Struggling to provide great guest experiences while keeping processes efficient?
You’re not alone. One of the most significant hospitality industry challenges is enhancing customer experiences without increasing headcount or sacrificing other hotel operations. While this might be challenging to achieve, it’s not impossible—at least, not when you have the right tools.
QR Codes have become integral to improving hospitality experiences and hotel operations. They can streamline the check-in process, room service, housekeeping, and other key workflows without adding staff or complexity, making them invaluable for both guests and hotel employees.
Here, we dive into QR Codes for hospitality services, looking at why, how, and when to use them to enhance both your hotel operations and your guest experience.
Note: The brands and examples discussed below were found during our online research for this article.
Why operational efficiency matters in hospitality
With the increasing demand for high-quality services, combined with hotels’ limited staffing, operational efficiency is more critical than ever in the hospitality industry.
As a hotelier, you need to streamline everyday touchpoints—check-ins, checkouts, amenity access, room service orders, and concierge services—to reduce costs and improve both guest satisfaction and employee bandwidth. Here’s a deeper look at why achieving operational efficiency should be one of your top priorities.
Guests want smooth, contactless experiences
Guest expectations have evolved drastically since the COVID-19 pandemic. In fact, 73% of travelers say they are more likely to choose hotels with contactless self-service solutions to minimize contact with other guests and hotel staff.
Given this shift in preference, you need to adopt mobile-first services like self-check-in and contactless room service ordering to enhance guest satisfaction and overall experiences.
Fortunately, QR Codes can help by streamlining access to digital destinations like check-in or checkout pages, virtual menus, and online concierge services, reducing front desk traffic and demand on hotel staff. With these solutions, guests get more control over their stays, and staff can focus on higher-value tasks, like optimizing room occupancy. It’s a win-win for all.
Staff are managing more with less
Despite improvements to pay and benefits, 65% of hotels still report staffing shortages. Unfortunately, this means that either guest experiences will suffer or hotel staff will have to handle increased workloads—or both. This makes it vital for hoteliers to consider innovative solutions like QR Codes.
By providing access to self-service resources, QR Codes can help reduce routine requests and repetitive questions that take up hotel staff’s time, allowing employees to focus on high-impact tasks without jeopardizing guest experiences. This is especially valuable for lean teams during peak seasons.
Many hotels still rely on paper and signage
Many hotels still rely on printed materials to share vital information, such as signage and menus, but they often lack efficiency in today’s fast-paced hospitality environments. They may become outdated quickly, and updates can be time-consuming and expensive.
To run smoothly, hotels must find more efficient ways to communicate with guests. That’s where QR Codes come in. With Dynamic Bitly Codes, you can seamlessly share info with guests via a quick smartphone scan. And with a paid Bitly plan, you can update the destination link at any time, without reprinting materials.
Want to change your courses or offer seasonal specials? You don’t have to go through the hassle of printing and distributing new menus. Just create a new menu landing page and replace your QR Code’s old URL with the new page’s link.
Digital tools must be easy to manage
While the right hospitality technology solutions can simplify your workflows and streamline operations, an overly complex tool defeats the purpose of adopting new tech in the first place.
If you have to hire a developer or IT team to maintain your solutions, you’ll likely need to redirect resources from other parts of your hotel, like room service staffing, to afford the extra expense.
So it’s important to prioritize easy-to-use solutions, like Bitly’s QR Code generator (for your QR Codes) and Bitly Pages (for your landing pages). These products are intuitive and require zero coding experience, meaning any team member can effectively manage them.
Every guest interaction is a branding opportunity
Every customer touchpoint offers a unique chance to reinforce your brand identity and encourage loyalty. The right solutions, like Bitly Codes, can help you take advantage of this opportunity.
Depending on your Bitly plan, you can create QR Codes with your hotel’s brand colors, add your logo to the middle, and embed them with branded short links with your own domain and custom back-halves. The result is a more cohesive, polished experience across the guest journey.
How hotels are using QR Codes to improve operations
QR Codes aren’t exactly new to the hotel scene. Many hoteliers already use them to reduce bottlenecks, offer more convenience, and help staff move faster behind the scenes. So let’s look at some real-world QR Code ideas for hospitality businesses—that have already proven their worth.
