New Seattle Embassy Suites’ Robo-Butler Is At Your Service
The Savioke robot takes itself to and from the elevator at the new Embassy Suites in Pioneer Square
By Gwendolyn Elliott April 9, 2018
This article originally appeared in the April 2018 issue of Seattle magazine.
This article appears in print in the April 2018 issue. Click here to subscribe.
Embassy Suites’ luxe property in Pioneer Square—a 23-story all-suite hotel with 282 rooms, penthouse suites and a location just a stone’s throw from the stadium district, scheduled to open in April—comes with a total techie 24-hour room service attendant. While that’s not unusual in tech-obsessed Seattle, this employee is: The Savioke Relay is an at-your-service robot butler.
The bot, which resembles an oversize ice bucket on wheels, can deliver an assortment of items, from bottled water, soda and snacks to things forgotten at home, like a pair of scissors or a sewing kit. Guests make requests and orders via their room’s Alexa virtual assistant; when it’s ready, the order is loaded into the bot, which then makes its way to the room, notifying the recipient with a phone call. Guests accept the order via a touch screen on the front of the robot, and, after a few R2-D2-like whistles that complete the transaction, it departs—no tipping required. (If you prefer your meals delivered by an actual waiter, the recently relocated 24/7 dining institution 13 Coins, now the hotel’s official restaurant, will oblige.)
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