????一走進紐約曼哈頓時代廣場附近的Yotel微型賓館，首先映入眼簾的就是那臺擺放在大廳中的機器人。在一扇玻璃后面，矗立著一個巨大的白色機械臂，有點像生產(chǎn)線使用的那種。賓館總經(jīng)理克萊斯?蘭德伯格帶著一絲驕傲的神色對我說，它的名字叫做Yobot。

????“你向Yobot要一個儲物箱，把你的行李放上去，它就會把行李放入儲物箱，然后給你一張收據(jù)。返回時，你只需掃描一下這張數(shù)據(jù)，輸入號碼，它就會把行李取出來還給你。”動作遲緩的Yobot經(jīng)過一段長得令人心焦的時間才做完這項原本是由前臺員工完成的寄存行李流程。難道這就是Yobot所有的功能嗎？蘭德伯格表示：“碰到節(jié)假日，我們也會用到它。我們會把它打扮起來。”

????我看到有幾個住客茫然地戳著Yobot的觸屏，心里不禁想到：難道這就是酒店業(yè)的未來？面對科技的飛速發(fā)展，酒店業(yè)的反應一直是慢了半拍——除了用電子郵件發(fā)送扣費通知，新潮一點的酒店用上了iPad，當然他們采用這兩種技術(shù)的理由也很充分。那么，我們?nèi)绾卧诓粨p害酒店業(yè)賴以生存的舒適和人際關系的情況下，將科技引入這個行業(yè)中呢？

????酒店業(yè)與高科技融合的陣地之一是賓館的前臺，現(xiàn)在賓館的前臺已經(jīng)有了開始模仿機場登機柜臺的趨勢。還是以Yotel為例，它的大廳里有6臺自助登記終端機。蘭德伯格表示：“整個過程只需要60秒”，前提是你知道怎么用這個東西。當然無可避免的是，有些顧客不知道怎么用，這時候Yotel的員工就會扮演技術(shù)支持的角色。蘭德伯格再次向我保證道：“我們不會把顧客單獨留在那兒，我們還是有員工在那里的。”他表示，使用這些終端機的目的，是為了讓顧客在登記時獲得更私人的感覺。另外把繁瑣的手續(xù)工作交給機器，也有助于讓員工專注地為客人提供更好的入住體驗。

????不過即將退房的旅行音樂家凱文?克勞福德卻不這么想。他皺著眉頭看了一眼終端機：“登記有點過于復雜了，旁邊倒是總有人幫你，所以我想，為什么不直接讓那些人幫客人辦理登記手續(xù)？”同時他表示，Yobot倒是挺有意思的，但它的動作遲緩得“有點可笑。”

????在全球擁有近1200家酒店的喜達屋酒店集團（Starwood Hotels & Resorts）也在努力提高登記效率。喜達屋目前正在測試一種叫“信號臺”的無線設備，可以通過該公司的APP與你的智能手機連接，告知前臺員工你是誰。該公司數(shù)碼業(yè)務高級副總裁，“喜達屋優(yōu)先顧客計劃”負責人克里斯?霍爾德倫表示：“這樣就可以趕走第一次接觸時那種缺乏人情味的感覺，從第一步就讓顧客體驗到一種私密感。”亞特蘭大的一家名叫Itesso的公司則走得更遠。它通過一款谷歌眼鏡(Google Glass)應用讓員工可以認出每張顧客的臉。考慮到有些客人根本不想和前臺打交道，喜達屋集團還在紐約和加州庫比蒂諾的兩家雅樂軒酒店(Aloft Hotel)試用一種基于智能手機的“電子鑰匙”。客人可以遠程登記，然后直接進入他們訂好的房間。另外，庫比蒂諾的那家雅樂軒酒店不想被Yobot比下去，它很快也將擁有自己的機器人服務員“Botlr”。

????The first thing I noticed upon entering the lobby of the Yotel, a micro-hotel near Times Square in Manhattan, was the robot in the room. Behind a pane of glass stood a towering white mechanical arm, the kind you’d find on an assembly line. Its name, the hotel’s general manager ClaesLandberg tells me with an air of pride, is Yobot.

????“You ask the Yobot for a bin, you put your luggage in, and it puts it back in the bin. It gives you a receipt, you come back and scan it, put in the code, and it retrieves the luggage for you.” This process of storing luggage, a task previously reserved for front desk staff, takes the lumbering Yobot an excruciatingly long time. Is this really all it does? “We also use it for when we have holidays or anything,” Landberg says. “We dress it up.”

????I watched a few puzzled guests poke at the Yobot’s touchscreen, and I wondered: Is this the future of hospitality? The industry has been slow to change in the face of technological advancements, aside from perhaps an e-mailed statement of charges or use of an iPad, and for good reason. How do you introduce technology without undermining the comfort and human relationships upon which hospitality is based?

????One place this battle is playing out is the hotel front desk, which is beginning to resemble an airport check-in counter. At the Yotel, six kiosks greet guests upon arrival for check-in. “It takes about 60 seconds,” Landberg says. If you know how to use the thing, that is. Inevitably, some guests do not, which is when Yotel employees swoop in as technical support. “It’s not like we completely leave you alone,” Landberg reassures me. “We still have staff.” The kiosks are an effort to make the check-in experience more personal, he says. Let the machines do the busy work so staff can focus on the guest experience.

????Kevin Crawford, a traveling musician at the tail end of his Yotel stay, was dubious. “Check-in was a little over-complicated,” he says, leering at the kiosks with one eyebrow cocked. “There are always guys here to help, so I just wonder why don’t they just have the guys check you in?” The Yobot was fun, he says, but its sluggishness was “a bit ridiculous.”

????Starwood Hotels & Resorts, which owns almost 1,200 hotels across the globe, is also working to improve check-in. The luxury chain is testing wireless devices called beacons that communicate with your smartphone through the company’s app to tell the front desk staff who you are. “If you look at the most impersonal experience today at a hotel, it’s at check in,” says Chris Holdren, senior vice president for the company’s digital efforts as well as Starwood Preferred Guest, the company’s loyalty program. “This takes away that impersonal first touch and makes it personal from step one,” he says. An Atlanta company called Itesso takes it a step further with a Google Glass app that would let Glass-wearing staff recognize guests’ faces. For customers who don’t want to interact with the front desk at all, Starwood is piloting a smartphone-based room key at two Aloft Hotels, one in New York and one in Cupertino, Calif. Guests can check in remotely and waltz right up to their room. And, not to be outdone by the Yobot, the Cupertino Aloft will soon get its own robotic bellhop named “Botlr.”