QR code feedback: a setup guide for venues
The code is the front door of your whole feedback system. Get placement wrong and you'll conclude “guests don't scan” — when really, nobody stood still near one. How many, where, and what the scan opens.
JUL 17, 2026 · UPDATED NOV 1, 2026 · 6 MIN READ · BY THE GUESTSIGHT TEAM
How many codes you actually need
Codes are free to print, so people either put up two or two hundred. Both fail. The working rule:
- Seated areas: one per table. The tent is the placement.
- Standing zones: as a starting point, one placement per 25–40 guests of zone capacity, at the spots where they pause.
- Every zone gets its own code — the code carries the zone label, so responses arrive with an address. Print each zone's code as many times as you need.
In GuestSight, the Free plan includes 3 QR codes per event and Premium up to 50 — so the five-zone example below needs Premium, or three zones on Free.
WORKED EXAMPLE — 300-CAP CLUB, 5 ZONES
TOTAL PLACEMENTS13
Where they go: dwell beats visibility
A code gets scanned where someone is standing still with a free hand and ten seconds of boredom. That's the whole theory. Everything below follows from it.
PLACEMENT MAP — DOTS = CODES
SCANNED
✓Table tents — eye level while seated
✓Bar top, exactly where the queue forms
✓Restroom mirrors — thirty captive seconds
✓Coat check & any queue that ever forms
✓Terrace & smoking area — phones already out
WALKED PAST
✕Entrance during the rush — everyone's moving
✕Center of the dancefloor — dark, loud, hands full
✕Posters above eye line — decoration, not a door
✕Behind the bar — that's staff territory
✕Anywhere with glare from stage lighting
The tent itself
The code needs three things around it: a reason to scan, a promise it's fast, and the zone name (which doubles as your tag check when you place them). Skip the paragraph of brand copy.
BAR ZONE
How's your night?
30 seconds. Anonymous.
Tell us now — we can still fix it.
guestsight.link/…
PRINT SPECS
✓Code ≥ 3×3 cm for table-top scanning; bigger for anything scanned from further away
✓Dark code on light ground; never inverted over photos
✓Matte stock — gloss + stage lights = mirror
✓A white margin around the code — don't crop it tight
✓Laminated or under acrylic — tents meet spilled drinks
✓Zone name on the tent — makes misplacement obvious
What the scan opens
One rating, one optional comment, zone pre-tagged by the code. That's it. No app, no login, no email field. The form should survive this test: answerable standing up, drink in one hand, in under 30 seconds.
That's exactly what GuestSight's form does: one 1–5 rating — “How would you rate this event?”, or “How was your visit?” for a location — plus an optional comment, with the zone taken from the code.
Resist adding a second question. Every field you add costs you answers — the long version of that trade-off is in why survey response rates are so low. If you want to ask more, save it for a short day-after survey: 12 event feedback questions worth stealing.
Test it like a guest, not like IT
Codes get tested in the office, in daylight, on wifi — then fail at 22:00 in the dark on congested cellular. Ten minutes before doors, walk the floor at event lighting and run this:
STEAL THIS — THE 10-MINUTE PRE-DOORS TEST
☐One scan per zone, at event lighting, phone in one hand
☐Cellular only — wifi off; guests won't be on yours
☐Zone label correct on each code — check the portal, not the tent
☐Submit a test response with a unique test comment; confirm it appears in the feed, then delete it
☐Straighten every tent — a fallen tent is a code that doesn't exist