Making QR codes that get scanned

A QR code is a printed link. Isle Stay makes ten kinds, counts the scans on most of them, and gives you a file to print.

QR codes are on every plan, including free.

The ten kinds

Pick the type first - it changes what you are asked for next.

• Welcome Book - one of your welcome books
• Listing - a property's public page
• Landing page - your public page
• Wi-Fi - joins the network directly
• Google review - your review link
• vCard - your contact details, saved to their phone
• Link - any URL
• PDF / menu - a document
• Concierge - your experiences
• Payment - a payment link

The four that most hosts actually print are Welcome Book, Wi-Fi, Google review and Listing.

Tracking, and the one exception

Most codes route through a short Isle Stay link, so you can see total scans, unique visitors, what kind of device, and which days. That is how you find out the code in the guest folder is being ignored while the one on the fridge is doing all the work.

The Wi-Fi code is the exception. It cannot be tracked, and that is not a setting we forgot. A wifi QR has to contain the network name and password themselves for a phone to join - there is nothing to route through a link. Any product claiming to track wifi scans is doing something else.

If you want the scan count, use a Welcome Book code that has the wifi details inside it. You get the number and the guest gets the password, at the cost of one extra tap.

Print the SVG, not the PNG

Both are offered. Use the SVG for anything printed.

An SVG is drawn at whatever size it is placed, so it stays crisp on a card, a window sticker or an A4 sheet. A PNG is a fixed grid of pixels - enlarge it and the edges soften, and a QR code with soft edges is a QR code that takes three tries to scan in bad light.

Use the PNG for screens: an email, a WhatsApp message, a slide.

What to print, and where

For a typical villa, three codes cover almost everything:

1. Welcome Book - by the front door and on the fridge. Two copies of the same code is fine and it doubles the odds it gets used.
2. Wi-Fi - beside the router, and repeat the details inside the welcome book for anyone who cannot find the sticker.
3. Google review - near the exit or on the check-out note. This is the highest-return code in the house and it is the one most hosts never print.

Practical things that decide whether a code works:

• Size. About 3cm square is the floor for a code someone scans at arm's length. Smaller looks tidier and fails in dim light.
• Contrast. Dark code on a light background. A code printed over a photograph is decoration, not a link.
• Quiet margin. Leave white space around it. Codes butted against a border fail on older phones.
• Height. Chest height on a wall. Codes at skirting level do not get scanned.

Always test before you print a hundred

Scan it with your own phone, and check it lands where you meant. Then check it on a second phone if you have one - a code that works on a new iPhone and fails on an old Android is usually a size or contrast problem.

Common questions

If I reprint, do the old codes stop working? No. A code keeps pointing at the same thing. That is exactly why the printed ones are safe.

Can I change where an existing code points? Yes, for the tracked types - the printed code stays valid and the destination moves. This is the strongest argument for using a tracked type rather than a raw Link code.

Why is my scan count higher than the number of guests? It counts scans, and people scan twice. Unique visitors is the number closer to what you mean.

A guest says nothing happens when they scan. Nine times in ten the phone camera is not focusing because the code is too small or too close. Ask them to back off a little.

Can I put my logo in the middle? Not today. Worth knowing that logos in QR codes eat into the error correction that makes them scannable at all.