The Great White North is home to Vancouver’s beautiful harbor, Banff’s natural splendor, Calgary’s Stampede, Toronto’s NBA World Champion Raptors, Quebec’s French charm, and the best maple syrup on the planet.
But now, it’s also home to the first hotel north of the U.S. with a Relay® robot-operated room service.
The Challenge
Opened in 2018, Hôtel Monville Montréal, a Lifestyle member of Preferred Hotels & Resorts, established its notoriety early by being named 2018 Hotelier of the Year, followed by other major awards.
The hotel is located in the heart of the International District and offers an intelligent design, from its unmatched service, fine dining, panoramic views, rooftop terrace, and state-of-the-art technology.
“Reinventing the hotel of the 21st century, the Monville is 100% connected. We already had the contact-free aspect of the experience in place as Canada’s first hotel with web-enabled check-in 24 hours prior to arrival and check-in kiosks,” says Jean-Cédric Callies, Director of Sales and Marketing.
“We started discussions with Savioke in 2016, two years prior to opening,” he adds, “to be the first Canadian hotel with robot-operated room service. Our robot is now a beloved staff member.”
The Solution: A Contact-Free Robot
Hôtel Monville has completely reimagined the customer service experience, making it even more technologically savvy and allowing their team to devote more time to guest services.
“There is no contact for the guest with the robot,” continues Mr. Callies. “The robot stays outside of the room, the container opens when the door opens. The guest grabs the food and beverage (pre-packaged for sanitary/safety reasons and placed there by staff wearing gloves and masks). Also, the robot is cleaned before and after each delivery by the Front Desk staff.”
“Robot room service was a unique opportunity to
differentiate ourselves in a Contact-Free Economy.”
A Facebook Naming Contest
A few months after the opening, they organized a party for their best guests and hosted a contest on Facebook for naming the robot. They received a ton of propositions and chose “H2M2”, a reference to Star Wars’ R2D2 and “HM” for Hôtel Monville.
Very Popular With Guests
At a height of three feet (one meter) and only weighing 90 pounds (40.8 kg), H2M2
was readily accepted by both guests and the staff.
“A local politician once used our robot to bring him the microphone and start his speech. During events, the robot delivers gifts and special amenities to rooms. During Easter, we fill up the robot with chocolate eggs and used the ‘mingle’ mode to deliver eggs to families in the lobby. During December, we created the ‘Robot Advent Calendar’, with H2M2 delivering one gift per day to a guest that we had selected in advance.”
A Social Media Sensation
“I love robots and technology, and so does social media,” continues Jean-Cédric. “People will call me to ask, ‘Is this the hotel with a robot?’ We love seeing our guests post photos and videos about H2M2.
Nearly 8,000 Facebook and Instagram followers, lots of YouTube videos, and dozens of positive reviews such as, “We loved the robot who delivers food to your room!” prove that this robot is very popular on social media.
Safe, Secure and Reliable
H2M2 is a safe, secure, and dependable service robot to ensure that every guest has a great experience. It has been expressly programmed to:
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Work tirelessly to deliver exactly what guests need, when they need it.
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Operate seamlessly with the restaurants to bring guests a meal or beverage.
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Call your room or smartphone when it arrives at your door for contact-free service.
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Deliver towels or toiletries to rooms within 5 minutes.
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Be sanitized by our Front Desk staff after each delivery.
“The response has been tremendous. Safe, secure,
contact-free room service volume has doubled in one year.”
Relay Has Delivered Measurable Results
Since March 2018, Hôtel Monville Montréal has:
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Made more than 10,000 room service deliveries in the first 27 months; an average of 400 per month.
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Become an amazing selling feature for the Sales Team.
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Helped create a surge in occupancy, new guest, and social media followers.
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Launched a high volume of social media videos, posts, blogs, and media stories.
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Enabled a higher level of guest care.
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Improved staff efficiency and satisfaction.
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Increased cost effectiveness.
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Leased for only $3 – $5/hr. US vs. staff costs.
“Our hotel had the cutest room service robot!”
Use our simple ROI Calculator to determine the potential labor savings by employing a Relay service robot in your operations.