Privacy Notice

Dated: November 2020

1. Important information and who we are

This privacy notice provides information on how we collect and process your personal information when you visit our website or contact us on the phone, make a booking or booking enquiry through us, let your holiday accommodation or advertise through us or use our services. This privacy notice is separate to   our booking conditions and other important information available on our website and does not replace them.

We are Vacation Rentals (UK) Ltd (“we” or “us”), part of the Awaze group, details of which can be found here https://www.awaze.com/. We operate under a number of brands including Hoseasons, Landal GreenParks, Cottages.com, Cottages4you, Blue Chip Holidays, Mulberry Cottages, Cumbrian Cottages, Scottish Cottages, Northumbrian Cottages, Derbyshire Cottages, Wales Cottages, Yorkshire Cottages, English Country Cottages, Scottish Country Cottages, Italian Country Cottages, Irish Country Cottages, French Country Cottages, Welsh Country Cottages, The Arran Team, Salcombe Holiday Homes, Dartmouth Holiday Homes, Welcome Cottages, Cottages Direct and Chez Nous.

We, as controller, are responsible for your personal information. We will keep your personal information secure and use the information you provide in accordance with applicable privacy and data protection laws and the terms of this privacy notice.

2. What personal information do we collect?

If you choose to make a booking through us or make queries about a potential booking, we will collect details that you provide in relation to that booking or query. Information held is likely to include your name, contact details, address, payment details, date of birth, information about people travelling with you, information about your booking and any additional information you provide  to help us or property owners to meet your specific requirements. If you are making a booking on behalf of other people, this privacy notice will apply to all personal information that you have provided and you are required to bring this privacy notice to their attention.

We will only collect special categories of personal information where this is required by us or our suppliers to provide our service to you or is provided by you or on your behalf or on behalf of someone in your party. We will only process this information to meet your specific requirements (for example, where you provide us with health information, including any difficulties with mobility) or where we are required to do so.

If you choose to let your holiday accommodation through us or advertise with us, we will collect details such as your name, contact details, address, bank account details and details regarding the accommodation you wish to let. We may also collect and process the contact details of any third party that you appoint, such as a property caretaker or cleaner, that you share with us. If you provide such information to us, you must ensure that you have brought this privacy notice to the third party’s attention.

If we are legally required (including under the terms of a contract we have with you), to collect your personal information and you do not provide it, we may not be able to enter into or perform the contract with you and, we can cancel your booking and/or our service to you. We will tell you if this is the case and will not be liable to you.

We also collect website usage information using “cookies”.  For further information about cookies and how we use them please see our Cookie Policy.

3. How do we use your information?

We will only use personal information when the law allows us to. The information you provide may be used in a number of ways, for example:

  • to enable us to complete your booking or related travel arrangements (if you are making a booking);
  • to tell you  about our services;
  • to help us to provide details or information you may have requested;
  • to manage customer service queries, including complaints;
  • to personalise our services to you, for example regarding any repeat visits to our websites;
  • to tell you about other products and services we think may be of interest to you;
  • to enable us to advertise your holiday accommodation, transfer payments due to you and provide related support services (if you are letting or advertising your holiday accommodation through us);
  • for statistical purposes when we evaluate our range of services or the success of our services.

4. On what legal basis will we process your information?

We will always process your personal information on lawful grounds and in particular on the grounds set out below:

Performance of a Contract

If you make a booking through us, we will use the details that you give us to provide that booking to you. This information is likely to include your name, date of birth, contact details, address, payment details, information about people travelling with you, information about your booking and any additional information we may need to help fulfil our contract with you, or to meet your specific requirements.

If you let your holiday accommodation or advertise through us, we will use the details that you give us provide you letting or advertisement services. This may include sharing your details with online booking platforms, travel agents and other third party partners through whom your accommodation may be advertised.  This information is likely to include your name, contact details, address, bank account details and details regarding the accommodation.

If you do not provide us with the information set out in this paragraph, then we may not be able to provide the booking, letting or advertising services.

Legitimate Interest

We want to give you the best possible customer experience whilst respecting your privacy, therefore we may use the ground of legitimate interest as a lawful basis to process your personal information.

We may use your name and contact details to tell you about our own products and services that we think may be of interest to you. You can ask us to stop doing so at any time.

We may use some of your personal information for statistical purposes when we evaluate our range or success of services.

We may share your email address with Google and/or Facebook (acting as our processors) for them to use on our behalf in connection with the creation of marketing and promotion for us, as well as to enhance your experience as a guest or as a customer to our website. This may include Google and/or Facebook using their socio-demographic information about you to identify other people like you, with similar interests to present our marketing to. This socio-demographic information is not used for any other purpose nor shared with any other party.  No information about other individuals identified from these networks is shared with us at any time.

We may also share your contact details and booking information with our third party review administrator(s) who may contact you to ask for your comments on the accommodation and/or services that have been provided.

We may also use your personal information in the event of a travel crisis or other unforeseen travel incident whereby we may need to provide your contact details to a third party to allocate you with emergency assistance.

Consent

We may ask your consent to share your name and contact details with selected third parties companies so that they can tell you about their products and services.

You can withdraw your consent at any time, by clicking on the ‘opt-out’ or ‘unsubscribe’ option at the end of any marketing email we have sent to you, or by contacting us (see paragraph 14 below).

Legal Obligation

We may also disclose your personal information without your permission to the extent that we are required to do so by law or regulation. This includes providing your personal information to public and/or government authorities, relevant third parties or other organisations if we are legally required or permitted to do so, or if we, in good faith, believe that such use is reasonably necessary to:

  • comply with a legal obligation, process or request;
  • comply with government direction in respect of NHS Test and Trace;
  • enforce our booking conditions and other agreements, including investigation of any potential breach ;
  • detect or prevent crime
  • address security, fraud or technical issues;
  • protect the rights, property or safety of us, our users, owners, customers, employees, contractors, a third party or the public; and 
  • as required by any legal or taxation authority and to the extent that we are required to do so by law or regulation.

