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This is a hospitality and hotel data system, and such systems and the underlying data have some unique challenges, mostly due to how PMS systems receive and handle data, but also in how guests provide and use data such as phone numbers. If you use any of this data, please be aware of these challenges.

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Guest Names

Guest names are, of course, not unique, but also can vary even for a single guest, often making definitive matches challenging. Thus it’s important to validate searches and matches with additional data points, such as room number, phone or emails, member number, etc., keeping in mind the issues below with shared phone numbers and email addresses. Guest names on a given Reservation or even Guest record can also change, such as when an assistant or family member makes reservations in their name, but then changes it when the actual guest(s) arrive for check-in. Note that many hotels have a policy to create or find the new guest instead of updating the old one, but this practice varies and can create problems when an assistant’s name is changed, which then affects KYC globally across the brand. Guest names also may include various accents, or be in foreign languages, such as Stéphan or 王秀英 vs. Wang XiuYing, and first and last names can get reversed, especially in Asia: Wang XiuYing vs. XiuYing Wang. The KYC search system handles many of these issues, especially accent characters), but we discourage name-based lookups. In addition, spouses, children, family members, and assistants can do things in hotels in the name or room of the primary guest which can complicate the data in some cases.

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Guest Emails

Guests can and will have multiple email addresses, and these can change over time. This includes both their personal and work emails. In addition, many reservations can have assistant, hotel staff, travel agent, or OTA email addresses attached to them (and thus apply to a large number of guests). Some of these get updated on check-in, but others persist, complicating matches and any email notifications.

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Guest Phone Numbers

Similar to emails, Guests can have multiple and changing phone numbers, including for their assistants, travel agents, and hotel staff, such as when a sales manager or GM makes a reservation for a VIP guest. Most PMS systems can mark the primary phone number, though this gets complicated when two different property’s PMS send different phone numbers for the same Guest.

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Formats & Country Codes

Phone numbers in the PMS systerms are rarely validated, provided, or stored in standard E.164 formats, with clean country codes, etc. Instead, many are a somewhat random mix of proper E.164, of nearly E.164 with country codes, with sets of leading zeros and country codes, without country codes, with regional zeros, and even local numbers only. This greatly complicates both matching and sending SMS messages, or finding guests by phone number (such as for voice systems). KYC tries to validate and store these numbers as E.164, and you should do the same, if you can, when trying to match Guests.

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Member Numbers

Many Guests will have loyalty or member numbers, which are usually linked to only one guest and are globally unique. However, they can change over time, and can merge when a guest ends up with more than one. KYC supports a single member number per Guest.

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Property & Stay Affinity

KYC is experimenting with improving Guest match processes by prioritizing property affinity, i.e. Guests who have reservations at a given property, with priority on those Guests currently at, soon at, or recently at the property. This will help exclude guests that are only at other properties, or that stayed at this property long ago. Note that guests with future reservations at this property are an important source of interaction, especially for Guest Messaging, Requests, etc.