Japanese hotel to be operated by robots

A theme park in Japan will soon be home to the world's first hotel operated almost entirely by robots.

The Henn-na Hotel Hotel at Huis Ten Bosch, a bizarre theme park based on a Dutch town in Nagasaki, will feature robot maids to clean rooms and robot receptionists who will be so advanced that they will be able to carry out "intelligent conversations" with the guests.

The hotel (whose name translates as 'Strange Hotel') is due to open in July 2015 with 72 rooms initially, before an expansion is completed in July 2017 which will double the number of rooms, reports CNN.

The hit-tech staff won't be the only unusual feature of the new hotel. The rooms will operate on a facial-recognition system, eliminating the need for room keys, reports The Japan Times.

The revolutionary hotel won't drain your budget though. Single rooms will be priced at 7,000 Yen (£39) a night, and doubles for 9,000 Yen (£50).

During peak season, guests will be asked to bid for their chance of getting a room, with the highest bidders winning a bed for the night; however a price cap of 14,000 Yen (£78) will be set for a single room.

Huis Ten Bosch president, Hideo Sawada, is hoping to make it the most "efficient hotel in the world" and has said that in the future they would like to have "more than 90 percent of hotel services operated by robots."

Huis Ten Bosch is not the only place planning to employ electronic staff. A hardware supply store in the US announced last year that they would be employing the services of a hi-tech robot. Orchard Supply, in the Silicon Valley, is now home to the OSHbot, a moving, talking robot that will act as an in store retail assistant, The Guardian reports.

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