Hotel robots surprise visitors, streamline operations

When Ricky Colomer Goenaga, 32, a designer from Spain, looked around and noticed a delivery robot following him, he wasn't quite sure how to react.

New to Shanghai and living at a hotel, he stepped into an elevator — and a white, waist-high box on wheels followed him in.

The robot, in Goenaga's words, was rather assertive. It nudged him out of the middle of the elevator, nearly ran over his toes and rattled off something in Chinese he didn't understand. Then it pressed the button for its desired floor and rolled out as soon as the elevator doors opened.

"I was like, 'what happened here?'" Goenaga recalled.

He said that he wasn't quite sure what the machine even was — bigger and bulkier than, yet nothing like, the robotic vacuums he'd seen.

One and a half years on, the sight of a robot gliding through hotel lobbies and corridors no longer fazes him. In March, on a business trip to Beijing, he keyed his room number into the order system and waited. Soon, the robot arrived at his door carrying his packed salad.

This time, Goenaga was all grins. He posed for a photograph with the machine and posted it on social media, joking that after being "bullied" by the robot in Shanghai, the two had finally made peace.

For many foreign visitors, the robot is among the first surprises they encounter in China. Social media are full of posts about their "meetings" with the machines in their hotels, with comments such as "I'm sharing the elevator with robots!" or "China is on another level of efficiency".

In China, however, such robots are no longer a novelty. According to a report released in August by IIM, a Beijing-based industry research organization, the penetration rate of hotel service robots in China exceeded 30 percent in 2025 and is expected to surpass 50 percent by 2030.

For hotels, the appeal is simple: Robots can handle repetitive tasks around the clock.

"I think they are very useful. They save us plenty of time and improve the efficiency," said Wang Xinyu, a lobby manager at a budget hotel in Beijing.

Open since January, the hotel operates three robots across six floors and 372 rooms. Wang said that more than half the guests order takeaway during mealtimes — and that last stretch, from front desk to door, is where the robots step in.

When an order lands, the front desk tucks the food into the robot's compartment and punches in the room number. From there, the robot owns it — it hails the elevator, rolls to the door and pings the guest to come grab it. Between rushes, the machines remain parked in corners, charging their batteries.

Autoxing Technology Co, the company that makes the robots, was founded in 2020 with ambitions to develop autonomous-driving technology for cars. But the bet proved expensive, prompting the company to narrow its focus. Two years later, it launched its hotel robots.

The technology behind them is largely the same, enabling machines to move from one place to another without bumping into any obstacles.

"The rapid development of autonomous-driving in China has, to some extent, boosted other robotic applications," said Yang Tianyun, a marketing manager at Autoxing.

About 60 percent of Autoxing's business now comes from exports, although differences in regulations across countries can slow deployment.

This helps explain why the robots can surprise foreign visitors like Goenaga. "We had never seen anything like that anywhere else in the world," Goenaga said. "I think a lot of people are not aware of how advanced the technology is here."

As a designer, Goenaga also likes the robots' cute look. They do not need to look human, he said, adding that a friendly, approachable design is more fitting for hotels, where they interact with families and children.