Holograms at the Front Desk Replace Real People at Aiden by Best Western (Skift)

This is Skift's report from the launch, and it describes the plan at that time. Today the Holobox runs at 9 CIC Hospitality hotels in Scandinavia.

CIC Hospitality is opening 30 boutique Aiden by Best Western hotels in Scandinavia, but they won't come with staff in the flesh and blood standing at the front desk. Instead, the front desks will be staffed by holograms.

The first hologram system, made by Holoconnects, was installed last month into the new Aiden hotel in Herning, Denmark. BWH Hotel Group owns the Aiden brand, and CIC is the operator. The deployment is part of a long term strategy to increase efficiency while maintaining a personal touch, a tension the hospitality industry has been grappling with for years.

The Holobox at the front door

After walking through the front door and past a motion detector, the guest is greeted with a pre recorded hologram video projected into a Holobox, over 6 feet tall and 3 feet wide, with an 86-inch touchscreen that lets guests indicate what they need.

Pre recorded information handles the most common requests. If the guest needs help from a live person, a customer service worker connects remotely and appears as a hologram inside the box, life size, in 4K, with the gestures and presence of a physical concierge.

Why a hologram

"Our main target is to have no administration tasks at the hotels, for customer satisfaction but also to operate our hotel more cost efficiently," said Thomas Furulund, operations manager for Oslo-based CIC Hospitality. "Our on site staff should basically play shuffleboard and drink coffee with our guests instead of doing the traditional tasks."

It's a bold bet: hospitality is a high-touch business, and removing humans from the lobby cuts against industry instinct. But CIC sees the Holobox as the human touch, just delivered through a different medium. Investing in holograms is bold and risky, Skift writes. But who knows? It may appeal to some guests. And imagine all the social media posts.