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Saw a TikTok of a robot folding laundry at a hotel in Phoenix
It folded a fitted sheet perfectly in under 30 seconds, which I can't even do after 40 years. On one hand that's impressive technology, on the other hand what happens to the housekeeping staff when every hotel has these things? Would love to hear from anyone who works in hospitality how they feel about it.
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irisowens1mo ago
Yeah but think about this for a second - who's going to fix that robot when it breaks down at 2am with a load of towels jammed in it? Hotels already struggle to keep maintenance guys on staff, and now you want them to hire someone who can troubleshoot a servo motor and reprogram a folding algorithm. That's not a minimum wage gig, that's a skilled technician. So the housekeeping staff gets replaced by maybe one or two super expensive robot mechanics, and the hotel's still paying out the nose. Plus those machines need constant monitoring and cleaning themselves, they're not exactly set-it-and-forget-it. I'd bet my last dollar you'll still need humans to handle the weird stuff that comes up, like when a guest leaves a half-eaten sandwich in their pocket.
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the_hayden1mo ago
@irisowens same thing happened to me and yep, still need humans for the weird stuff.
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nancyg141mo ago
Four hundred rooms in a big hotel and maybe one or two robots folding sheets in a back room somewhere. Honestly that's like getting worked up over a vending machine replacing a deli counter. I've seen these automation hype cycles before. Remember when self-checkout was supposed to kill cashier jobs forever? Now every store still has two lanes open and ten self-checkout machines that need a human to come fix them every twenty minutes because someone's avocado won't scan. Sure your fancy robot can fold a fitted sheet but can it find the missing sock from under the bed, handle a guest who puked on the comforter at 3am, or navigate around a luggage cart blocking the hallway? The fancy stuff always gets the clicks but the messy random stuff is where humans end up staying.
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