Alibaba’s keyless and cashless hotel is straight out of the future | CNBC Reports

Thank you. There's something very strange about thanking a robot. You probably know Alibaba for its e-commerce platforms, but the Chinese technology company is diversifying. It is aggressively testing and implementing technology concepts ranging from retail to restaurants and even

hotel

s. This should open with facial recognition, let's see. I've come to Alibaba's futuristic FlyZoo

hotel

, which is a stone's throw from its headquarters in Hangzhou, and almost everything you can imagine here is automated. I'm not sure if this is cool or creepy. The first thing I see is that there is no counter or sofas. This is it, this is the hotel lobby.

You don't have a traditional check-in desk, you don't have a concierge. Record. Foreigners will register here as the staff will come and help them. But Chinese citizens can check it at the kiosks or they can simply check-in on their phone if they actually have the hotel app. She will take my photo so I can open the door and enter the hotel. That's all? So? How do I remember... what my room number was? I will take a photo to remember my room number. She just uses your face to open the door. OK thanks. I feel a little lost without a key card, receipt or anything like that.

To access my floor, I have to scan my face in the elevator. And again, at my door to access my room. It's like that. I enter my room. The 290-room so-called "smart hotel" welcomed its first guests at the end of 2018. And although you don't see as many faces at the reception as in a traditional hotel, there are still staff. Like housekeeping, which Alibaba says you still have to use a traditional key card to clean your room. The young generation loves it. And for a generation like ours, they would feel a little nervous at first. Andy Wang is the CEO of Alibaba Future Hotel, which oversees FlyZoo.

With our service ambassador assistant in the hotel lobby, you will feel more comfortable. Since everyone knows how to use Alipay, everyone knows how to use their smartphone. But the idea here is not for Alibaba to open its own hotels. It is using FlyZoo to develop technologies that it can sell to existing hotel chains. One of its partners is Marriott International, the company behind Marriott, Ritz-Carlton, St. Regis, W and more. No one would say, "I'd like to go to the front desk and do more," right? Peggy Fang Roe is director of sales and marketing for Asia-Pacific at Marriott International.

She's gaining traction, but there are still steps in the registration process that require you to go through the front desk, so we haven't eliminated that completely. But when we do it, I think people will adapt pretty quickly. She says some of Marriott's properties in China may soon eliminate the front desk check-in process. Every hotel room has one of these and it's like Alibaba's answer to Amazon Alexa or Google Home. You can order water, you can order slippers and you can even order room service. You can also open the curtains, turn on the TV, and even dim the lights.

Little genius. What did she say? Apparently she said, “I don't understand what you're saying. Can you say that again?" Many of those deliveries are made by these robotic butlers, except for things like soups, irons, and ironing boards. This robot can call an elevator by itself. You don't actually need to press any buttons. And here it goes. Forget the traditional hotel vending machine. Here you can open the Alipay app, scan the QR code and then it is unlocked. So let's say I take this drink. In a matter of seconds, the app recognizes the product I took out of this refrigerator. and it charges me.

This is what is called Future Fitness Center. To enter, again facial recognition. This is much more relaxing. The hospitality industry is one of the most job-creating sectors in the world, so does that mean? that hotels will one day be left without staff? Do you think guests will miss interacting with humans? No ever. Hotel associates will always be one of the most important parts of the hotel business. Technology only helps us improve our efficiency. Wang says all facial recognition data is only retained for the duration of the guest's stay. It disappears once a guest checks out. Peggy says facial recognition is already being tested at one of her Marriott properties near her and could be rolled out to more properties once they get government approval.

Around the world, consumer engagement in facial recognition can really be different. I think the Chinese market is more prepared to consume that functionality than other places in the world. Even the hotel restaurant is used as a test bed for this technology. Each table has its own QR code. So using the Alipay app, I simply open the app and it immediately shows me the restaurant, along with the menu. From there, I'm ready to start placing orders. Pork, chicken, fried rice. And just like that I ordered dinner. You found me. Thank you. Oh, there's more. So there are multiple layers.

A staff member just served this lotus root. When I asked him why not the robot, he said, "Well, steam depends on time, so it got from the kitchen to the table pretty quickly." I have come to the FlyZoo hotel bar, where once again I am greeted with a QR code here on the table. And perhaps unsurprisingly, behind me I see that my drink is being prepared by, as you may have guessed, a robot. Hi guys, I'm Uptin. Thanks for watching. Do you think facial recognition will be in the hotel of the

future

? Let us know in the comments below and don't forget to subscribe.

See you next time.