Klaas Koerten
Klaas Koerten is a researcher at Hotelschool The Hague specialising in robotics, technology, and innovation in the hospitality industry, with special focus on housekeeping operations. After graduating in Mechanical Engineering at Delft University of Technology (TU Delft), he started at Hotelschool The Hague in 2021 in a collaboration with RoboHouse, where he began researching the application of robotics and automation in hotel environments.
He is currently pursuing a Professional Doctorate (PD) focused on improving working conditions for housekeeping employees through technological innovations.
Research focus: Technology and humans in hospitality
The research projects of Klaas Koerten focus on the interaction between technology and humans in the hospitality industry. Having researched hospitality robotics and service automation for more than three years at Hotelschool The Hague, his focus has evolved.
Because Hospitality is such a highly human-centered industry, his research examines how emerging technologies such as robotics, automation, and assistive influence employees, workflows, and service quality.
Operational innovations in housekeeping and hotel operations
While the hospitality industry is often described as being overrun with innovations and disruptive technologies, core hotel operations, especially housekeeping, have changed relatively little over the past decades.
Cooking meals and changing beds are still performed in a manner like forty years ago.
Operational processes also vary widely within our industry, even within the same job roles. A robot designed to clean bathrooms would requires a very design and application than a robot intended to assist with making beds. Therefore, when developing technological innovations, it is important to select specific tasks where technology can genuinely add value is crucial.
Work environments and sustainable employment in hospitality
For many years, the hospitality industry has faced employment challenges, including staff shortages, high turnover rates, and elevated sick leave. It therefore makes sense to use innovation and address these issues. Klaas’s research focuses on how technology can reduce physically demanding and unhealthy tasks in housekeeping jobs, contributing to sustainable employment, improved job satisfaction, and long-term workforce retention.
Professional Doctorate in housekeeping ergonomics and technology
Since November 2024, Klaas Koerten has been working on a four-year Professional Doctorate research project focused on innovating housekeeping jobs through ergonomics and technology.
In this project, he tests ergonomic job improvements and technological interventions to inform the hospitality industry on how employment challenges can be mitigated. Examples of innovations include the Duvetlifter (a new tool that reduces physical strain when changing duvet covers) height-adjustable beds that enable healthy working postures, and motorised supply carts to reduce physical load.
My interest used to be focused solely on technology. However, after my graduation project on human-machine interaction, I realised that designing technological solutions is one thing but tailoring them to the needs of the people that will use them it is a completely different challenge.
Hospitality technology is always deployed in a working environment where it interacts with humans. How these interactions are designed, and how they influence operations, is of the utmost importance. Hotelschool The Hague offers a unique opportunity to test and evaluate these innovations in real-world hospitality environments.