YOTEL Singapore Orchard clinches Robotics Award for hospitality and leisure in SBR's Technology Excellence Awards

YOTEL Singapore Orchard’s service robots Yoshi and Yolanda snagged the Robotics Award for hospitality and leisure during SBR’s recently concluded Technology Excellence Awards.

Yoshi and Yolanda are a pair of future-ready robots that boost productivity whilst providing guests with a high-value, intuitive and unique service.

They are the service robots of future-forward YOTEL Singapore, an ultra-prime accommodation on the city-state’s Orchard Road, which houses 610 state-of-the-art cabins. The YOTEL concept is informed by first-class travel and smart design re-defines luxury for the modern traveler.

An innovative bent sets the brand apart from other contenders in the industry. The hotel continually invests in technology-led features that enhance productivity, improve the allocation of resources and take over low-value tasks, making operations as efficient as possible and elevating overall guest experience to a whole new level.

As the hospitality industry continues to face labour shortage, YOTEL Singapore answers this obstacle with a clever solution: implementing robots to raise the bar of operational efficiency whilst making guests’ experience more convenient, more enjoyable and more memorable.

The hotel introduced Yoshi and Yolanda, YOTEL Singapore’s technology ambassadors who attract guests across the world to experience their one-of-a-kind service and interaction for themselves.

Both potential and returning customers have shown a strong interest towards the robots, and within only a year of opening, YOTEL Singapore has attained over 80 percent average occupancy and consistently higher-than-average gross operating profits.

Doubling up as brand and marketing ambassadors, Yoshi and Yolanda are mentioned in 21 percent of the guests’ reviews on online hotel review site TripAdvisor, with a good number attributing their choice of accommodation to the robots’ presence.

This is expected to grow further, with YOTEL Singapore introducing new and exciting developments to the robots in 2019. Besides including movie-inspired speech phrases to heighten guest engagement, there will also be a function where the robots deliver gifts to guests celebrating a birthday.

Upon implementing the robots, which are primarily tasked to deliver amenities right to the guest’s doorstep, the awardee achieved man-hour savings of 3.5 full-time employees, a key achievement in terms of productivity.

YOTEL Singapore’s implementation of agile practices demonstrates an impeccable ability to adapt technology for its operational and brand objectives, delivering a uniquely YOTEL Singapore experience.

Recognising Singapore’s leading companies in technology innovation, the Technology Excellence Awards lauds outstanding companies that have pioneered groundbreaking IT products and solutions and implemented avant-garde technology initiatives that have made an impact on their business.

The Technology Excellence Awards, presented by Singapore Business Review, was held on 30 May 2019 at the Conrad Centennial Singapore.

This year’s nominations were judged by a panel consisting of Cheang Wai Keat, Head of Advisory, Ernst & Young LLP; Darwin Thio, Director, Cybersecurity & Technology Services, Nexia TS; Daryl Pereira, Head of Cybersecurity, KPMG; Evelyn Lim, Executive Director, Tax Advisory, BDO LLP; and Jonathan Kok, Co-Head of Technology, Media & Communications Industry Group, RHTLaw Taylor Wessing LLP.

Check out the event photos during the awards night here.

If you would like to join the 2020 awards and be acclaimed for your company’s exceptional technology innovations, please email Julie Anne Nuñez at [email protected]