5. Who will you share my personal information with?

We may share your personal information with:

  • other members of the Awaze group and their service providers;
  • owners of or agents for holiday cottages, holiday parks and boatyards (if you are making a  booking);
  • individuals who may be renting accommodation from you (if you are a holiday accommodation owner or advertiser);
  • our employees and contractors as is necessary in order to provide our services to you;
  • service providers, acting as processors who provide IT, system administration services, website hosting and support, marketing services and other services;
  • professional advisors, including bankers, lawyers, auditors, accountants, insurers who provide us services;
  • our preferred insurance provider(s) (if you purchase the personal travel insurance policy we offer);
  • credit/debit card companies;
  • payment service providers;
  • HM Revenue & Customs, regulators and other authorities;
  • third parties who we may need to work with to deliver services or fulfil travel plans on your behalf, for example, resorts, holiday parks, management companies, owners’ associations, airlines, ferry companies;
  • third party booking or distribution platforms and travel agents and third party partners;
  • customer review companies and marketing service providers;
  • third parties whom we may choose to sell, transfer, or merge parts of our business or our assets or businesses we acquire or merge with. If such a change to our business occurs, then the new owners may use your personal data in the same way as set out in this privacy notice.

We require all third parties to respect the security of your personal information and to treat it in accordance with the law. Third parties are only permitted to process your personal information for specified purposes and in accordance with our instructions.

We may also disclose your personal information without your permission in connection with any legal proceedings or prospective legal proceedings, and in order to establish, exercise or defend our legal right

6. International transfers

We will only transfer your personal information overseas where we are satisfied that this is lawful and that adequate levels of protection are in place to protect the integrity and security of any personal information being processed in compliance with applicable privacy laws. If we transfer your personal information out of the EEA, we ensure that it is given a similar degree of protection as when it is transferred inside the EEA, by ensuring at least one of the following safeguards is implemented:

  • we will only transfer or allow the transfer of your personal information to countries that have been deemed to provide an adequate level of protection for personal data by the European Commission;
  • we use, or ensure our data processors use, specific contracts approved by the European Commission which give personal information the same protection it has in Europe with our services providers.

7. Updating Your Details?

It is important that the personal information we hold about you is accurate and correct. Please tell us if your personal information changes during your relationship with us.

If you would like to change any of your personal information or preferences relating to the way in which we use your personal information, including for direct marketing, then please update your user preferences or get in touch (see our contact details in section 14).

8. How long will we hold your information for?

We will keep your information whilst it is required for the relevant purposes or to meet legal requirements. Where your information is no longer required, we will ensure it is disposed of or deleted in a secure manner. We may retain your personal data for a longer period in the event of a complaint or if we reasonably believe there is a prospect of litigation in respect to our relationship with you.

We will process your financial information, such as payment card details, for the purpose of processing payments, however we do not retain any payment card details once the payment has been accepted.

9. Your rights

You have the right to ask us at any time:

  • to send you a copy of any personal information that we hold about you;
  • to correct any inaccuracies in your personal information and to add relevant details where the personal information we hold is incomplete;
  • to delete (to the extent possible) any of your personal information, in certain circumstances;
  • to stop processing your personal information, in certain circumstances;
  • to transfer your personal information to another organisation or to you, in certain circumstances;
  • to restrict the processing of your personal information, in certain circumstances; and
  • to stop sending you marketing material (which does not include service related communications, such as email updates, which we will continue to send you).

Where we have made a decision that affects you by processing your personal information automatically, then you have the right to speak to someone to discuss that decision.

Where we process your personal information on the basis that you have given us your consent to do so, then you may contact us at any time to withdraw your consent.

You are not required to pay any charge for exercising any of these rights, unless your request is unfounded or excessive. If you wish to exercise any of these rights, get in touch (see our contact details in section 14). We aim to respond to requests within one month. If your request is particularly complex it may take us longer to respond and in this case, we will notify you and keep you updated.  You may not have a right to information if we have responded to a request and you have made a repeat request without a reasonable period of time passing between the requests.

What we may need from you

We may need to request specific information from you to help us confirm your identity and ensure your right to access your personal information (or to exercise any of your other rights). This is a security measure to ensure that personal information is not disclosed to any person who has no right to receive it. We may also contact you to ask you for further information in relation to your request to speed up our response.

10. Does this privacy notice apply to linked websites?

Our websites may contain links to other websites. This privacy notice only applies to this website. Linked websites will have their own privacy policies that you should read to understand what information they collect about you and how they use it. We do not accept any responsibility or liability for these policies.

11. When do you monitor telephone calls?

We may from time to time record telephone calls you have with members or our staff for training purposes and to improve the quality of our service.

12. How do we update this privacy notice?

We keep our privacy notice under review and we will place any updates on our webpage.

13. Who can I contact if I have queries about this privacy notice?

You can contact us if you have any questions about our privacy notice or our use of your personal information by email to datachanges@awaze.co.uk, telephone on 0345 268 9282 or by writing to us at Vacation Rentals (UK) Ltd, Sunway House, Raglan Rd, Lowestoft NR32 2LW, United Kingdom.

You have the right to raise concerns about our use of your personal information with the Information Commissioner’s Office at Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF (https://ico.org.uk) or the supervisory authority that would be applicable to you, at any time, but we encourage you to contact us in the first instance so that we may discuss your concerns.