Hospitality robots explained, with luxury executive Maurice Boumen - De L'Europe

Staff costs in restaurants have climbed from 30% to 40% of revenue since before Covid, and more than half of the people working in Dutch hospitality are under 24. Two robots now say they can help, one folding about 1,600 table-ready napkins a day for Din Tai Fung and one making ice cream in 55 steps inside a Dairy Queen store in China. We asked the Director of Rooms at a three-Key Amsterdam hotel which of the two he would let on his team. Dyna Robotics, a Californian start-up founded in 2024, put a two-arm robot into a pilot with the Taiwanese dumpling chain Din Tai Fung, which asked for at least 1,500 napkins a day, one every 43 seconds. In August Dyna announced that its robots had passed Din Tai Fung's return on investment test. Sharpa, known for its dexterous Wave hand, runs a humanoid in a Dairy Queen store that was not rebuilt for it, working 12 hours a day. This episode explains where robots in hospitality already make business sense and where they do not. In this episode from The Robot Bureau, Rogier and Lei start a new monthly series that looks at one industry at a time, beginning with hospitality, with Maurice Boumen, Director of Rooms at Hotel De L'Europe Amsterdam, joining by video call. By Dyna's count its latest robot folds about 95 napkins an hour and more than nine in ten pass the quality check, which adds up to roughly 1,600 napkins over an 18-hour day. Covering the same hours takes three people on eight-hour shifts, and at the Dutch minimum wage of about 15 euros an hour that comes to roughly 130,000 euros a year per restaurant before other employer costs. The Dairy Queen robot is a harder case. Rogier puts the machine at 100,000 to 125,000 euros with the hands as the main cost, and it takes five to six minutes per cup where a person takes two to three. "Absolutely in." Maurice on the napkin robot, and then a firm "Out" on the robot that serves ice cream. Hospitality has chef shortages in 17 European countries and about 30,000 open vacancies in the Netherlands alone, so the pressure on staffing is not going away. Maurice draws his line between the back of house, where robots can take over systematic tasks, and the front of house, where guests still want a person. The first robots in restaurants and hotels will most likely do the repetitive work nobody sees. Rogier and Lei cover: why staff costs reached 40% of restaurant revenue, why Dyna started with napkins, why the Dairy Queen robot is not a vending machine, what a humanoid costs against a human team, how Maurice answered the three either-or questions in the lightning round, and how long it takes Lei to fold a napkin by hand. Verdict: Maurice is in on the napkin robot and out on the ice cream robot, for now. Chapters: 00:00 In or out, the trailer 00:47 Welcome and the idea behind the series 02:04 Why hospitality, with staff costs at 40% of revenue 03:28 Meet Maurice Boumen of Hotel De L'Europe 03:44 What luxury hospitality means today 06:11 30,000 vacancies in the Netherlands 07:12 Where hotels look for technology 08:05 Story 1, Dyna Robotics and Din Tai Fung 08:30 The 36 second napkin test 12:04 1,600 napkins a day 14:34 The 130,000 euro staffing sum 18:17 Maurice's verdict on story 1 19:45 Story 2, Sharpa and Dairy Queen 21:47 The 55 steps behind one ice cream 22:35 Why this is not a vending machine 24:36 What the robot costs against a human team 27:43 A robot that fails every hour 28:25 Maurice's verdict on story 2 29:36 Lightning round Recorded at NIO House Amsterdam, thanks to NIO for hosting us. Subscribe to our channel for insider perspectives on Physical AI. Follow The Robot Bureau • YouTube:    / @therobotbureau   • Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/19Rva92... • Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/id... • Substack: https://substack.com/@therobotbureau • LinkedIn:   / the-robot-bureau   • X: https://x.com/therobotbureau • Host Lei Li:   / leilibeyondthenow   • Host Rogier Bikker:   / rogierbikker