Cutting-edge hotel uses robots at check-in desk

The English-speaking receptionist is a vicious-looking dinosaur, and the one speaking Japanese is a female humanoid with blinking lashes. "If you want to check in, push one," the dinosaur says.

From the front desk to an automated trolley that takes luggage up to the room, this hotel in southwestern Japan, aptly dubbed the Weird Hotel, is "manned" almost totally by robots.

Hideo Sawada, who runs the inn as part of an amusement park, insists using robots is not a gimmick, but a serious effort to utilize technology, save labor costs and achieve efficiency.