Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba has posted a video presenting a customer's stay in its fully automated hotel. An open-air laboratory for the use of new technologies in robotics.
Located on the Alibaba campus, in Hangzhou, a coastal city 100 kilometers south of Shanghai, FlyZoo Hotel opened its doors in October 2018 after 2 years of construction. It offers 290 rooms that can be booked from a mobile application. The customer journey integrates the latest technological innovations at all steps: automated check-in using the smartphone, facial recognition to access the room, room service using a robot or even gymnastics on an interactive touch track... all supported by the Chinese company's cloud.
Does it mean that Alibaba now wishes to become an hotel operator? No, but rather a supplier of hotel technologies through its travel subsidiary Fliggy, which is already working with Marriott on the introduction of facial recognition technology at check-in. In this context, this hotel is a huge showroom that gathers all AliBaba's technological know-how in the hotel sector.
