Checked in? Your robot awaits downstairs

After arriving in China and checking into a hotel, a delivery robot can be one of the first things to catch a foreign visitor's eye. Social media is awash with posts about encounters with the machines, accompanied by comments such as "I'm sharing the elevator with robots!", "China is on another level of efficiency," and "The perfect room service doesn't exist."

In China, however, such robots are no longer a novelty. According to a report released in August by IIM, an industry research organization, hotel room-service robots had a penetration rate of more than 30 percent in 2025, a figure expected to exceed 50 percent by 2030.