2019 Edit: Henn na Hotel has, sadly, decided to greatly reduce the number of their robots from 243 robots at their peak to 85 robots (as of Jan 2019), with the number of entertainment robots being reduced the most. The third and newest wing does not have any more robots. Reasons for this decrease are: 

• The robots have already become outdated, i.e. robots that were novel when they were introduced 4 years ago aren’t exciting to customers any more. 
• Maintenance is increasingly become a problem
• Voice recognition problems (which I think, given the large number of foreign guests, be a big issue for Japanese staff)

Instead, the hotel will aim to be a completely cashless hotel instead, in line with their mission to be keep changing and increase efficiency. For more information, read this post.

Last week, my mom and bro came and we stayed at Henn na Hotel! It’s basically the robot hotel at Huis ten Bosch and is actually recognised by Guinness as the world’s first robot staffed hotel. I was super excited to stay there because I’ve been there are few times as part of my work and have always been itching to take photos but couldn’t.

Until now.

As a guest, I could take as many pictures as I want and I probably went a little overboard.

I mean, I didn’t have to take a picture of the entrance but I could so I did.

Greeted by a huge robot at the front door:

And of course, Tully-chan, the mascot of Huis ten Bosch. Tully is a tulip, but quite a lot of people don’t seem to see it for some reason. This Tully can only give a specific welcome, but she is activated by motion sensors so that’s kind of fun.

This is the robot porter which costs 500 yen to use. There are cheaper coin lockers outside but the robot porter looks really cool and you can be sure that no one will ever be able to get your luggage since there’s no way to enter the room.

Since I was going immediately to the room once I checked in, I didn’t have to use this.

This is the robot orchestra, all made out of Robohons! The Robohon was released as a robot handphone but now they’re musicians.

Right now (2017) they perform 3 times a day – 3pm, 4pm, 9pm.

This is a view of the two blocks that currently exist! They have different designs (and were built by different companies) but the layout and size are basically the same.

And the check-in area, which my brother was SO EXCITED about.

Obviously, I wanted to check in with the dinosaur.

Luckily my brother and I think the same.

There are two dinosaurs and one lady robot. All robots can speak Japanese, English, Korean and Chinese.

Our check-ins went pretty smoothly. My brother had a minor problem because the name on his passport is too long, but I had absolutely no problems. I checked in using Japanese and used the speech-to-text function and it got my name right on the first try!

My mom managed to take a video so here’s what it’s like:

I actually tried to enter my name at first and then I realised I could just say it so that’s the tapping that stops in the first part.

These are the robot porters which can hold your luggage and guide you to your room. They’re currently only available for guests of deluxe rooms in Block A.

These are some of the robots on display at the lobby (and they’re all for sale).

There’s also a tiny robot pianist (he doesn’t actually play though). My mom recognised him as the robot that cleans our house haha.

And this is where we stayed!

This block features more wood-elements because Huis ten Bosch means “house in the woods” and they wanted it to have a more natural vibe. The other block was inspired by the fact this is a robot hotel so it looks a lot whiter.

And the door! What I really liked about the door is that you can register your face the first time you open the door (tap the card at the bottom, hit scan in the middle and look at the camera. Make sure the green “accepted” light flashes) and then you don’t have to use the room key anymore!

It actually worked realy well for me. I had no problems using it. I have heard, however, that if you register while wearing a face full of make up and then take it off, there can be problems recognising your face.

And inside the room! This is a deluxe room so it’s the biggest room available!

And a look from a different angle:

There’s a cute little area for you to sit, although I basically just sat on the bed because there was a reading lamp.

By the way, the deluxe room can sleep up to four people but two of the beds will be extra beds.

And this Tully-chan controls the room! You can ask her to sing a song, tell you the weather forecast, turn off and on the lights, etc. My brother LOVED talked to her and she actually understood him (I had huge problems talking to her at first but everything worked well on this stay).

Currently, Tully can understand English and Japanese. There is a little instruction manual at the bottom too, because she responds to set phrases.

And this is the vanity area:

Yay for lots of hangers!

The view from the window – the gate is Aura gate and it’s basically for hotel guests to use. Because it’s a pretty long walk if you backtrack to the main gate.

And you can see the start of the shooting star zip line! Plus Dom Toren!

Another view from my room.

And the robot that cuts the grass:

And this was the view when I walked into Huis ten Bosch from the hotel.

This was a really fun stay for my family and me. The hotel is pretty comfortable and we had absolutely no problems with Tully-chan in the room or the facial recognition software. It’s a bit far from the park compared to the 3 hotels (Hotel Amsterdam, Hotel Europe, and Forest Villa) which are all either in the park or right next to it but it’s basically the same as Hotel Nikko or Hotel Okura so you might as well stay in somewhere a little different if you’re planning to come to Huis ten Bosch.

Plus there is a gate that leads right to Adventure Park so when I say “far” I mean “located near the entrance rather than the heart of the park”.