Hotel robot accidentally smashes up a guest's sports car

Hotel robots are pretty amazing — they can run toiletries to guest rooms and even perform check-ins with dinosaur claws. But even robots make mistakes.

Case in point: a hotel's robotic parking device recently banged up a $64,000 Audi A5 in Manchester. Staycity Serviced Apartments has a special machine that pulls vehicles away and electronically parks them underground. But as guest Carol Riala told The Mirror, her expensive sports car came back worth considerably less.

"The back of the car was completely crumpled and smashed up. I just couldn’t believe it. The whole back window was completely put through. The car was not drivable. It was awful.”

She says the hotel apologized and handed over insurance details, but weeks later the property is now refusing liability for the accident, claiming the car's trunk was open. There's now a sign in front of the underground warning guests they "park at their own risk," and Riala is facing around $5,000 worth of damage that her insurance won't cover.

Staycity Serviced Apartments spokesperson Linda Pettit told Road Warrior Voices:

This was an unfortunate occurrence, but following a thorough investigation by our insurers we have been advised that Staycity is not liable for any claim for damages because the car boot was not securely closed.