Simplify check-in and checkout
QR Codes at entrances or reception desks can direct guests to mobile check-in forms, keycard activation instructions, and checkout pages, giving guests a little more freedom when checking in and out. They can do either at any time, without worrying about long lines.
These codes also reduce the burden on hotel staff, allowing them to focus on critical tasks. For example, rather than checking in every guest, they can quickly help those who have issues with their reservations.
When you go for trackable codes, like Bitly Codes, you can monitor scan activity and virtual check-in or checkout volumes across locations in real time to gauge adoption of your new system. Just create unique codes for each task and hotel, then track scan activity in your Bitly Analytics dashboard (plan-based features may apply).
Offer mobile access to room service menus
QR Codes placed in hotel rooms can provide instant access to digital menus and ordering forms, allowing guests to place their orders without staff intervention. This reduces human contact and ordering times, meeting customers’ need for smooth contactless operations while freeing employees to focus on other tasks.
Dynamic QR Codes can also eliminate the need to constantly reprint physical menus whenever item pricing or availability changes, since you can update their destination URLs without changing the codes themselves.
With Bitly, you can create landing pages that link to online menus or ordering sites via URL and then attach the landing page links to QR Codes for easy access—no technical expertise required.
Provide self-service requests for housekeeping or maintenance
QR Codes placed in rooms or bathrooms can provide quick access to service request forms, allowing guests to schedule room cleaning, request toiletries or towels, and report faulty items with a single scan.
It’s a great way to make guests feel empowered and facilitate quicker services. Plus, it can reduce call volume to the front desk and make it easy for staff to stay organized by centralizing task requests.
Share daily resort schedules and events
Printing daily schedules and events is not only time- and resource-consuming but also potentially harmful to the environment. Instead, use QR Codes on signage and welcome packets to link to centralized event schedules and daily itineraries for guests.
Beyond reducing paper use, QR Codes can allow real-time updates in case schedules change, making it easy for hoteliers to keep guests informed. This can enhance guest satisfaction and reduce the number of front desk inquiries, easing the burden on hotel staff.
Display digital guides or amenity info
QR Codes in guest rooms, lobby areas, or at the front desk can link to digital guestbooks, spa service lists, gym hours, pool guides, and even Wi-Fi passwords, minimizing paper use and physical signage. This can also reduce the time staff spend answering repetitive questions, freeing them up to focus on the guest experience.
When you link your codes to a Bitly landing page, you can share all these details and more in a single, mobile-friendly location, creating a comprehensive and convenient guide for your guests.
Support contactless concierge and messaging
QR Codes in rooms and around the hotel premises can link to a URL that directs to a concierge form, SMS messaging, or a WhatsApp chat, allowing guests to initiate conversations with support services via a single scan.
They can get the assistance they need anytime, anywhere, while you can reduce phone line wait times by eliminating the need to call the front desk for every special request. This could result in faster response times as well, further elevating the guest experience.
What metrics help hotels understand performance
Dynamic QR Codes can provide a wide range of engagement data to help you understand guest behavior and spot operational improvement opportunities.
With Bitly, you get real-time scan data via Bitly Analytics, so you can make optimization decisions based on how your guests actually engage. For example, with the Free Plan, you receive landing page view data, which can help you gauge guests’ interest in different offerings.
Let’s take a look at what metrics to track and how they can be valuable for your hospitality business.
Track scan volume by day and location
Bitly Analytics monitors total scans over time, showing you when and where (city/country) guests engage with QR Code touchpoints the most. This metric can help you optimize staffing and schedules for different areas of your operations.
Say you consistently see high scan rates for spa bookings at your Austin location Wednesday through Saturday, but only a few trickling in the rest of the week. Use that to inform your scheduling going forward and avoid under- or overstaffing your spa.
Identify most-used services
When you create unique QR Codes for each service or offering—housekeeping, room service, concierge, gym, and spa schedules—total scan data can show you which service requests or hotel amenities are in the highest demand. This makes it an essential metric for well-informed resource planning and investment prioritization.
If Bitly Analytics shows that more people are scanning spa QR Codes than gym QR Codes, it may indicate that guests will value an upgraded spa experience over a new row of Peloton bikes.
Monitor engagement by device type
Bitly Analytics shows you scans by device, revealing whether guests tend to scan your codes with iOS or Android devices. This allows you to optimize web pages, resources, and apps for the devices guests use the most, promoting great user experiences and potentially reducing drop-offs due to poorly displayed content.
