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.
It is on by default. There is nothing to switch on.
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.
Matching runs across every profile in your account once an hour, on identifiers such as email address and phone number. Where those differ too much for a confident match, the records stay separate and you can link them yourself.
How the details on it are chosen
Four values are worked out for the Master Profile: name, surname, email address, and phone number. For each one, Bookboost takes the value that appears most often across the linked records. Where there is no clear winner, it takes the most recent one.
This is why a Master Profile can show an older email address than you expect: the address on the majority of a guest's records wins over the one on their newest booking. Everything else stays on the record it came from.
What it changes 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.
OTA-masked details 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. Some duplicates will still need doing by hand.
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.
Deduplicated analytics need Bookboost Insights. Insights is a separate add-on rather than part of every account.
What to do next
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.
Getting help
Open Help at the bottom of the left menu and choose Talk to Us, or email support@bookboost.io.