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.

For 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.

But Hotel Sky, which launched this year, is the first in Africa to use automated attendants, a concept that could cause a stir in a country with one of the world’s worst jobless rates.

Unemployment is at 30.8pc, according to President Cyril Ramaphosa’s state of the nation address last on Thursday.

“It’ll never replace people, but it is going to change the space,” Paul Kelley, Hotel Sky Managing Director, said.

“I think that it is the future,” he said, adding that they planned to launch an offshoot in Cape Town next month.

Lexi, Micah and Ariel deliver room service, provide travel information and can drag up to 300kg of luggage from the marble-floored lobby to the rooms.

If the hotel receives a guest with Covid-19 symptoms, the robots could be deployed instead of people as a precaution.

Otherwise, “guests can choose whether they want to interact with staff members or make use of the self service, which is all controlled by their phone,” Herman Brits, the hotel’s general manager, said.

Published in Dawn, February 16th, 2021