No plans for ‘Robot Butlers’ at Irish hotels

Staff at two Irish hotels can rest easy, at least for the time being — robot butlers are not likely to be taking over their jobs.

Global chain Starwood Hotels has started a pilot project in one of its Californian hotels in which robot butlers will be used to carry out simple tasks like delivering towels and toothbrushes to rooms.

However, with the company indicating that it might expand the robot butler scheme to as many as 100 hotels in its chain across the world, some trade unions are not seeing the funny side and have attacked the plan as “a gimmick”.

Unite, the hotel workers’ union in Britain, said that robot butlers “can’t ever replace the human touch expected by discerning hotel guests”.

In Ireland, two hotels are part of the Starwood franchise — the Westin in Dublin City centre and the Sheraton Athlone.

Yesterday, staff at the latter were bemused by the suggestion that robot butlers could be a workforce option in future, with one member saying they had heard nothing about it.

“We are quite happy with the staff that we have here,” she said.

So far, the robot butlers — named Botlr, and with a dickie bow design imprinted on their front — are being used only in the Aloft Hotel in Cupertino, California.

They have been created by Savioke, a company based in Silicon Valley, and Starwood has stressed that they are not being lined up as replacements for regular staff.

Brian McGuinness, Starwood Hotels’ senior vice president for its Speciality Select brands, was quoted in the New York Times as saying: “It’s not going to be a replacement for our human talent.”

The robots can reach speeds of up to 7km/h and have the ability to plug themselves into recharging stations as they await tasks.

They also have in-built cameras and sensors, and their own hashtag — #MeetBotlr.

It is hoped that guests happy with the service provided by the robots will tweet their thanks, given that Botlr cannot receive cash tips.