I mention, this is the way The Terminator started isn't it? Who made these robots? Cyberdyne?

     Also, as part of their aim to feature cutting-edge technology, stays are keyless. Instead, guests enter their rooms via facial recognition technology. That is pretty cool! Aside from the hotel's novelty factor, the use of robots and the emphasis on automated services is part of a bigger concept, which is to reduce labor costs, save energy, reduce waste and develop a self-sufficient hotel  powered by solar energy and machines. That's the part that scares me! Where are you John Conner? Anyway, the rooms are conspicuously absent of refrigerators, lights are motion-sensored and rooms are cooled using an energy-efficient radiant panel air-conditioning system. 

     The hotel is part of the Dutch theme park, Huis Ten Bosch, in Sasebo, Nagasaki and may be expanded across Japan and abroad, according to company president Hideo Sawada. Future plans also include the addition of Chinese and Korean languages to the robots' repertoire. Other features include a porter robot, that will transport luggage to guest rooms and a self-service cafe which serves snacks and drinks from where else? A vending machine. 

     Japan's not the only ones replacing humans with robots in hotels. In California, not to far from Apple's headquarters, Aloft Hotels put what they called the world first robotic butler at the front desk last year. Botlr is used to shuttle amenities to guest rooms and acknowledges requests with peppy beeps and flashing lights. 

     Room rates at the Strange Hotel, which features 144 rooms, start at $73 a night for a single room. That is actually not bad at all. I have to be honest, though. I think I prefer the human interaction than communicating with a robot. It all seems too weird! I watch these TV shows and movies that show us what A.I. androids would look like and it never ends well. Like I said earlier, The Terminator? Hello? This sounds like a super cool idea, but I'm not sold on it. Plus, doesn't this receptionist freak you out a little bit? It looks like one of those Real Sex Dolls. Not that I know what those look like or anything!