Privacy Policy

This is the privacy notice for The Parks Guest House, Minehead in connection with our bed and breakfast business.  This notice includes matters relating to our website: www.parksguesthouse.co.uk

We are committed to protecting and safeguarding any personal data that you give us.  Personal data relates to a living individual who can be identified from that data.  Identification can be from the information alone or in conjunction with any other information in our possession.  In this notice we have included details of how we collect and use the personal information that you provide to us, how we keep it secure and how you can access the information we hold about you.

We comply with our obligations by keeping personal information we hold up to date; by storing and destroying it securely; by not collecting or retaining excessive amounts of information; by protecting personal information from loss, misuse, unauthorised access and disclosure and by ensuring that appropriate technical measures are put in place to protect personal information.

We might amend this Privacy Notice from time to time.  The most recent version of our Privacy Notice will be published on our website.

We want to assure you that The Parks Guest House is not in the business of selling, renting or trading email lists with other companies and businesses for marketing purposes and nor do we use your personal information for the purposes of our own marketing.

The type of personal information we collect

When you make a reservation with us the personal information that we collect may include your:

  • Name
  • Email address
  • Contact phone number
  • Home address
  • Credit/debit card details (type of card, card number, name on card, expiration date and security code)
  • Dates of arrival and departure for your stay
  • Preferences regarding the room allocated to you
  • Details of any other special requests that you make in connection with your booking

When you arrive at The Parks Guest House at the start of your stay you will be required to complete a guest registration form.  This form may include some of the above information but also:

  • The names of all those in your party staying with us
  • The registration number of your car

If you are not travelling on a UK passport, you will also need to provide the following information:

  • Passport or identification card number
  • The place of issue of the above document
  • Your next destination

In summary we hold the following personal information:

  • Information provided when you make a booking with us either online or over the telephone, which is used to manage your booking
  • Information provided when you register on arrival, which enables us to comply with the Immigration (Hotel Records) Order 1972 and provides further contact details should we need to contact you during or shortly after your stay with us.
  • Information required for our accounting records, for example sales invoices which contain the name and address of those responsible for paying our accounts.

Sometimes when making a reservation you may provide personal information of other guests that you are travelling with or you may be making a reservation on behalf of someone else.  We should stress that it is your responsibility to ensure that those you have provided personal data about are aware that you have done so and understand how we will use their information.

Cookies

Like most websites, our website uses cookies to collect information.  Cookies are small data files which are placed on your computer or other devices (such as smart ‘phones or ‘tablets’) as you browse our website.  They are used to ‘remember’ when your computer or device accesses our website and include your IP address and devise ID.  Cookies are essential for the effective operation of our website and to help you make reservations online.

Some cookies collect information about browsing behaviour when you access our website via the same computer or device.  This includes information about pages viewed and your journey around our website.  We do not use cookies to collect or record information on your name, address or other contact details.

To learn more about cookies, you can visit www.aboutcookies.org.  If you want to disable cookies, you need to change your website browser settings to reject cookies.  Our website may not operate properly if cookies are switched off.  If you only disable third party cookies, you will not be prevented from making reservations.  If you disable all cookies, you will be unable to complete a reservation.

IP addresses

IP addresses are used by your computer every time you are connected to the internet.  Your IP address is a number that is used by computers on the network to identify your computer.  IP addresses are automatically collected by our server when you visit our website even if you do not make a reservation so that data (such as the web pages that you request) can be sent to you.  We are not able to identify you as a person from your IP address.

Email information

If you choose to correspond with us via email, we may retain the content of your email messages, together with your email address and our responses. When you make a reservation online, either via our website or an online travel agency, we receive email notification of the booking, incorporating most of the personal information that you have completed when making your booking.  This information is only used in connection with the management of your reservation with us or for pre-reservation enquiries.

Wi-Fi

When you use our guest Wi-Fi we may collect data about:

  1. a) your device;
  2. b) the volume of data which you use;
  3. c) the websites and applications which you access; and
  4. d) your usage by access time and frequency.

This information will be held by the provider of our broadband services and will not include any link to enable us to identify individual users

Why we collect your personal information

The main reason that we collect and use the personal information that you give us is to complete and manage your reservation, whether made online or directly over the telephone.  This includes generally administering our business and providing guests with customer service.  This may include contacting you prior to your stay with us, to clarify issues in connection with your reservation or immediately after your stay if there are outstanding issues.

Occasionally we may need to use your information to handle and resolve legal disputes or for regulatory investigations and compliance.  We may also need to use your personal information for the prevention and detection of fraud and other illegal or unwanted activities.

