Your best guests are already in there. Now you can find them.
Search the whole customer database in one go, pull up your repeat bookers and highest-value guests as ready-made segments, tag the ones worth remembering, and let every booking screen tell your team who is standing in front of them.
Jess Thompson
Returning guest · last stay October 2025.
- jess@example.com
- Favourite property
- Sea View Lodge
- Marketing status
- Consent recorded
- Next arrival
- 19 July · Meadow Pod
- 19–22 Jul 2026
Meadow Pod · upcoming
- 17–20 Oct 2025
Sea View Lodge · completed
- 04–07 Apr 2025
Sea View Lodge · completed
Recognise the guest without rebuilding their context.
The customer snapshot is designed for the reservation workflow: enough history to help the team take the next booking, without positioning Keydesk as an unsupported marketing-automation suite.
- Returning guests, spotted
- Keydesk works out whether a booking belongs to someone who has stayed before, and says so on the bookings list, the calendar and the booking itself.
- The whole stay history
- Booking count, the last completed stay, which visit this is for them and what they have been worth over the years, on the record and on the booking.
- Tags that mean something
- Create your own tags in controlled colours and apply them from a customer, a booking or in bulk. They then follow the guest onto every booking screen.
- Consent status visible
- Keep the recorded marketing-consent status close to the customer details used by the team, timestamped separately from other profile changes.
- UK postcode look-up
- Find and fill a UK address from the postcode when adding a customer, in a booking or in the customer directory, so addresses arrive complete and consistent.
- Who created the record
- The customer activity log shows which Keydesk user created the customer, so an unusual or duplicate record can be traced back to a person rather than guessed at.
A customer list you can actually work in.
Most booking systems give you a table of names and leave the rest to you. The Keydesk directory is built to answer the questions you actually have: who comes back, who spends, who has not been for two seasons, and who is the same person twice.
- Search everyone, not this page
- Searching, filtering and sorting run across the full customer database on the server. You are never one page deep in a list, wondering whether the guest you want is further down.
- Segments already built
- Repeat customers, high-value customers, archived and flagged records are there as one-click segments, with account-wide counts against each.
- Filters worth having
- Narrow by customer quality, value, booking history, status, location or tag. Save a combination you use often and it is waiting for you next time.
- Duplicates found account-wide
- The same family booking twice under two email addresses used to be invisible. Duplicate detection now looks across the entire account rather than the records currently on screen.
- Bulk actions with a way back
- Tag or archive many customers at once, and undo it if you picked the wrong filter. Archiving, restricting and banning are all available from the same place.
- The numbers at the top
- Account-wide customer KPIs and segment counts sit above the list, so you can see the shape of your customer base before you start digging into it.
“Lovely to have you back” should not depend on who is on reception.
A returning guest is flagged the moment their booking appears, with the stay count, their last visit, their tags and what they have been worth to you. The newest member of your team greets a fourth-time family the way your longest-serving one would.
- 01
The badge appears on its own
Returning-customer badges show on the bookings list, the calendar and the booking itself. Nobody has to go looking.
- 02
The context is already there
Stay number, previous completed stay, booking count, lifetime value and any tags you have applied.
- 03
The booking stays connected
Confirm the reservation and it joins the same customer history, rather than starting a new record for someone you already know.
Archive, restore and erase are different operational decisions.
Keydesk provides the actions. Your organisation still decides when each is appropriate, what linked information is in scope and which records must be retained for another valid purpose.
- Working record
- Available to the booking team for current customer and stay workflows.
- Archive
- Move a customer record out of the active working set when the operator’s process calls for it.
- Restore
- Return an archived record when it should become active again.
- Erase
- Use the erase action only after the operator has confirmed the applicable scope and obligations.
Confirm the exact erase behaviour for customer data, linked bookings and backups during onboarding before relying on one product action as the complete response to an individual-rights request.
Software supports the workflow. The operator makes the data-protection decisions.
Keydesk can make records and actions easier to work with. It does not choose a lawful basis, write your privacy notice, set retention periods or decide whether a rights request applies.
| Workflow | Keydesk support | Operator responsibility |
|---|---|---|
| Customer context | Shows the customer snapshot and connected stay history currently held in Keydesk. | Decide what guest information is necessary, accurate and appropriate to record. |
| Marketing status | Keeps the recorded marketing-consent status visible with the customer. | Choose the lawful basis and PECR route, collect valid evidence and honour objections or withdrawals. |
| Retention workflow | Provides archive, restore and erase actions for customer records. | Set and justify retention periods, run reviews and decide when information is no longer needed. |
| Rights request | Provides record-management actions that may support the operational response. | Recognise and verify the request, search every relevant system, assess exceptions and respond on time. |
A consent badge is evidence to examine, not permission invented by software.
