When a guest books with you a second time, Make a Rezzy will usually link the new booking to their existing profile — carrying over the dietary, seating, and notes you have built up. This article explains exactly when that happens and when it does not.
The match rule, in one line
A new booking is linked to an existing guest if the first name, last name, email, and phone number on the booking are an exact match with a guest already on file for your business.
All four fields are checked. If any one of them differs — a typo in the surname, a new mobile number, an email left blank this time — the system will create a new guest profile rather than risk attaching the booking to the wrong person.
What carries over when there is a match
When the booking attaches to an existing guest, the profile fields you have already set — Notes, Seating preference, and Dietary restrictions — are kept.
When a guest comes back as "new"
Because the match is exact on all four fields, it is easy for a returning guest to land in the system as a brand-new profile. Common reasons:
- They mistyped their surname, or it was misheard over the phone the first time.
- Their email changed (a new job, or they used a work address one time and a personal one the next).
- They booked without a phone number one time, and with one the next — or the other way round.
- Someone else made the booking on their behalf — a partner, a PA — and used different contact details.
Merging duplicate guests
Merging folds two or more profiles into a single guest. Every booking, tag, review, and spend figure from the records you fold in moves onto the guest you keep, so nothing is lost — you simply end up with one complete profile instead of several thin ones.
There are three ways to start a merge:
- From the guest list. Click Select, tick two or more guests, then click Merge selected.
- From a guest's profile. Open the guest and click Merge in the top-right, then search for the other profile to fold in.
- From the Duplicates view. Click Duplicates on the guest list to see profiles that share an email address or phone number, grouped together, and start a merge from there.
Whichever way you start, you land on the merge review screen. The left side lists the records you are merging; the right side — under The merged guest — shows exactly what the single combined profile will hold. For each detail you choose which record to keep and which records to fold in, and the preview on the right updates as you go.
When you are happy, click Merge and confirm.
What happens when you take a phone booking
There is no "look up this guest" step on the booking form. You type the guest's first name, last name, email, and phone number; on save, the system either attaches the booking to a matching profile or creates a new one. Your team does not need to do anything different — they just need to be careful with spelling, since a typo will produce a duplicate profile rather than an error.
What happens when a guest books themselves
On the website widget, the guest types their own details. The same match rule applies: if everything matches an existing profile, the booking attaches; otherwise a new profile is created.
If a guest also has an account with Make a Rezzy
If a guest has a Make a Rezzy account, they can manage their bookings on our website. When you create a guest profile whose email matches a registered account, the two are linked automatically. It does not change anything you see day-to-day — it is mostly there so the guest's own bookings page lines up with what you have.
Where to go next
- Guest profiles — the fields a returning guest's profile carries forward.
- Notes, dietary, and seating — how to make the carried-over fields actually useful at the door.
- Taking a booking by phone — where the four match fields are captured.