Comparison
A robot in reception is usually sold as a cheaper receptionist. That is not the job it does. The useful comparison is greeting and wayfinding against a tablet, and both of those against a person who can still handle exceptions.
Hotels, offices, clinics, and campuses buy these machines for the photograph and then discover the desk still needs a human. Pepper greets and shows a screen. Temi can roll the screen to a visitor. A tablet on a stand does the same information job without wheels, a dock, or a map of the lobby. A person still owns bags, complaints, VIPs, and anything the script does not cover.
Relay is a different product again. It delivers sealed items down a corridor. Putting it at the front desk to “welcome guests” is buying a runner and asking it to host.
ⓘ Quick Answer
A lobby robot is worth costing only if visitors ask the same few questions all day, the floor is level and open, and a person still owns exceptions. For a quiet desk, buy a tablet or keep the person. For late-night amenity runs, look at a delivery robot instead of a greeter.
What each option actually does
The overlap is smaller than the brochure implies. Name the job before you name the brand.
Pepper
A standing greeter with a chest screen. Good at attracting a glance, showing a menu or directory, and speaking a short script. It does not take payment, check a guest in, or recover when the question is unusual. See whether Pepper works in a shop — a lobby fails in the same ways a shop floor does.
Temi
A rolling screen with mapping and video call. Worth it when the display must travel to the person, not when someone can walk ten metres with a tablet. That test is the whole of Temi versus a tablet.
A tablet or kiosk
Fixed. Always powered. No battery, no dock, no aisle width. Directory, check-in form, or queue ticket for a fraction of the robot price. It cannot follow a visitor or greet someone who never walks up to it.
A person at the desk
Handles exceptions, reads mood, takes a bag, calls security, and improvises. That is the actual reception job. A robot can peel off the repeatable slice. It cannot own the desk.
If the real pain is toothbrushes at midnight or samples between floors, you are shopping a delivery robot. Start with how to choose a delivery robot, not a greeter.
Where a lobby robot can work
The buildings that keep these machines share a physical pattern, not a brand preference.
- The same five questions, all day. Wi-Fi, toilets, meeting room, restaurant hours, “where is lift B”. A script can own that list. A script cannot own “my reservation vanished and my child is crying”.
- A wide, level lobby. Thresholds, tight furniture, and a crowd around the desk stop a rolling robot and embarrass a standing one.
- Steady, not chaotic, traffic. A convention surge or a school visit turns a novelty into an obstacle. A quiet Tuesday morning is the better test than opening week.
- Someone owns the machine. Content, charging, and “it is stuck by the sofa” need a named person on each shift. Unowned robots become furniture within a fortnight.
- A person still visible. Guests accept a robot that answers the easy questions when they can still see a human for the hard ones. They do not accept an empty desk and a smiling screen.
💡 What to Check
Stand at the desk for one busy hour and tally questions. If more than half need judgement, a badge, a key, or a conversation, do not buy a greeter. Buy staffing, a better queue, or a tablet for the leftover directory questions.
Where a tablet or a person still wins
- A small office with a quiet door. There is nothing for the robot to do between visitors, and the dock becomes the product.
- Fine hotels and clinics where the greeting is the product. A scripted torso undercuts the feeling you are selling. Keep the person; spend the money on the stay.
- Stairs, steps, or a split-level lobby. Almost no indoor service robot changes level without a lift integration you probably do not have.
- Outdoor or threshold-heavy entries. Weather mats, automatic doors, and wet floors are a common place for these projects to stall.
- Languages and accents the demo never tested. A tablet with large buttons and your own copy is often clearer than a voice model that fails in the room you have.
- Security and privacy rules. A camera that roams a lobby is a different conversation from a fixed screen. Read the home robot privacy checklist with your facilities and legal people before you sign — the same questions apply at work.
The hybrid most sites land on
The pattern that survives the first month looks like this, whether the building is a hotel, an office, or a campus.
- A person owns the desk. They take exceptions, bags, and anything that needs a key or a judgement.
- A tablet or kiosk owns the directory. Hours, maps, Wi-Fi, and forms sit on something that does not need charging mid-morning.
- A robot, if you still want one, owns one extra slice. Either greeting the queue with a short script (Pepper), taking the screen to a seated visitor (Temi), or running a sealed item after check-in (Relay). One slice, not all three.
Staff accept a machine that removes a walk they hated. They resist a machine introduced as their replacement. That split is the same story as how robots change jobs without replacing them and the hotel-floor version in what office and hotel staff actually gain.
Costs people miss at the front desk
The quote is the start of the bill, not the end of it.
- Content someone must write and update. A greeter with last year’s restaurant hours is worse than no greeter. Budget hours every month, not a one-off setup.
- Wi-Fi across the whole floor the robot may enter. Dead spots become a stopped machine in the middle of a lobby photograph.
- A charging dock that is not in a fire route. It needs power and a quiet corner that guests will not treat as a bench.
- Software subscription and remote management. Often ongoing for the life of the machine.
- A stuck-robot procedure. Who notices, who resets, and what the guest is told while that happens.
- Accessibility and fire egress. Aisle widths are legal requirements. A robot that narrows the path to the desk can fail an inspection even if the demo looked friendly.
- Local support. Ask who attends when it fails on a Saturday, in your country, in your language.
If you are also costing amenity delivery, use the same method as whether hotel service robots pay off. Do not mix greeting hours and delivery trips into one payback number. They are different machines.
Reception checklist
Answer these before you request a quote
- What are the five questions visitors ask most, counted over a real hour?
- How many of those need a person, a key, or a judgement?
- Is the lobby level, wide, and indoor all the way to where the robot would stand?
- Would a tablet on a stand answer the leftover questions?
- Who on each shift owns charging, content, and a stuck machine?
- What still works if the internet or the vendor service drops?
- Are you buying a greeter, a rolling screen, or a delivery robot — and only one?
- Have you walked the busiest route with a loaded trolley to see what a robot would hit?
- Have you asked the desk team what they would want it to take off them first?
Final Thoughts
A reception robot is a specialist tool for a repeatable greeting or a travelling screen. It is not a cheaper person, and it is not a delivery robot that happens to smile.
Start with the tally of real questions. If a tablet covers them, stop there. If a person is the product, keep the person. If one narrow slice remains — the same script, all day, on a level floor, with a named owner — then a machine from the service aisle is worth a quote.
Compare Pepper, Temi, and Relay as three different jobs on Robot.help before you talk to a supplier. The right first purchase is usually smaller than the demo suggests.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can a robot replace a receptionist?
Generally no. It can take a short list of repeated questions. Check-in problems, bags, complaints, and anything off-script still need a person. Headcount rarely falls; the remaining work just gets more concentrated.
Is a tablet enough instead of Temi or Pepper?
Often yes. If visitors will walk up to a stand, a tablet is cheaper, always on, and easier to update. Buy Temi only if the screen must travel on its own. Buy Pepper only if a standing greeter is the job, not the information itself.
Should a hotel buy a greeter or a delivery robot first?
If late amenities or room deliveries are the pain, buy a delivery robot first and keep the desk human. A greeter does not carry toothbrushes. Cost the two jobs separately.
Will guests like it?
Curiosity is real for a few weeks and then fades. Plan for the quiet phase, because that is when the robot has to earn its keep on the questions it actually answers.
Do these robots work in a multi-storey lobby?
Only on the level they are placed on, unless you have a working lift integration. Most first deployments should stay on one floor.
What if we want all three: greet, video call, and deliver?
That is three products. Start with the job that wastes the most staff time, run it for a month, and only then add a second machine.