The platform also tracks scans by mobile, tablet, and desktop, which can be helpful if you use your QR Codes in digital content as well, such as your website and social media pages.
Compare engagement across locations or campaigns
Bitly can help you streamline campaign management via Bitly Campaigns. This advanced feature allows you to tag links with specific campaign names, making it easy to monitor performance by medium used, region, or even amenity.
Say you create separate links for hotel signage and SMS communications and then link them to QR Codes. You can tag the links by “print” and “SMS” for an easy time comparing the two mediums.
If you run a franchise, you could also group embedded links by region to see how target audiences engage across locations.
Use the data to identify which efforts resonate the most with guests, then replicate what works and eliminate or tweak what doesn’t. If your analytics show that guests engage the most with SMS communications, run more text message campaigns in the future.
When QR Codes make the biggest difference for hotel operations
QR Codes are a great way to modernize guest touchpoints without a full tech overhaul. Some of the best-fit use cases include:
During peak season or high occupancy periods
Let’s be honest, maintaining high service quality and operational efficiency during peak seasons or high-occupancy periods can be challenging, but QR Codes can help.
These two-dimensional barcodes allow guests to take some control over their experiences, reducing the burden on hotel staff. Rather than waiting for staff to check them in or share your hotel’s daily itinerary, travelers can scan designated codes to access whatever they need themselves.
QR Codes can also reduce bottlenecks in service delivery by minimizing staff interactions. For instance, room service QR Codes allow guests to order food from the kitchen without involving the front desk. The fewer the go-betweens, the quicker the service delivery and the lower the risk of errors.
For resorts or hotels with many amenities
For hotels with a wide range of amenities, check-in can become overwhelming. You want to highlight your offerings and ensure guests have all the information they need, but you probably see their eyes glazing over halfway through the list.
QR Codes are an ideal solution. Instead of handing out stacks of printed materials or delivering an endless monologue at check-in, guests can scan a QR Code for each amenity to get schedules, service options, and even booking forms on demand.
For an even more convenient experience, you can organize links to each amenity on a single landing page. One scan takes guests to everything you have to offer.
When signage or printed materials need to change often
If you offer seasonal menus or regularly change your service offerings, you probably have to update your signage and printed materials often to provide up-to-date information. This is not only time-consuming but can also get expensive in the long run.
With Dynamic QR Codes, you don’t need to constantly reprint flyers, menus, signage, guides, and other print materials. Just redirect your QR Codes to the new, up-to-date destinations whenever you need to—the change will take effect in real time, with no reprinting required.
In properties with limited front desk staff
Rising minimum wages and the scarcity of skilled workers have led to increased payroll costs in the hospitality industry. Unfortunately, this often means operating with fewer employees than you really need.
QR Codes can help lighten the load on stretched-thin staff by directing guests to self-service pages where they can get information, make requests, and even book services without involving employees. It’s a great way to encourage more efficient operations even when staffing is minimal.
For hotels trying to increase CSAT or reviews
Checkouts can be a tough time to get reviews and feedback. Guests are juggling bags, booking rides, or trying to make their flights—the last thing they want is to put everything down to fill out a customer satisfaction (CSAT) survey.
QR Codes on receipts, thank-you emails, and in-room signage can simplify the process. Point them to customer feedback forms, CSAT surveys, or review sites so guests can offer feedback at their convenience, but while the experience is still top of mind.
It’s a small change that helps ensure their stay ends on a positive note, and your staff will appreciate another mundane task taken off their plates.
Simplify your hotel operations with smarter QR Code experiences
QR Codes are a powerful tool for hotels, helping them reduce friction in service delivery, cut down on repetitive requests and tasks, and free up hotel staff to focus on the guest experience. By streamlining access to self-service support, they can also give guests more control over their stays.
Bitly offers a simple way to create branded, trackable, and flexible QR Codes for nearly any use case. Whether you want to share restaurant menus, support virtual concierge services, or even offer access to hospitality loyalty perks with QR Codes, our platform has you covered.
Plus, you can create no-code landing pages and monitor your QR Code engagements in real time, all from the same platform, giving you an efficient way to modernize your operations.
Get started with Bitly today to streamline your hotel operations with reliable, trackable QR Codes!