A visible status helps staff avoid treating every email address as a marketing audience. The operator still needs to know what was agreed, when, how, for which channel and how a person can object or withdraw.
- Service communication
- Messages needed to deliver a current booking are not automatically the same as direct marketing.
- Marketing communication
- Check the applicable UK GDPR lawful basis and PECR rule for the method and audience.
- Status maintenance
- Keep changes, objections and withdrawals reflected in the operational process and connected systems. Marketing-consent changes are timestamped separately from other profile edits.
- One switch for everything
- Guest emails and text messages can be turned off for the whole account from Admin. When they are off, delivery stops centrally rather than feature by feature, which is what makes a test or demonstration account genuinely safe.
Build the operating process around authoritative guidance.
These ICO resources explain the principles that sit around a guest CRM. They are external guidance, not features supplied or legal conclusions made by Keydesk.
Guidance reviewed 15 September 2026. Data-protection guidance can change; confirm the current ICO position and obtain professional advice where needed.
Guest CRM and data-workflow FAQ.
Does Keydesk look up UK addresses from a postcode?
Yes. Postcode look-up is available when adding a customer during a booking, in the customer directory and at Keydesk Direct checkout. It saves typing and, more usefully, keeps addresses in a consistent format so the same guest is easier to recognise next time.
Can I see who created a customer record?
Yes. The customer activity log records which Keydesk user created the customer. That matters most when a duplicate or unusual record appears and you want to trace it back to a person and a moment rather than guess.
What is an accommodation guest CRM?
An accommodation guest CRM connects a customer record with the information needed to recognise and serve that guest across bookings. In Keydesk, the current focus is practical booking context: contact details, stay history, a favourite property signal and recorded marketing-consent status.
Can Keydesk recognise returning guests?
Yes, and it does it for you rather than waiting to be asked. Keydesk works out whether a booking belongs to a customer who has stayed before and shows a returning-customer badge on the bookings list, the booking calendar and the booking itself. The booking can show which visit this is for them, and the customer insights include booking count, previous completed stay and lifetime value.
Can I tag customers in Keydesk?
Yes. An administrator creates the tags your business actually uses, in a controlled set of colours so the list stays readable. Tags can be applied from a customer record, from a booking, or to many customers at once, and they then appear on the bookings list, the booking calendar and the booking detail page. Tagging and archiving offer undo where it is safe to do so.
Can I find duplicate customer records?
Yes, and it now works across the whole account rather than only the records currently on screen, which is the difference between catching a duplicate and never knowing it existed. Normalised email addresses and phone numbers are also used to match existing customers during Direct checkout and channel imports, so fewer duplicates are created in the first place.
Can I export my customer list?
Yes. A CSV export is available for the customer results you have loaded, and reporting exports cover the wider data set. Exported spreadsheets are protected against malicious formula cells, and every report export creates an audit record.
Can guests give me their party and vehicle details before arrival?
Yes. You can issue a secure link that needs no guest account, and the guest enters who is staying, the ages of any children or infants, and their vehicle registrations and details. Keydesk works out whether the required information is complete, and can send reminder emails for the bookings that are still missing something, on a timing you set. Everything submitted appears on the booking in Admin, where staff can add, edit or remove party members and vehicles themselves.
Does Keydesk record marketing consent?
Keydesk can show marketing-consent status with the customer record. The operator remains responsible for the wording, collection method, lawful basis, PECR conditions, evidence and withdrawal process appropriate to each marketing activity.
Can customer records be archived, restored or erased?
Yes. Keydesk currently includes customer archive, restore and erase actions. Before using an erase action for a rights request, the operator should confirm the request, the data that must be retained, linked records and the precise deletion scope.
Does using a guest CRM make a business GDPR compliant?
No. Software can support record visibility and data-handling actions, but compliance depends on the operator’s purposes, lawful bases, notices, minimisation, accuracy, security, retention, supplier terms, staff processes and handling of individual rights.
Does Keydesk include automated guest marketing campaigns?
Not yet. Keydesk sends transactional messages, such as payment notices and stay-detail reminders, and all guest messaging can be switched off account-wide for test and demonstration accounts. Marketing campaigns and a marketing-automation suite are not claimed on this page. What is here is the segmentation you would need to run them: repeat and high-value segments, tags and saved filters.
How does Keydesk avoid creating a duplicate when the same guest books again?
Email addresses and phone numbers are normalised before they are used to match an existing customer, so a different capitalisation or a differently formatted mobile number does not create a second record. That matching applies to Direct checkout and to guests imported from Pitchup, and profile changes are audited. Marketing consent changes carry their own timestamp and are kept separate from transactional communication.
Keep every guest record connected to the stay.
Create your account and start treating your returning guests like returning guests.
- Repeat and high-value segments
- Customer tags on every booking screen
- Archive, restore and erase actions
Create your account today. £49/month per site, billed monthly, with no long-term contract.