Direct booking links and QR codes — where to find them
7 min read
You do not need the embedded booking button to get customers into your booking flow. Every location already has a direct booking link you can paste anywhere, a booking QR code for posters and flyers, and every smart lock has its own QR code for walk-up customers standing right in front of it.
These three things live on two different screens, which is why so many operators never find them. Rentalbuddy's own help text (under the QR-Booking Flow settings) says it in one line: "Booking QR codes are under this location's Book button tab. Lock QR codes are under Stations — open a station to view and print them."
The three kinds at a glance
| What | Best for | Where in the admin |
|---|---|---|
| Direct booking link | Social media bios, email signatures, newsletters, Google Business Profile, a website without the embed | Locations → your location → Book button tab |
| Location booking QR code | Posters, flyers, signage that should open your whole booking flow | Same place — Book button tab |
| Lock QR code | The sticker on each lock — a walk-up customer scans it and books that unit on the spot | Stations → open the station → the QR Code column |
All three work on their own. You can run an entire operation on QR codes and a link in your Instagram bio without ever installing the booking button.
The direct booking link
Open Locations, click your location, and open the Book button tab. What you see depends on your answer to Where do customers book?:
- Rentalbuddy website — under Manage your booking page you get Edit page, Preview, Copy page link and a QR code button. The helper text sums it up: "Edit your page, preview it, copy the link, or download a QR code." Copy page link is your direct link — it opens the booking page Rentalbuddy hosts for you.
- My own website → Booking link — the section Your booking link says: "Copy a link below and add it to your website (menu, button, or text link)." Copy page link next to Standard booking gives you the link.
- My own website → Embedded on your website — next to Standard booking you will find a small group of buttons: QR code, Copy booking link and Download QR. Copy booking link gives you a short permanent link that opens your website with the booking window already started — the same kind of link Rentalbuddy puts in confirmation emails.
If the buttons are greyed out, save the location first — in embedded mode the link needs a valid address in URL where book button is implemented (see Install the booking button on your website).
Product-only and event-only links
Under Advanced (only if needed) there are two more rows, Product booking and Event booking, each with the same copy and QR buttons. Use these only if your location offers both products and events and you want a link that skips the choice — as the admin puts it, guests "skip the type choice" and land directly on products or events. Otherwise Standard booking is the right row.
The location booking QR code
Right next to the link buttons on the Book button tab:
- QR code opens a preview of the code on screen.
- Download QR (the tooltip reads Download QR code (PNG)) saves a large, print-ready PNG named after your location.
There is no print button in the admin — you download the PNG and print it with whatever you normally print with. At 1024 pixels it is sharp enough for an A4 poster.
Scanning this code takes the customer straight into your booking flow — no hunting for the button on your website. That makes it the right code for flyers, roadside signs, and especially signage at a pickup spot that is hard to find: a customer who has found the sign has found the booking.
Making the QR code match your brand
Open the QR code preview to style it. You can set Contrast (Auto or Manual), QR color, Background color, and switch on Include account logo if you have uploaded a logo. Two warnings in the dialog are worth obeying:
- "These settings apply to all QR codes for this location (booking and locks)." — the style is location-wide, not per code.
- "These colors have low contrast. The QR code may be hard to scan." — if you see this, change the colours. A branded code that fails to scan in sunlight is worse than a plain black one.
Press Save to store the style on the location.
Lock QR codes
Open Stations in the left menu and click your station. Each lock row has a QR Code column with three small buttons — the tooltips read Show QR code, Copy booking link and Download QR code (PNG). The downloaded PNG is named after your location and the lock number, so a batch of downloads stays sortable when you print stickers for a whole station.
Storage locks and access points have no QR column — their codes would have nowhere to lead, since customers do not book them directly.
What scanning a lock QR gives the customer
This is a different, shorter flow than the location code. The admin describes it under Customer flow → QR-Booking Flow Settings: "QR flow is a shortened on-site booking flow for customers who start from a QR code instead of your website. It's faster and designed for walk-up rentals." The flow comparison there shows the difference — website customers go Browse → Checkout, QR customers go Scan QR → Quick Checkout — and both end at the same unlock and return pages.
The booking a lock-QR customer completes is placed on that specific lock, so the PIN they receive opens the box they are standing at. That is the whole point of putting the code on the lock itself.
You can tune this flow in QR-Booking Flow Settings — the Book button tab links straight to it ("You can customize the QR-Booking Flow under Customer flow → QR-Booking Flow Settings"). Under QR Booking Options you can show or hide date selection, set a custom title, and define the preset booking lengths the customer picks from.
Why printed codes keep working after you change your website
The links behind your QR codes — and the Copy booking link link — are short permanent addresses on Rentalbuddy's own domain. They do not contain your website address. When someone scans or clicks, Rentalbuddy looks up the location at that moment and forwards them to whatever booking page is saved right then.
That has three practical consequences:
- Fixing the address fixes everything already printed. If you change domain, rebrand, or move your booking page, update the location — URL where book button is implemented for embedded booking, or your hosted page for the other modes — and every sticker, poster and flyer in the field starts pointing at the new page. Nothing to reprint.
- A wrong address breaks everything at once. The same mechanism in reverse — a typo in that field sends every printed code and every emailed link to the wrong page until you correct it. See The link in the confirmation email opens my front page instead of the codes.
- Moving a lock to a different location changes its link. A lock's code is tied to the lock at its location. Moving it between stations at the same location is fine; moving it to another location — or deleting and recreating it — makes the old sticker invalid. Download and print a fresh one. Details in Connect and manage your smart locks.
One exception: very old printouts. QR codes downloaded long ago — before the permanent-link system — could have your website address baked into the code itself. Those do not follow when you change the address; they keep pointing at the old page forever.
If you have stickers or flyers from earlier seasons, scan one with your phone. If it opens your current booking page, it is fine; if it lands on an old or dead address, download the code again and reprint. When in doubt, reprint — it is cheaper than a customer standing at a locked box.
Good places to put them
- Lock QR on every lock — a weatherproof sticker next to the keypad. Walk-up customers become bookings instead of phone calls.
- Location QR at the pickup spot — if your boxes are behind a boathouse or down a jetty, a sign with the code at the entrance means the customer who found the spot can book on the spot.
- Location QR on flyers and posters — campsites, tourist offices, hotel receptions.
- Direct link everywhere you can paste text — Instagram and Facebook bios, your Google Business Profile website field, email signatures, newsletters.
After any change to your booking address, and once at the start of every season: scan one code of each kind with your own phone and make sure you land in the booking flow. It takes thirty seconds and catches the one problem your customers would otherwise find for you.