Lawful basis for processing legal information

Performance of a contract

We will use the information you provide in connection with our management of your reservation, being the contract that you have taken out with us.

Legal obligation

Under the Immigration (Hotel Records) Order 1972 we are obliged to maintain a register of guests staying with us.  Information collected on the guest registration form when you start your stay with us enables us to comply with this legal requirement.

We disclose personal information to law enforcement and other government authorities insofar as it is required by law or is strictly necessary for the prevention, detection or prosecution of criminal acts and fraud.

Information shared with third parties

When you make a reservation through our website you are re-directed to US Booking Services Limited trading as freetobook, who operate the software that runs our online diary system on our behalf.  We have access to any information that you provide on the freetobook site whilst making a booking.  Once you have completed a booking you will receive an email confirmation of the booking from freetobook.  Freetobook will not share your information with any third party unless there is a legal reason for doing so.  If you require any further details on this issue, please see their privacy policy.

We treat any personal information that you provide via freetobok as if it had been provided to us directly and will not use this information other than for the purposes set out in this policy for which we hold your personal information.  Our access to the information on freetobook requires a user ID and password, which are known only to the proprietors of our business.  In particular, credit/debit card information which you provide to freetobook is stored securely and requires an additional password before it can be accessed, again known only to the proprietors of our business.

Many of our guests make reservations through Booking.Com or other online travel agents.  We have access to any information that you provide on the Booking.Com and other sites whilst making a booking.  For details on how Booking.Com or other online travel agents use your personal information, please see their privacy statement.  The details you provide to Booking.Com and other online travel agents is automatically used to update our reservations diary managed by freetobook (see above).  We treat any personal information that you provide via Booking.Com and other online travel agents as if it had been provided to us directly.  Our access to the information on Booking.Com requires a user ID and password, which are known only to the proprietors of our business.

When you make a reservation through Booking.Com you provide an email address.  Booking.Com will send a confirmation of your booking to your email address.  We do not get provided with your email address but can send messages to you regarding your booking via Booking.Com.  We will not use this facility other than for the purposes set out in this policy for which we hold your personal information.

When you visit our website, we use a third party service, Google Analytics, to collect standard internet log information and details of visitor behaviour patterns.  This information is only processed in a way which does not identify anyone.  We do not make, and do not allow Google to make, any attempt to find out the identities of those visiting our website.

Envy Websites Limited, the designers of our website, have access to information regarding users of our website and also have access to our reservations diary held by freetobook.  Envy Websites Limited only see this information to assist us in the management of our business and do not use this information for any other purposes.

Retention of personal information

We will retain your personal information for as long as we deem it necessary to provide services to you, comply with applicable laws, resolve disputes with any parties and otherwise as necessary allow us to conduct our business.  All personal information that we retain will be subject to this privacy statement.

Under the Immigration (Hotel Records) Order 1972 we are required to keep registration information for at least 12 months.  Our accounting records must be held for 5 years after the 31 January following the end of our accounting year ending in the previous fiscal year ended on 5 April.

What security procedures are in place to safeguard your personal data?

We implement reasonable procedures to prevent unauthorised access to, and the misuse of, personal data.  We use appropriate business systems and procedures to protect and safeguard the personal data you give us.  We also use security procedures and technical and physical restrictions for accessing and using the personal data on our servers.

Specifically:

  • Any data held by freetobook, Booking.Com or other online travel agents requires a password to access it, known only to the proprietors of the business
  • Access to our email records requires a password, known only to the proprietors of the business
  • Sales invoices are held manually on a file in the office of the business
  • Guest registration forms are held manually on a file in the office of the business
  • Any credit or debit card details that you provide to us are held securely and are held in compliance with the requirements, compliance criteria and validation processes set out in the current Payment Card Industry (PCI) Data Security Standard issued by the major credit companies.

How can you access your personal information?

You always have the right to review the personal information that we keep about you.  You can request an overview of your personal data by emailing us at the email address stated below.  You can also contact us if you believe that the personal information we have for you is incorrect, if you believe that we are no longer entitled to use your personal data or if you have any other questions about how your personal information is used or about this Privacy Notice.  You have the right to request that your personal information is erased where it is no longer necessary for us to retain such data.  Email or write to us using the contact details below.  If you are not happy with any issues relating to the processing and storage of your personal information, you have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Office (telephone number 0303 1113; address Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF)

Who is responsible for processing your personal data.?

The person responsible for processing your personal data is Chris Nurden, a proprietor of The parks Guest House, 26 The Parks, Minehead, Somerset TA24 8BT.  Our email address is [email protected].