JOHANNESBURG—Staff at Hotel Sky in Johannesburg’s wealthy Sandton District adhere to strict COVID-19 protocols, wearing masks and physically distancing from guests as much as possible.
All, that is, except Lexi, Micah and Ariel. The three concierges couldn’t breathe germs on you even if they wanted to: they’re robots.
Robot hospitality is not new. Japanese hotels have been deploying them for years, and in 2015, Tokyo’s Henn-na, or “Strange,” hotel became the first to be fully staffed by machines.
Several robot-staffed Tokyo hotels are now using them to serve guests with mild COVID-19 symptoms.
Jobless astir
But Hotel Sky, which launched this year, is the first in Africa …
Keep on reading: Hotel turns to robots to beat pandemic