No one is manning the reception desk at Hangzhou's sleek FlyZoo Hotel - and that is completely normal.
In fact, guests rarely interact with staff at all during their entire stay here. Amenities are sent to the room by roving robots, while bespoke cocktails at the bar are mixed by a robotic arm.
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A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Straits Times on May 29, 2019, with the headline Robots at your service: Your face is the room key in Alibaba’s futuristic FlyZoo Hotel. Subscribe