QR codes that actually get scanned.

How Starvo QRs work

Every location in Starvo has a permanent slug — a URL-safe identifier auto-generated from your business name. The QR you download encodes a URL of the form https://starvo.app/r/your-slug.

• The slug never changes. Rename your business, change owners, switch plans — the QR keeps working.
• One QR per location. A multi-location business gets one QR per location. Each location has its own slug, its own inbox, and (on Pro and above) its own team.
• The URL is public. Anyone with the URL can leave a review. That's by design — that's how QRs work.
• The review page is open. No login, no captcha for normal traffic. IP-based rate limiting protects against bursts. We don't want friction between an interested customer and a submitted review.

Downloading the QR

Go to Dashboard → Locations, click your location, then click Download QR. The file is a PDF.

The PDF includes your business name and slug printed above the QR so staff can confirm which location the code belongs to before printing or laminating it.

Sizing for scan distance

The rule of thumb: 1 cm of QR for every 10 cm of expected scan distance.

The QR uses high error correction, so it survives folds, minor scratches, and small stickers covering up to about 25% of the surface. Don't lean on this — keep it clean.

Material by industry

• Restaurants and cafés. Matte laminated card or acrylic table tent. Avoid gloss — ceiling lights reflect off gloss and break the scan.
• Hotels. 350gsm card stock on the bedside or desk. Plastic looks cheap and ages badly.
• Salons. Mirror cling (static, removable) or a framed card at the styling station. Salons reorganize often; don't glue anything down.
• Gyms. Acrylic standees near water stations and lockers. Survives humidity and chlorine, where paper fails fast.
• Clinics. Card stock on the reception desk. Avoid laminate — reception staff handle these constantly and they peel.

Placement by industry

Place the QR where the customer's experience is freshest, not where it's merely visible. The two are not the same.

• Restaurants: table tent + receipt corner. Both. Table tent for dine-in, receipt for takeaway.
• Cafés: counter card by the till. Skip the menu — customers scan the menu QR for menus, not reviews.
• Hotels: bedside or desk card in every room, plus a counter card at check-out. The room card outperforms because the guest is in their own time.
• Salons: mirror at the styling station + business card handed at payment.
• Gyms: locker mirror, water station, reception. Avoid the workout floor.
• Clinics: reception desk + printed appointment card. Avoid the waiting room.

Real placement matters more than design. A simple printed QR in the right spot beats a beautiful QR in the wrong one.

The one-line context

Customers scan QRs when they know why. Add one line above the QR:

Avoid “Scan here” (zero context), “5-star reviews appreciated” (gating pressure), or any incentive offer (against Google policy). The line above performs because it tells the truth: a small business is asking, briefly, for a favor.

What the customer sees after scanning is a mobile-first page with the 1–5 star selector and the Google review link both visible — no login, loads in under a second.

When you reprint (and when you don't)

• Renaming your business: no reprint needed. The slug stays the same.
• Changing plans: no reprint needed. The slug isn't tied to a plan.
• Adding a new location: each location has its own slug — print a QR for each.
• Deleting and recreating a location: the new location gets a new slug. The old QR becomes a dead link. Avoid doing this unless absolutely necessary.
• Material gets old: reprint the same PDF. No regeneration required.

Troubleshooting

My phone scans the QR but lands on the wrong page

Almost always a print error. Reprint at a higher resolution (300 DPI minimum) and avoid shrinking below 2.5 cm. If the QR was printed on a thermal receipt printer, expect short life — receipt paper fades fast.

Older Android phones can't scan

Older Android cameras struggle with low-contrast prints, busy backgrounds, and laminate glare. Three fixes that usually work:

• Increase QR size by 25%.
• Use matte paper or matte laminate, never glossy.
• Add a white border (“quiet zone”) of at least 4× the QR module size around the code.

The review page loads slowly

The review page is server-rendered and aggressively cached — it should load in well under one second on a normal phone. If it's slow:

• The customer is on a very weak network — there's little we can do server-side.
• You hit the free-plan limit (50 scans / month / location) — the customer can still submit (their experience is never blocked, and the Google review link always shows), but reviews past the cap are flagged in your dashboard with an upgrade prompt instead of triggering alerts and AI analysis.
• Rare: a CDN edge near the customer is degraded. Email support@starvo.app with the location and rough time and we'll investigate.

Scans aren't showing in the inbox

A scan is not a submission. A scan loads the review page; a submission is when the customer picks a star rating and clicks send. Scans without submissions are normal — 5–12% conversion is typical. If submissions are below 1%, the QR placement is wrong, not the system.

FAQ