FEATURING human-less check-in facilities, facial scan door locks and voice-controlled television and lighting devices, China’s e-commerce giant Alibaba Group unveiled its first “future hotel,“ also known as “Flyzoo Hotel,“ in Hangzhou, east China Zhejiang province.
The robots are part of a suite of high-tech tools that Alibaba says drastically cut the hotel’s cost of human labour and eliminates the need for guests to interact with other people.
Elevators scan guests’ faces again to verify which floor they can access and hotel room doors are opened with another face scan and in the rooms, Alibaba’s voice command technology is used to change the temperature, close the curtains, adjust the lighting and order room service.
Formally opened to the public last month, the 290-room FlyZoo is an incubator for technology Alibaba wants to sell to the hotel industry in the future and an opportunity to showcase its prowess in artificial intelligence.
FlyZoo - whose name derives from a pun in Chinese for ‘it’s a must to stay here’ - is located in the city of Hangzhou, 170 km southwest of Shanghai, and is within walking distance of Alibaba’s headquarters. Room fees start from 1,390 yuan (US$205) a night.
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