Burned through billions, slashed prices by over 90%, hotel robots are running at a loss.

In a hotel brand franchised by Yang Yang in the Beijing area, half of the guest rooms are e-sports hotel rooms. Compared with other rooms, the guests in these rooms usually have a greater demand for takeaways. During the lunch peak, the delivery robots next to the front desk finish charging and start delivering food, which relieves some of the manual workload.

In recent years, the penetration rate of hotel robots in China has increased significantly. Several hotel franchisees of different types have revealed to Tech Planet that compared with meeting guest room needs such as delivering toiletries, delivering takeaways to hotel rooms remains the most important use case from the perspectives of labor savings and safety.

The hotel robot industry has just nurtured a listed company. Yunji Technology, which has cooperated with more than 34,000 hotels of groups such as Huazhu, Jinjiang, Home Inns, New Century, and InterContinental, just listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in mid - October. It holds a 13.9% market share in the domestic hotel - scene robot service market, ranking first.

However, these robots that deliver items in hotels are not profitable. Yunji Technology accumulated a loss of 800 million yuan from 2022 to 2024, revealing another side of the seemingly bustling industry.

A hotel agent told Tech Planet that the price of a hotel robot has dropped from an average of 130,000 yuan initially to 10,000 yuan now, a decrease of more than 90%. After the price war, the industry is now competing to see who can last until the end.

Price Cut by Over 90%, the Hotel Robot Industry Hit Hard by the Low - price War

Before Yunji Technology went public, capital's enthusiasm for hotel robots had waned for a long time. The last investment boom was in 2021.

As a leading enterprise in the industry, Yunji Technology completed a total of 8 rounds of financing between 2014 and 2021, with a cumulative financing amount of 1.202 billion yuan. Behind it stand a group of star investment institutions such as Tencent, Alibaba, Lenovo Capital and Incubator Group, Qiming Venture Partners, and Ctrip. After completing the Series D financing in December 2021, Yunji Technology's valuation also reached 4.08 billion yuan.

The entire commercial service robot industry reached the peak of the investment boom in 2021.

According to a report from EqualOcean Intelligence, in 2021, there were a total of 115 related financings in the service robot track, with a total financing amount of more than 44 billion yuan. Companies such as Pudu Technology, Keenon Robotics, and Gao Xian Robotics each received investments in the order of 1 billion yuan that year. However, from January to November of the following year, there were only 11 related financing events, less than the amount in one quarter of the previous year.

Zhang Shan, an agent for hotel robots, told Tech Planet that currently, the average price of each hotel service robot brand in China has dropped to 10,000 yuan, and even some products are priced below 10,000 yuan. Many agents are trying to find ways to make more money, and hotel robots have even become free gifts for agents in their cooperation with hotels on other higher - margin businesses.

Just like in other industries, in the hotel segment, there are many players, and the hotel robot products are highly homogeneous. Competing on price to seize the market has become the only way out.

A hotel industry insider revealed to Tech Planet that hotel robot companies that received large - scale financing from investment institutions have basically "burned through" their money, and some companies have suffered losses of more than one billion yuan.

Taking Yunji Technology, which has successfully "landed" in the market, as an example, even though it has cooperated with more than 30,000 hotels, its revenue scale is relatively small. From 2022 to 2024, Yunji Technology's revenues were 161 million yuan, 145 million yuan, and 245 million yuan respectively. During the same period, the net losses were as high as 365 million yuan, 265 million yuan, and 185 million yuan respectively, with a cumulative loss of more than 800 million yuan in three years.

In the first five months of 2025, Yunji Technology achieved an operating income of 88 million yuan, with a net loss of 118 million yuan. Roughly calculated, it means losing one - and - a - half units for every one unit sold.

In 2022, after the financing boom, the commercial service robot industry was hit by a series of problems such as corporate failures and layoffs. Also in 2022, OrionStar, a service robot company founded by Fu Sheng, mentioned in an article titled "Service Robots Are in a Period of Rapid Development" on its official WeChat account that the industry has mechanisms such as shipping products with only a 20% or even 10% advance payment to boost short - term sales. There are also "strange phenomena" in the industry, such as simply expanding product lines, sales teams, engaging in price wars, and using aggressive sales strategies to inflate book sales with the help of capital.

Hotel robot companies have also been caught in the price quagmire. Taking Yunji Technology as an example, its prospectus shows that in 2024, the average selling prices of each unit of the Gege, UP, and Run series were 20,900 yuan, 22,300 yuan, and 13,100 yuan respectively, with price cuts of 16%, 58.8%, and 36.4% compared with 2023. The price of the UP series, which was launched in 2023, was directly halved in just one year after its launch.

Among them, Run is the first - generation item - delivery robot product launched by Yunji Technology. Gege is an upgraded version launched in 2021, and UP is the third - generation composite polymorphic robot launched in 2023, with multiple functions such as "item delivery + cleaning".

Can Hotel and Restaurant Robots Effectively Replace Human Labor?

It's not just Yunji Technology; commercial service robots generally face the problem of making profits.

So - called commercial service robots are robots that provide various services to humans in non - manufacturing fields. They mainly include food delivery robots, hotel robots, commercial cleaning robots, and guiding robots. They are also the robots that people are most likely to see in daily life.

Whether it is a hotel or a catering enterprise, when considering whether to introduce robot equipment, the key consideration is whether it can effectively replace human labor.

An employee of a single - property hotel in the Beijing area told Tech Planet that compared with the takeaway demand scenario in single - property hotels, in large - scale chain hotels such as Huazhu Group, the labor cost that robots can replace is more reflected in guest room needs. This includes various items that guests need late at night, which can effectively reduce the staffing of on - duty personnel.

