QR code menus are not hospitable.

The world economy is on track to recover from the COVID pandemic in 2020, and the service industry is also making rapid recovery steps in the hope of soon reaching the state it was before the epidemic. During this time, measures have been taken in restaurants and hotels as a way to both maintain the normal operation of these organizations and ensure a safe level of prevention and control. effectively against COVID. One of the ways is to use QR menus instead of direct interaction between service staff and customers. Although considered one of the effective methods to deal with the widespread epidemic, QR menus are sometimes seen as a lack of hospitality for customers. In my opinion, the QR menu is one of the most practical measures the hospitality industry has ever created. On the one hand, restaurants and hotels have been very practical when applying QR menus to their dining establishments as a way to combat the COVID epidemic. First of all, a QR code is a square bar code that, when read by readers in devices, such as mobile phones, will bring users to the content that restaurant managers want them to see such as websites, documents. , etc. For the QR menu, when the customer scans the QR code on his mobile device, a digital version of the restaurant menu will appear, where the customer can select, request, and pay, all do not interact directly with employees. Because of the complexity of the COVID epidemic, when even the smallest physical contact brings the potential risk of virus infection, QR menus applied in restaurants will minimize the interaction between customers and employees, or with other customers through hand-to-hand transmission of physical menus - which is very necessary and practical when the epidemic is spreading. For example, for fast food restaurants, where there is a large number of customers daily, like McDonald’s, having QR menu counters makes ordering quick and independent, instead of waiting for staff to deliver menu, or hand-to-hand physical menus - which can most likely cause corona virus transmission. Thus, that’s one of the biggest advantages of QR menus in restaurant in the post-pandemic era, with the minimum of physical interaction between humans. In addition, QR stands for "Quick Response", so QR menu will definitely bring customers more comfort in the restaurant. Firstly, the QR menu helps customers' operations on ordering, choosing, and paying become quicker and easier. They can refer to the menu on the website instead of having to search for them themselves. For example, there are many restaurants that have a version of the QR menu in front of the restaurant's entrance in countries where English is not widely available, which helps customers to consider the options on the website, instead of a physical version, with fonts that are difficult to read, and sometimes languages that are not available to the customer. Second, the use of QR menu will also optimize the customer experience, with firsthand seeing the options available at the restaurant, customers can know exactly what they want and fill in additional requests about the food on it, so there won't be any misunderstandings during the customer's ordering phase. For example, a customer who is allergic to peanuts, when they go to the website and check the information of the dish, they can make a decision that they will not order it, or order but ask for the peanuts to be removed from the dish. That’s another strong point of having QR menus in restaurant nowadays. However, everything has its good and bad sides, and the QR menu is no exception. QR menus, with the feature of minimizing interaction between customers and staff, are seen as a lack of hospitality coming from such dining establishments. The reason is because, for many people, their expectation in a restaurant is not only good food, but also the dedicated attitude of the staff, of a welcoming atmosphere throughout the restaurant, and minimizing any physical interactions has inadvertently taken away 2 out of 3 of what was listed above. Now, with QR menus, customers simply go to the restaurant, order themselves on their phones or tablets, eat, and then leave. So what is left of them is just the quality of the food, and nothing to do with the service or the staff - which is very dangerous for restaurants when one of the main factors to build a restaurant is very dangerous. That strong brand is the attentive, enthusiastic staff - something that stands on the verge of being abolished today. In addition, the use of machines will make people more rigid. For example, there are many restaurants that will refuse to serve a guest simply because their request is not available on the service - while it is very simple requests like preparing a steak at a rare level. The above all confirm that QR menus have their limitations, and can be considered as a lack of hospitality by the managers who apply them. In summary, although I agree that QR menus still have some limitations related to human interaction, it is an extremely practical and reasonable solution at a time of complicated spread of the pandemic