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Comment by advael | Hacker News Reader

Claims of automation really fall apart for me when they rely on outsourcing. Even setting aside ethical considerations, this business relies on there being a stable source of cheap labor. Moving that labor to remote monitoring and presumably some kind of local intervention skeleton crew for when they report something may be more in line with the experience customers want than a gym that is perceptibly staffed, but automation is a strong word for that

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I wonder how well some type of skeleton crew will work on long term. If you are paying premium price you want issues fixed now, not for the next visit. And if someone over worked have to run from site to site all around the city it can't be too fast to get stuff worked. And even if you cancel pre-emptively reservations people will only take that so many times...

What can go wrong with a table tennis business that would require urgent onsite intervention?

Break a bat, table or net? - just move to another bay.

Video replay not working even after remote intervention? Give the customer a credit.

Customer flips out after hitting their third backhand into a net, holds their bat to another player's neck while frothing at the mouth? Call the security firm.

Breaking table or net. How many bays there are? What is the utilization of those at popular times? Someone remote confirms this. Orders repair. Is repair person available or fixing things somewhere else?

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