Alibaba is Opening a “Future Hotel” Staffed by Robots

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5:58 PM HKT, Fri November 2, 2018 1 mins read

Chinese technology behemoth Alibaba is gearing up to open a “future hotel” in its home base of Hangzhou in eastern China.

Named the FlyZoo Hotel (after Ali’s travel booking service), the complex features human-less check-in facilities, facial scan door locks, and voice controlled temperature and lighting devices, allowing guests to dispense with such cumbersome aspects of travel such as switches, keys, and basic human interaction.

Largely staffed by robots, the hotel also comes equipped with the tech giant’s “Tmall Genie”, an AI system that will help guests purchase food and drink items and other supplies, which are then delivered to you by robot naturally.

Among the rooms are seven special theme rooms related to different countries — so there’s a “British room” full of Union Jacks and pictures of Big Ben and Tower Bridge and presumably bereft of any EU-related imagery.

Some of the decor looks a little stark, kind of like where 2001: A Space Odyssey ends up (who said the future had to be so minimalist?), but if you like what you see you can open the dedicated app and take a photo of, say, the armchair and you’ll go straight to a page allowing you to buy that item for your own home.

With Tmall’s massive Singles’ Day shopping festival on the horizon, there’s naturally an 11.11 deal on rooms: at present a stay will set you back 1,399RMB (just over 200USD) per night.