If you're a guest at The Westin Buffalo and you call the front desk to bring you a towel or a tube of toothpaste, they'll send up a robot.
After someone loads your goodies in, the Wellbot rolls through the halls of the hotel, waits for elevators and brings what you need right to your door. It will call you when it gets there, and once you open the door, it opens up to reveal the towel, toothpaste or anything else you requested.
The Relay robot, designed and built by Savioke, has been used in the downtown hotel since December and is the only one to serve as a butler in a hotel in all of New York state, including New York City.
The robot is also the first of its kind to guests different wellness items to their rooms. These are offered through the wellness programs the Westin brand is known for. The items offered include nutritious menu items and running shoes.
"Our guests have really gotten a kick out of the Relay robot and how it's programmed to ride the elevator to their room and call them to receive the items from its storage compartment," said Tom Long, general manager of The Westin Buffalo for Delaware North. "It's been successful thanks to Savioke working with Delaware North's information technology department and our front desk staff."
The Westin Buffalo has launched a social media campaign to help name the robot. You can vote on the hotel's Facebookor Twitterpages for one of the following names:
- Chip: This is a tribute to the hotel's location, on the corner of Delaware Avenue and Chippewa Street.
- Sally: This is a reference to the first "first lady" of Buffalo, Sally Johnson. She was by her husband's, the city's first mayor, as he designed the Johnson Cottage on the site where the Delaware North building now stands.
- Grover: A reference to Grover Cleveland, the 22nd and 24th president of the United States and one of Buffalo's former mayors.
- Silo: A nod to Buffalo's grain silos, dating back to the 19th and 20th centuries, when the city was at the center of the country's manufacturing and shipping industries.
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