The two hotels are both relatively new to the Australian market with Dorsett Gold Coast opening at the end of 2021 and the Melbourne property opening this year. The overarching parent company is based in Hong Kong.
At Dorsett Melbourne, the two new guest services robots (GSRs) have been named Dorothy and Dexter by the hotel team, while two more GSRs on the Gold Coast have been called Tim and Tam. Dorsett believes these robots are among the first in Australia’s hospitality industry.
The robots can complete the entire check-in process with guests, including distributing keys and providing information on local events and attractions.
According to data from Dorsett Melbourne, in a single day the robots freed up 51 hours for the hotel’s human staff.
Leaders at the two hotels say the point is not to decrease human interaction as part of the accommodation experience, but to free up staff to provide an even better and more personalised guest experience.
“By using technology to free up our time at the front desk, the team are able to provide better service to our guests,” said director of sales and marketing at Dorsett Melbourne, Narelle Welsh.
“We now have the time to be more attentive to the guest experience and the hotel runs more smoothly as a result.”
Dorsett Gold Coast general manager Christian Wachter agreed.
“It’s exciting to be rolling out these technology features across our hotels,” he said.
“Being able to serve our guests is why we are all here and it’s exciting to see the ways in which we can provide this level of customer service for our guests through the support of technology.”
Dorsett Gold Coast is taking its hotel technology even further – with Melbourne soon to follow – rolling out HiJiffy, a high-tech concierge and AI-powered chatbot. The chatbot exists on the Dorsett Gold Coast website, answering over 150 pre-programmed FAQs from potential and future guests and delivering both pre arrival and pre-departure communications to guests via text and email.
In Melbourne, the Dorsett also offers tech-enabled artwork in the hotel, which has an augmented reality layer that guests can access via their smartphones.
