Japanese Hotel “Fires” Robots

For years on end, expert community has been arguing about how long it will take for certain professions to disappear due to the development of technologies. With the development of robotics, the lion’s share...

For years on end, expert community has been arguing about how long it will take for certain professions to disappear due to the development of technologies. With the development of robotics, the lion’s share of physical labor will be performed by machines, and humans will fully focus on controlling them.

Over the last decades, Japan has been at the forefront of innovation, therefore, no wonder that it was a Japanese Henn-na Hotel that has recently replaced its entire staff with 243 robots. However, the decision proved to be premature causing losses to the company.

The bold decision was expected to improve the efficiency of the services rendered. Machines do not get tired, do not give way to emotions or need to be paid salaries. However, with the innovation, the hotel’s service level deteriorated. It turned out that, at the current level of technology development, gadgets cannot completely replace humans.

The devices intermittently failed, and four years later, Henn-na Hotel’s management fired half of its “staff” and started bringing back its employees made of flesh and blood.

However, the company is not planning to get rid of the machines completely keeping robots where they have proven most efficient.