Elements Restaurant and Bar trial the very first robot waiter ‘Beepbop’ in Warrnambool

A Warrnambool business owner has employed a robot waiter at his restaurant and has big plans for a robot at his hotel. Read the details.

A Warrnambool restaurant is the talk of the town after introducing a robotic waiter.

Elements Restaurant and Bar has been trialling a robot waiter, who goes by the name of ‘Beepbop’, for over a week and restaurant owner Gene Seabrook is pleased with its performance.

The unique idea to introduce Beepbop, who can sing ‘Happy Birthday’, came about when Mr Seabrook was looking for something “different” to provide at the restaurant.

“We wanted something fun — we’ve already got the playground there for the kids -- and we thought a singing robot would fit the mark,” Mr Seabrook said.

While it does provide support for staff, he said it was “mostly for entertainment”.

“It makes the guests laugh — laughter is infectious.”

Beepbop, which was hired from Melbourne, can take multiple orders at the same time, move between tables and deliver food.

Elements Bar and Restaurant are the first business in Warrnambool to introduce the robot waiter to the public. Picture: Jack Colantuono

Mr Seabrook will travel to China next month to look at different models.

Amid a hospitality staff shortage, including in Warrnambool, Beepbop could be the way of the future.

Mr Seabrook said Warrnambool was not immune to the staff shortages.

“We’ve got a number of businesses here and all businesses are screaming out for staff,” Mr Seabrook said.

“It puts a lot of pressure on existing staff because they are having to fill the role of another one — so it’s a huge impact the staffing and the lack of housing that’s around at the moment too,” he said.

Mr Seabrook said when hospitality had to shut down completely, they were unable to open restaurants and motels couldn’t trade during the pandemic and this was continuing to have a ripple effect.

“Anyone that was laid off and not being able to stay on JobKeeper went and found other careers and other jobs.

“They thought well there’s other things out here besides working until ten o’clock at night serving beer.”

He said the issue now was not only finding staff, but having the staff available to train them.

“Covid was difficult, coming out of it is difficult, retaining staff has been difficult and trying to attract new ones to the area is near impossible with the housing shortage,” he said.

Mr Seabrook said the “cute little” robot was making a valued contribution to their business.

“Everybody in the restaurant turns around — it’s a great gimmick,” Mr Seabrook said.

He has considered keeping the robot permanently if everything continues to go well but is also turning his mind to potential other uses.

He has also considered investing in a robot for his other business — the Deep Blue Hotel and Hot Springs.

“It’s quite clever — it can ring the elevator, tell the elevator which floor it needs to go to and then when it gets to a guest’s room it will ring the room to let them know their food is at the door.

“So that actually would be somewhat of a labour saving — it doesn’t replace a person — and if we had people we would always rather use them.”

Mr Seabrook said other possibilities would be a robot taking up bathrobes, towels, slippers and a minibar set-up.

“I think there’s lots of little uses for it — it can be programmed to do a lot of things.”

Mr Seabrook encouraged other business owners to try it out.

“We don’t have to be the only ones in Warrnambool with a robot — it would be great to see them everywhere,” Mr Seabrook said.