ROME — Italy’s first staff-free hotel is due to open in the seaside resort of Rimini next year, replacing human beings with technology as far as possible.
 The hotel, to be called Homie, will initially have a human at the reception desk, but guests will book online and be given a code to enter the hotel and access their rooms. There will be no meals, but drinks and snacks from a dispenser and “totems” for communication with staff in a control centre.
 The minimalist 42-bedroom hotel, within walking distance of the beach, is the brain-child of Nardo Filippetti, the founder of the Lindbergh Hotels & Resorts group.
 Filippetti said the beds would have the same mattresses as in his Five Star hotels and each room would be fitted with a 50-inch television, but the “accessible luxury” would be available for just €50 a night.
 The tourism minister, Massimo Garavaglia, has warned that Italy’s hospitality sector is short of around 250,000 workers as it gears up for the post-Covid summer season. Filippetti has acknowledged that the difficulty in recruiting reliable staff was part of the motive behind his €3.5 million investment in Homie.
 “The sensation is that the situation won’t improve in coming months, so I said to myself, why pay for a service that is a disservice?” Filippetti said. “We’ll use an outside firm for cleaning.”
 Solar panels, security cameras and high resistance glass will complete the high-tech arrangements. “If anything is missing the client will inform us first, or he will be charged for it on departure. That will get rid of the idea that someone might walk out with the television,” the entrepreneur said.
 Filippetti is planning to open a dozen similar hotels over the next seven years, catering for price-sensitive customers who travel for work and are likely to be short of money.
 He is intending to expand in the human-intensive sector as well, with plans for boutique hotels in Rome, Milan and possibly Bologna. “They will be small luxury hotels with high quality service and prices of €600 to €800 for a room,” he told La Repubblica.