Lara welcomes guests in four languages, assists with bookings and checks guests in and out of the hotel where she works in the mountain resort of Brasov.
She’s efficient and only costs her company 500 euros a month.
Digital receptionist
Lara is no ordinary receptionist. She’s a digital receptionist, the first of her kind in Romania.
The Casa Chitic Boutique Hotel unveiled ‘Lara’ last week during a busy period in the medieval town of Brasov.
She’s a test run for the hospitality industry which is struggling to find staff during the pandemic, as some workers have switched careers amid pandemic uncertainty.
Hospitality experts
She was developed by Advanced Robotics, a Brasov company in partnership with the hospitality experts at the Trus HoReCa Services.
Lara is one step in Romania’s move toward digitalization as a member of the European Union. The EU’s digital strategy aims to make this transformation work for people and businesses, while helping to achieve its target of a climate-neutral Europe by 2050.
Back to Lara. She speaks Romanian, English, Spanish and German which are useful skills to have in the city which is visited by tourists from all over the world.
By the end of the year, she will become fluent in at least 10 international languages, her employer says.
Tourist attractions
At the moment, tourists are greeted by Lara who works with a real-life colleague. Once they’ve checked in, tourists can call the digital receptionist and ask about tourist attractions in the area. Lara can even make reservations for them.
They already ‘liking’ Lara. So far, she’s received the maximum 5 stars for service.
The hotel says it has been struggling to find receptionists and the existing ones don’t view her as a threat.
Cost-effective
She’s cost-effective too. The system costs 500 euros a month to rent which will be covered by the business she generates.
Like all workers, Lara has a probationary period which ends next month.
After the pilot project stage ends, other hotels are expected to use digital receptionists.
