Transformers: rise of the cobots

Labour shortages are a global challenge for the hotel industry in the face of the recent travel resurgence, and most hotels simply do not have the manpower required. Many hospitality workers re-evaluated their career paths and work-life balance during the pandemic. Since then, these labour pools have left their concierge badges and room service trolleys for jobs that offer more flexibility or higher pay, such as retail, e-commerce, or warehousing.

A recent survey of 200 hotels conducted by the American Hotel & Lodging Association (AHLA) revealed that 87% of hotels in the US do not have enough staff, and 36% of the respondents cited severe staff shortages. For 43% of hotels, housekeeping roles were highlighted as being the most seriously understaffed.

Resolving such issues is Avalon SteriTech co-founder and CEO, Lewis Ho, who works with hotels across the Asia Pacific to improve hygiene processes and operations. He shares with M&C Asia how robotic technologies are helping his clients: “The Whiz Gambit is designed to help hotels and conference centres keep up with the growing demand for quick turnarounds in communal areas like meeting rooms and bathrooms. Designed to work alongside humans as a ‘cobot’, the Whiz Gambit is a 3-in-1 AI-powered vacuum cleaning, air-purifying and disinfection cobot jointly developed by Avalon SteriTech and SoftBank Robotics.”

It is designed to work alongside humans in a shared workspace to automate repetitive or unpleasant tasks to efficiently vacuum and disinfect a room while a human cleaner takes care of the spots a robot cannot reach.

“Our robot technologies help businesses feel assured that their events are held in safe and hygienic venues, and the hotel industry can rely on a cleaning service that is immune to human error. Our cobots are a part of our Environmental Hygiene technology and ecosystem built to optimise hotel operations.”

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Good disruptors for hotels

Ho said that these cobots can reduce labour costs by up to 30 percent and AI-driven robotic technology has the power to radically disrupt the hotel industry. “Firstly, it helps bridge the gap between back-of-house operations and performance – by utilising data to improve operations, cleanliness becomes scientific, with an outcome-based approach rather than a headcount-based and task-oriented one. Cobots can provide on-demand cleaning that directly responds to the level of environmental hygiene in any given area, completely changing the way hotels coordinate big events and everyday operations.”

Improving productivity

Besides relieving staff’s heavy cleaning workload, in some cases even cutting cleaning times by half and providing a solution to staff scarcity, the deployment of cobot gives human staff an opportunity to upskill by managing robotics solutions, attracting more people to the hospitality industry.

“Led by our scientific approach, we help businesses to visualise their operation efforts through cross-functional data, which means employee surveys, air quality, ATP (biological) results and virus diagnostics etc. In the face of these recent labour shortages, Avalon SteriTech’s cleaning solutions help businesses handle increasing demand for full-capacity operations while maintaining and actively improving overall environmental hygiene.”

Increasing customer satisfaction

Ho added that research from SoftBank Robotics shows that Whiz helps to decrease airborne microorganisms in an indoor environment by 80%. It can is eliminate more than 99% of the surface microorganisms in any given area.

“Even in hotels with specific cleaning needs, such as Hong Kong’s 5-star pet-friendly ‘H’ Hotel, Avalon SteriTech’s robotic technology can reduce the vacuuming time by over 80%, effectively removing odours in pet-friendly rooms in a few seconds, increasing the hotels’ room turnover rate and customer satisfaction, increasing potential revenue.”

Improving staff welfare

The Whiz Gambit can mitigate the amount of contact staff have with dangerous bacteria, using AI technologies to identify bacteria hot spots in order to improve environmental hygiene.

“Janitors can become ‘AI operators’ as they learn new skills in robot operation – something (that is) sure to attract younger, more tech-focused talents. Staff are equipped with the technology to improve processes and protocols – meaning they can work smarter, not harder,” added Ho.