According to an industry insider, Yunji Technology's first - place market share is largely due to its cooperation with tens of thousands of hotels under Huazhu Group.

Although many players are vying for a share of the hotel "cake", the ceiling of the hotel robot industry is also obvious. A research report from Guangzheng Hengsheng shows that the penetration rate and average purchase quantity of robots in economy hotels are far lower than those in mid - to - high - end hotels.

For high - end luxury hotels, which emphasize more on human - touch services, according to the Guangzheng Hengsheng report, the robot penetration rate in luxury hotels is as low as 10%, and the demand is only 1,000 units. Therefore, mid - to - high - end hotels support the main market.

A franchisee of a Home Inns hotel told Tech Planet that usually, one robot is enough for every 50 guest rooms. In addition to the cost of purchasing the equipment, the hotel also needs to pay an annual operation and maintenance fee, including system authorization, remote maintenance, and upgrades, which is generally 10% of the equipment price. Maintenance personnel from the brand side will come for inspections every year.

The above - mentioned franchisee said that although the screens of hotel robots show services such as greeting and guiding, takeaway delivery remains the most practical scenario. However, limited by the storage area of the robots, large - sized products cannot be delivered by them. Moreover, in some hotels with a small number and area of elevators, it is easy for hotel robots to block guests from getting out of the elevator.

Yunji Technology currently ranks first in the domestic hotel robot market share, while Keenon Robotics and Pudu Technology rank among the top two in the catering robot market.

Compared with labor - intensive catering enterprises with lower labor costs, the above - mentioned franchisee said that the reason why hotel robots are more widely adopted is that one robot can replace 1 to 2 service staff, saving about 5,000 to 8,000 yuan in labor costs per month. Therefore, many chain hotels are willing to invest.

In addition to the domestic market, expanding to markets in Europe, the United States, Japan, and Southeast Asia is also a common choice for hotel robot companies.

The founder of RobotBank introduced to Tech Planet that the demand for catering robots in the European and American markets is higher, and it is also the main market that leading companies are competing for overseas. In the Japanese market, it is mainly large - scale chain catering enterprises that use catering robots, and the market pattern has been initially stabilized. Currently, Pudu Technology holds the largest market share.

Another person in charge of a robot company going overseas told Tech Planet that in the overseas market, the same price war is inevitable. For example, some companies sell products below cost to preempt the market. With highly homogeneous products, products with better design and more adapted to local needs will have certain advantages.

Moreover, according to the above - mentioned person in charge, in the Japanese market, hotel robot companies often face difficulties in the elevator access. Many Japanese elevator manufacturers believe that hotel robots pose certain risks and do not allow them to enter. Some robot companies going overseas will target hotels with wedding and party services, as well as shared office spaces.

Far from the End, Who Can Last Until the End?

The competition is far from over.

Taking hotel robots as an example, although Yunji Technology holds the top position, in 2024, the top five participants in the Chinese hotel - scene robot service market together accounted for 27.4% of the total market share. This is still a highly fragmented market, and the market share gap among the top three is not large.

The new scenarios such as medical and factory that Yunji Technology is exploring have not yet become its second growth curve. In 2024, the non - hotel revenue of Yunji Technology accounted for only 17%. And this track is also crowded with companies such as Keenon Robotics and Gao Xian Robotics, which are vying for positions with lower prices.

In contrast, from 2022 to 2024, the proportion of Yunji Technology's hotel - scene revenue in its total revenue was 70.1%, 95.1%, and 83% respectively, still highly dependent on the hotel market.

The robots in hotels are no longer just facilities with a sense of technology and novelty. They have become a practical proposition, aiming to help hotels save costs and improve efficiency beyond simple item - delivery and cleaning functions.

After the crazy expansion, hotel robot companies need to compete in terms of R & D investment and design capabilities. Although Yunji Technology disclosed in its prospectus that the company has nearly a thousand patents, the core patents are concentrated in hardware structures (such as replaceable storage modules), and its AI algorithms and closed - loop learning systems rely on external integration from Tencent Cloud and Alibaba IoT.

In addition, more service scenarios need to be expanded. An agent of Yunji Technology told Tech Planet that currently, Yunji Technology is piloting the deployment of noodle - cooking robots in chain hotels such as Home Inns. These robots can cook 66 bowls of noodles per minute, and each one is sold at 60,000 yuan, several times the price of a food - delivery robot.

Effective implementation is still the key. Currently, Yunji Technology's sales mainly rely on the more cost - effective Gege series. From 2022 to 2024, the sales volume of the Gege series increased from 1,326 units to 6,358 units, while the sales volume of the latest UP series in the past two years was only 864 units.

According to the above - mentioned Yunji Technology agent, the UP series has item - delivery and cleaning functions and can assist in cleaning carpets in hotels. However, the challenge is that compared with item - delivery, the cleaning function has more limited scenarios, and it is currently difficult to effectively replace the original human labor in hotels.

More cross - industry players are also entering the market. Companies such as Ubtech Robotics and Ecovacs Robotics rely on AI and supply - chain systems to conduct "dimensionality - reduction strikes" with their "hardware + ecosystem" advantages. Keenon Robotics and Pudu Technology penetrate the market through the "catering + hotel" dual - scenario approach.

In the view of a hotel industry insider, with the boom in AI investment this year, a large number of humanoid robots have received financing. With more abundant funds, they all have the opportunity to share the market share of service robots in the hotel and catering scenarios.

The market is far from reaching the end. The competition is still about who can seize the opportunity first and who can last until the end.

(Note: Yang Yang and Zhang Shan in the article are aliases.)

This article is from the WeChat official account "Tech Planet" (ID: tech618), author: Lin Jing. Republished by 36Kr with permission.