Introduction
The same guest books direct in March, through an OTA in July, and on a corporate rate in November. That is three records with three slightly different versions of the truth. Across a group of properties, one person can become a dozen.
A Master Profile is the record that ties those together. Bookboost links them automatically, surfaces the most reliable name, email address, and phone number, and keeps every original record intact underneath. This article explains how profiles are matched, how the details on a Master Profile are chosen, and what it does not do.
Profile, sub-profile, Master Profile
Profile, or sub-profile. One guest record from one source at one moment: a PMS booking, a digital reception submission, a manual entry.
Master Profile. The parent record linking every sub-profile that belongs to the same person.
Match and Relate. The matching that does the linking. The important word is relate: sub-profiles are linked rather than merged, so nothing is overwritten and nothing is lost. You get one view of the guest and the full history of where each detail came from.
This is the opposite of a manual merge, which combines two records permanently. See Merge two guest profiles for when you would want that instead.
Seeing a Master Profile
Go to Profiles in the left menu.
Open Guests and find the guest you want.
Select the guest's name to open their profile.
Select the Sub-profile of link at the top of the profile.
The Master Profile opens on the Overview tab. The records that were linked are listed in the Sub-profiles card, so you can see which ones were clustered and what each contributed.
How profiles are matched
Matching runs once a night, at 01:00 UTC. Each run recalculates every group from scratch, so a change to a guest's details today shows on their Master Profile the next morning.
Bookboost looks at sub-profiles from every property in your organisation that have a primary email address or phone number. Two sub-profiles are only compared when they share one of these combinations:
name, surname, and email address
name, surname, and phone number
email address and phone number
Capital letters, and spaces at the start or end of names and email addresses, are ignored. Phone numbers need to match exactly as they are stored.
Two sub-profiles are linked when their match score is 90% or higher. Details that many guests share count for less, and a clearly different first name lowers the score strongly.
Links chain together. If record A is linked to B, and B is linked to C, all three sit under one Master Profile.
Records that do not meet these rules stay separate. There is no way to link them by hand; if two records should become one, see Merge two guest profiles.
How the details on it are chosen
Four values are worked out for the Master Profile: name, surname, email address, and phone number. A filled in value always wins over a blank one.
Name and surname: the value that appears on the most sub-profiles. If that is a tie, the value on the most recently updated sub-profile.
Email address and phone number (primary only): the value whose sub-profiles have the most bookings. If that is a tie, the value on the most sub-profiles, then the one on the most recently updated sub-profile.
This is why a Master Profile can show an older email address than you expect: the address the guest has booked with most often wins over the one on their newest booking. Everything else stays on the record it came from.
What this looks like in practice
A campaign reaches a guest once. Not three times because they exist three times.
'Welcome back' is accurate. A returning guest is recognised as returning, even if the earlier stay was at a different property in the group.
Details hidden by OTAs can be recovered. If a redacted OTA booking matches an earlier direct stay, the real contact details are already on the Master Profile.
Guest counts stop being inflated. Reporting aggregates at Master Profile level, so the number reflects people rather than records.
What this does not do
You cannot edit a Master Profile. It is a view. To correct a detail, edit the record it came from. See Editing a guest profile.
It does not catch everything. Guests whose contact details vary too much are not linked automatically. If two records should become one, you can merge them permanently instead.
It does not merge or delete anything. Linking is additive. If you want two records permanently combined, that is a separate, irreversible action.
It does not correct bad data. A misspelled name on a sub-profile stays misspelled. The Master Profile surfaces the most reliable version rather than fixing the others.
It is not sent back to your PMS. The linking exists in Bookboost. Your PMS keeps its own records as they are.
The Master Profile ID is not permanent. It is the lowest sub-profile ID in the group, so it can change when records join or leave the group. If you work with guest data through the API, refer to sub-profile IDs rather than the Master Profile ID.
Deduplicated analytics need Bookboost Insights. Insights is a separate add-on rather than part of every account.
Configuration and Setup
No setup is required. The feature is enabled by default.
If two records clearly belong to the same guest but were not linked, see Merge two guest profiles. To correct the details on a profile, see Editing a guest profile.
Support
Please contact us through the 'Talk to Us' option on the left menu in the platform, or through the Bookboost Support email at [email protected] if you have questions or need additional support.