Huis Ten Bosch has released this artist’s impression of the robot-staffed reception desk. Source: Supplied
PREPARE to be totally creeped out ... a new hotel in Japan will be staffed by robots that look like THIS ...
One of the android hotel staff at the Henn-na Hotel in Japan.
The Henn-na Hotel — which translates in English to “Strange Hotel” — plans to have four “actroid androids” at its reception desk. They will look like a young Japanese woman and are capable of speaking Japanese, Chinese, Korean and English, can make hand gestures and reciprocate your eye movements.
There will also be four service and porter robots, one robot cloak room attendant and several cleaning robots.
We love the way The Washington Post describes the concept: “The 72-room hotel will be staffed by 10 humanoid robots capable of greeting guests, carrying luggage, cleaning rooms and seizing control of the planet for mankind’s own good ... Okay, not that last one.”
Huis Ten Bosch recreates a typical Dutch town.
Just to make things that little bit weirder, the hotel is located in a theme park called Huis Ten Bosch, which recreates a typical Dutch town, complete with Dutch-style architecture, canals, windmills, amusement rides ... and now Japanese robots, as you do.
(Mind you, the Huis Ten Bosch website lists one of its “attractions” as the Detention Ward: “The only touch point the hospital director had with society was the medical exam. He collects organs, bones, and eyes to make his own android. You might be the one to be stolen your body parts!”)
If it sweetens your shudders slightly, rooms will be much cheaper than other hotels in the theme park due to the reduced operating costs. Rates are expected to start at around $79 a night when the Henna-na Hotel opens in July.
