Which code where
| Job | Code type | Static or dynamic | Where |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wi-Fi | Wi-Fi | Static | Bedside card, hallway card, lobby |
| Guest guide and compendium | URL | Dynamic | Bedside, desk, back of the door |
| Room service and spa booking | URL | Dynamic | Inside the guide, or its own card |
| Check-out | URL | Dynamic | Check-out card, door hanger |
| Reviews | URL | Dynamic | Check-out card, thank-you email |
| Local guide | URL | Dynamic | Bedside card, hallway, lobby |
The room Wi-Fi card
Every guest wants the Wi-Fi within a minute of putting their bag down. A Wi-Fi code joins the network in one tap on most phones, with no typing of a password full of ones and lower-case Ls. Print the network name and the password in plain text beside it for the phones that do not offer to join, and for laptops.
Keep the card at the bedside or on the desk, at the height of a seated person. In a holiday let, put it in the hallway where guests drop their bags, and a second copy by the kettle. See the Wi-Fi type page for how the payload is built and what the iPhone does with it.
The compendium and services
The ring-bound compendium is the most ignored object in a hotel room. A dynamic code that opens a mobile page with breakfast times, checkout time, how the shower works, room service and the spa does the same job and is read. Because it is dynamic, breakfast moving to 7.30 at weekends is a change on your phone, not a reprint of 80 rooms.
Put booking buttons on that page rather than printing separate codes for the spa, the restaurant and the taxi. One code per room card is enough. If you have a large property, one dynamic code per room lets you see which rooms use the guide and whether the “how to work the heating” page is the one everyone opens.
Check-out and reviews
A check-out code lets a guest confirm they are leaving, request a late checkout or ask for an invoice by email, without a queue at the desk. It works best on a card left by the door on the last night.
Reviews are about timing. Put the review code on that same check-out card and in the thank-you email the day after. Point it at one review site, your choice, not a menu of three. The small business page covers where review codes work and where they do not.
The local guide
Guests ask the same questions: where to eat tonight, where to walk, who to call for a taxi. A local guide behind a dynamic code, written by you, beats a search because it is your judgement and it is current. Update it when a restaurant closes. For a holiday let this page is often the thing a guest mentions in their review.
Getting the in-room card right
- Size: 3 to 4 cm. The guest is 30 to 40 cm away, seated or standing at a desk.
- Material: laminated card or a printed acrylic block. Paper goes soft in a steamy bathroom and dog-eared within a season.
- Contrast: dark ink on cream or white suits most hotel palettes. Avoid gold foil and reversed white-on-navy, which many phones will not read; the colour guide explains why.
- Lighting: bedside lamps are dim and warm. Test the card under the actual lamp.
- Words: one line per code. “Scan to join Wi-Fi”, “Scan for the guest guide”.
Do this
A laminated bedside card with a 3.5 cm Wi-Fi code and a 3.5 cm guest-guide code, dark brown on cream, each with a one-line label and the Wi-Fi password printed in plain text.
Not this
A gold-foil code on a glossy navy card under a dim lamp, no label, pointing at a 40-page PDF compendium that takes fifteen seconds to open on the hotel Wi-Fi.
In practice
Sit on the bed with the lamp on and the curtains closed, and scan every card in the room with a three-year-old phone. That is the guest’s experience, not the one at your desk under office lights.
Fake-sticker note
Lobbies and lifts are public, and a sticker with a payment or “verify your booking” code placed over yours is a known scam. Keep codes in rooms and behind laminate or acrylic, put your name and logo in the design so a plain replacement stands out, and never ask guests to pay through a code in a public area. More in the security explainer.
Try it yourself
Enter the guest network name and password in the payload builder and it produces the Wi-Fi payload ready to print. In QR Studio, save the guest guide as a dynamic code so the page can change between guests.