The New York Times Freakonomics blog asks why hotels don't use Roombas to vacuum.
Lots of answers, but the popular ones are that they'd be stolen, that they would slow room turnover and negate any savings, that they cost a bundle and that they don't clean as well as a heavy-duty upright.
All accurate. Although I think that there is a role for Roomba in many small business environments, particularly the millions of offices with low-pile carpet.
I actually think a Scooba-like device might have more commercial applications, especially for the nasty job of cleaning bathrooms at the end of a shift. Gas stations, restaurants, hotel bathrooms, ice cream parlors and the like also could all benefit from a thorough Scooba mopping every night, and the cost ($200-$400) for a Scooba is minimal for any sized company. I think Scooba actually does a better job than most mops because it replaces dirty water with clean.
Here's the link to Freakonomics.
(Thx, JSRN!)
Tags: iRobot, robot, Roomba
Sunday, August 03, 2008
Why don't hotels use Roombas? (New York Times)
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4 comments:
This is a similar issue surrounding the fruit & vegetable picking industry. For a long time it wasn't cost-effective to spend the R&D money to develop robotic picking machines because immigrant labor (legal and illegal) was cheap. However, the farm owners are seeing the possibility of the illegal workforce being given citizenship and social-security numbers which means they are going to have to pay more money for taxes and benefits. They have banded together to develop picking technology.
The same thing will apply to the hotel & food industry. Currently, hotel and food workers are often illegal and cheap. Once the cost to employ them breaks the R&D threshold, whatever that may be, you'll see more automation coming into play.
FYI, for years there have been examples of restroom cleaning robots on the gadget & tech shows but clearly the costs can't be justified yet.
It's a matter of time though. Think of the robots used in the auto industry. Or automated weaving machines displacing human workers. "Workers who felt their lives threaten by automation flung their wooden shoes called 'sabot' into the machines to stop them...hence the term 'sabotage'."
I'm wondering how much of this is being constrained by agreements/contracts with Labor Unions as well. I wouldn't discount the impact that Organized Labor will have on the replacement/transition from menial human jobs being given to robots.
And...they would have to wait at least 1-2 months for a $100 replacement battery every year! Keep the uprights people, irobot is not prepared to keep up with demand on the short-lived batteries yet!! I'll be replacing my DEAD battery with a off-brand clone and bet it works just fine...in about 5 years.
I’m always amazed when I see something in a major publication like the New York Times (even if only on their website) and immediately think to myself “man, that is retarded.”
Take this entry “Why Don’t Hotels Use Roombas?” on the Freakonomics blog. You can get the gist of the article from the title. The author goes on to propose 7 theories as to why they don’t, ranging from social status to powerful hotel maid labor unions.
I have a theory, and Occam’s razor would seem to prefer it:
8. Because to do so would be retarded.
For one thing, Roombas suck. They’re kind of a pain in the ass even for the moderate use required in a home. For a hotel they’d be a logistical nightmare.
They’re expensive, with a good model priced at around $350, which is probably about what it costs to pay a maid to vacuum one room for over a year. How long does sweeping a hotel room take, 3 minutes each time? So every 20 days of maid service costs one maid’s hourly wage in vacuuming. That’s about 18 hours a year. If your maid is getting paid under $20 an hour (and I since I spent almost ¼ of my time in hotels for 5 years and have yet to meet one that speaks English, I’ll assume that’s true) it would take at least one year to recoup just the initial cost of the Roomba if you left one in each room. My guess is it would be closer to two.
And that’s just the initial cost. Also there would be theft, breakages, etc. You won’t get anywhere with customers by trying to charge them for stepping on a vacuum that roams around in its own. And you can try to charge them for theft, but they’ll just tell their credit card company “there was no Roomba when I got there” and the charges will be reversed.
So the maids would instead have to carry them around and set them to work. Roombas aren’t built for long periods of vacuuming. They could do very few rooms without a recharge (an Amazon review I found estimates 3 rooms in one house, and those are presumably smaller than hotel rooms) meaning a hotel with 300 rooms might need 100+ of them, and have to deal with recharging them all daily.
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