Privacy Policy

Privacy Policy

Bengate Barn Cottages Privacy Policy

Bengate Barn Cottages are committed to ensuring that your privacy is protected and we only use your personal information to help us to provide the services you have requested from us. This Privacy Policy sets out how Bengate Barn Cottages use and protect any information that you give us when you use this website or contact us.

This Privacy Policy is effective from 23rd May 2018, and has been implemented in order to comply with the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) which comes into effect on 25th May 2018, and, unless we are obliged by law to do so, your Data will not be disclosed to any third parties. This also extends to any transfer or sale of Bengate Barn Cottages.

What we collect

We collect only such Data as is necessary to provide you with the best possible service.

We may collect the following information from you, either by you filling in forms on our website, by phone, email, or in writing:
• Your full name
• Your home address including Postcode
• Your telephone number
• Your mobile number
• Your email address
• Names of all guests in your party
• Ages of guests in your party
• Bank sort code and account number, for the sole purpose for and of the return of any security deposit (if payment has not been made through the third party secure booking system.)

What we do with the information we gather

• To respond to your initial enquiry & provide you with any information you have requested.
  • To administer your booking and send you emails with information relating to your stay.
  • So that we can contact you in case of emergency.
  • To contact you after your stay in order to obtain valuable guest feedback, which enables us to improve our services to customers.
  • We may periodically send out promotional email about new services, special offers or news about local events which we think you may find interesting to the email address you have provided.
  • Returns of the security deposit by bank transfer. Once payment is made, your bank account number and sort code are securely destroyed.

On rare occasions, we use a third party service to provide a secure card payment option. This is via Stripe Payments. The information that we enter into Stripe Payments to help process a payment is your email address to enable us to send you an invoice. Stripe Payments will hold their own data on you and we have no control in respect of your usage or data when using this site.

Cookies

A cookie is a small file which asks permission to be placed on your computer’s hard drive. Once you agree, the file is added and the cookie helps analyse web traffic or lets you know when you visit a particular site. Cookies allow web applications to respond to you as an individual. The web application can tailor its operations to your need, likes and dislikes by gathering and remembering information about your preferences. We use traffic log cookies to identify which pages are being used. This helps us analyse data about web traffic and improve our website in order to tailor it to customer needs. We only use this information for statistical analysis purposes and then the data is removed from the system.
Overall, cookies help us provide you with a better website, by enabling us to monitor which pages you find useful and which you do not. A cookie in no way gives us access to your computer or any information about you, other than the data you choose to share with us.

You can choose to accept or decline cookies. Most web browsers automatically accept cookies, but you can usually modify your browser setting to decline cookies if you prefer. This may prevent you from taking full advantage of the website.

To also enable us to monitor the usage of our website and the success of our marketing, we also use Google Analytics, which uses a variety of cookies. These are used to track visitors and collect information about how visitors use our site, e.g which pages are visited, how long was a page viewed for, which pages are the most popular, where visitors have come to the site from (direct, a google link, Facebook link etc), as well as your general location. This information is anonymous and does not identify you in any way.

Why do we collect the Data?

We collect statistics about your use of our website via Cookies to enable us to refine our service e.g. by removing pages which are rarely visited and adding further detail to pages which are more frequently visited by users. We request Data from you to enable us to respond to a request from you for information, to enable us to complete a booking as requested by you and, occasionally, send you promotional emails about special offers or other information which we think you may find interesting.

Security

We are committed to ensuring that your Data is secure. In order to prevent unauthorised access or disclosure, we have put in place suitable physical, electronic and managerial procedures to safeguard and secure Data collected only.

Links to other websites

Our website contains links to other websites of interest. However, once you have used these links to leave our site you should be aware that we do not have any control over that other website, these websites have their own privacy policies and therefore, we do not accept any responsibility or liability for the protection and privacy of any information which you provide whilst visiting such. Please check their policies before you submit any personal data to these websites. 
This above also extends to the use of the third party, Stripe Payments, whereby a secure payment can be made via credit or debit card to pay the deposit or balance of you booking. Should you choose to use this third party service, you should exercise caution and look at the Privacy Policy of the Stripe Payments website.

Your Data Rights

You have the right to request details of the personal Data we hold about you (please use the Contact Us facility to raise your request and we will respond with a full list of any Data we hold about you).
Upon receipt of your instruction we will delete your Data after 180 days (the 180 day retention period is to enable us to respond to any Court authorised request from government or law enforcement officials for its disclosure). You have the right to lodge a complaint regarding our collection, retention or use of
your Data with the UK Information Commissioners Office (ICO).

Controlling your personal information

You may choose to restrict the collection or use of your personal information in the following ways:
• You have the right to withdraw your consent for us to retain your Data at any point.
• If you receive a promotional email from us, there will always be the statement that if you do not wish to continue receiving mail from us, that you are able to UNSUBSCRIBE, by replying to the email with the word  Unsubscribe in the subject line, or main body of the email.
• If you have previously agreed to us using your personal information for direct marketing purposes, you may change your mind at any time by contacting via email at bengatebarncottages@yahoo.com
• We will not sell, distribute or lease your personal information to third parties unless we have your permission to, or we are legally required to do so by law, or to protect the rights, property, or safety of Bengate Barn Cottages, our customers, or others. 
• If you believe that any information we are holding on you is incorrect or incomplete, please email us as soon as possible at the above address and we will promptly correct any information found to be incorrect.

We will only retain your personal data for as long as necessary to fulfil the purpose we collected it for, in relation to your booking or enquiry, marketing activities, and satisfying any legal, accounting, or reporting requirements. We are required to keep basic information about our customers (including contact, identity, financial and transaction data) for six years after the end of the tax year in which they cease being customers or clients, for tax purposes. We may anonymise your personal data (so that it can no longer be associated with you) for research or statistical purposes, to help improve our service and what we offer. Anonymised data may be used indefinitely without further notice to you (it cannot be linked back to you). We will process your financial data, such as a bank account number, sort code, credit or debit card details for the sole purpose of processing payment. 

Your details will not be sold to any third party. Your details will not be passed onto any third party, apart from the time that the property and the cottages are sold, and are passed to the new owner, and you are a past or future customer with us, unless you have previously notified us that you wish to unsubscribe from mailings.

Changes to our Privacy Policy

Any changes we may make to our privacy policy in the future will be posted on this page and, where appropriate, notified to you by e-mail. Please check back frequently to see any updates or changes to our privacy policy.

Updated 20.12.2018