Privacy Policy

This privacy policy governs the collection, storage and use of personal information collected by The Blakeney Cottage Company. The information may be gathered through our main website; www.blakeneycottagecompany.co.uk, through competition or social media communication, via a telephone conversation or through our normal business activities supporting the provision of cottage rental and associated services.

Specifically, this privacy policy provides you with details about the personal information we collect and hold about you, how we use your personal information, and your rights regarding the personal information we hold about you.

Please read this privacy policy carefully – by continuing to access or browse our website, or by requesting the provision of services from us, you confirm that you have read and understood this privacy policy in its entirety.

Overview

We absolutely respect your right to privacy. Our overall aim is to ensure that our collection and use of personal information is appropriate to the provision of services to you and our clients and is in accordance with applicable data protection laws.

Further details of how we do so are set out in each section of our privacy policy as follows:

Who we are
The personal information we collect about you
How we store, use and share your personal information for our core business
How we might otherwise share your personal information and who we share it with
Cookies
Security
Data Retention
Your rights
Third party sites
Changes to this Privacy Policy

Who we are:

The Blakeney Cottage Company Limited is the data controller of the personal information that we collect from you. It is a company registered in England and Wales (registration number 2905848), whose registered office is at 19 Rutland Terrace, Stamford, PE9 2QD.

You can contact us in relation to this privacy policy by email at [email protected] .

The personal information we collect about you:

If you are seeking to rent a property or to obtain further details about a potential holiday, we will usually collect the minimum information required to fulfil your needs. This could include but isn’t limited to; your name, contact details, payment details, date of birth, details of other members of your party plus information on your specific requirements in order to customise your holiday and deliver your specific requirements. This information will be collected together with your consent to receive communications from us by agreeing to our T & C’s and Privacy Policy. This consent can be removed at any time simply by using the unsubscribe button on any of our email communications.

If you are letting or are seeking to let your property, we will usually collect your name, contact details, bank account details in order to pay you the income generated by your property and information on your property required to optimise its marketing through our sites.

If you are (or work for) a supplier to The Blakeney Cottage Company, then we will collect the minimum amount of business specific personal data, usually; your name, business role and business contact details to enable us to manage the business relationship.

If you are, or work for, a business customer of The Blakeney Cottage Company, then we will collect the minimum amount of business specific personal data, usually your name, business role and business contact details to enable us to manage the business relationship.

How we store, use and share your personal information for our core business

Individuals who rent, or enquire about, a property:

We collect, store and use your personal details as outlined above for our legitimate business interests so that we can fulfil both your immediate and any potential future holiday booking or enquiry needs.

This storage and use of your personal information allows you to be contacted about both your current booking or enquiry and also allows us to update you with offers, opportunities and developments which could be both interesting and beneficial to you. We do not believe that this storage and use of personal information will unduly prejudice your rights or freedoms.

Given that we act as an agent between the ‘guest’ and the ‘owner’ of the property, we will only share the minimum amount of your personal information with the ‘owner’ as required to either secure your holiday booking or answer your holiday enquiry. Additionally, should you request that we pass on supplementary information that you wish to provide to the ‘owner’ then we will do so and will only hold that information on your behalf as part of your booking record.

Individuals on and who join our mailing list:

We collect, store and use your personal details as outlined above so that we can contact you with details of our properties, services, offers and other marketing items which we believe will be of interest or potential benefit. You can remove your consent at any time using the unsubscribe button on any of our e mail communications to you.

Individuals who let, or seek to let, a property:

We collect, store and use your personal details as outlined above for our legitimate business interests so that we can market and let your property.

Business partners:

We collect, store and use the business contact details of individuals working with our business partners for our legitimate business interests in maintaining and managing the commercial relationship between The Blakeney Cottage Company and its commercial suppliers and customers. We do not believe that this storage and use will unduly prejudice the rights or freedoms of these individuals.

All other users of the website and our services:

We collect, store and use your personal information for the following purposes:

to make the site available to you; and
to provide any services that you request.

Sometimes, our use of your personal information is for purposes which are ancillary to the provision of the sites and services, or which are desirable in order to make them to operate more effectively. In those circumstances, we believe we have a legitimate business interest in handling your personal information, and do not believe that this storage and use of your personal information will unduly prejudice your rights or freedoms.

The relevant circumstances are:

detecting and preventing fraud;
keeping our websites, apps, products and IT systems secure;
ensuring that our own processes, procedures and systems are as efficient as possible;
analysing and enhancing the information that we collect;
determining the effectiveness of our promotional campaigns and advertising; and
if you have joined our mailing list and you have given us your consent, contacting you (including by SMS and e-mail) with products and services which we think may interest you.
In some, relatively limited, circumstances we need to handle your personal information in a certain way to be able to comply with our legal obligations – for example: if we are requested to disclose your personal information to regulatory bodies or if we need to demonstrate our compliance with applicable law such as any tax and national insurance legislation relating to the payment of personal service company contractors and immigration law.

Anonymous data:

We also collect anonymised details about visitors to our website for the purposes of generating site statistics, reporting purposes or improving our website and marketing effectiveness. However, no single individual will be identifiable from the anonymised details we collect for these purposes.

How we might otherwise share your personal information and who we share it with:

We will disclose information under the following circumstances:

Third-party service providers: When we share information with third-party service companies for them to facilitate or to provide certain services on our behalf. This will include:
IT support service providers, third-party service providers who track our customers’ use of the sites and our services for us.

These companies are contracted to use your personal information only as necessary to provide the relevant services to us and are required to maintain full security and confidentiality.

Compliance with laws and legal proceedings: When we respond to court orders, or legal process, or to establish or exercise our legal rights or defend against legal claims. When we believe it is necessary to share information in order to investigate, prevent or take actions against illegal activities, suspected fraud, situations involving potential threats to the physical safety of any person, violations of our terms of use, or as otherwise required by law.
Merger or acquisition: When we need to transfer information about you if we are acquired by or merged with another company. If we are involved in a merger, acquisition, or sale of all or a portion of its assets, you will be notified by email and/or a prominent notice on our sites of any change in ownership or uses of your personal information, as well as any choices you may have regarding your personal information.

Cookies

Technologies such as cookies, beacons, tags and scripts are used by us and our affiliates, or analytics or service providers. These technologies are used in analysing trends, administering the sites, tracking users’ movements around the sites and to gather demographic information about our user base as a whole. We may receive reports based on the use of these technologies by these companies on an individual as well as aggregated basis.

We use cookies, for example, to remember users’ settings and for authentication. Users can control the use of cookies at the individual browser level. If you reject cookies, you may still use our sites, but your ability to use some features or areas of our sites may be limited.

Security

We employ comprehensive, reasonable and appropriate security measures to protect against the loss, misuse, and alteration of the personal information we process. This includes organisational security (passwords and access controls), physical security (data centre protection) and IT security (encryption). Please note that no transmission over the Internet can ever be guaranteed secure and as a consequence please note that we cannot guarantee the security of any personal information that you transfer over the Internet to us.

Data Retention

We retain information (including personal information) for a sufficient time period to allow us to provide our services. The only exceptions are in cases where we need to keep limited personal information to comply with our legal obligations, resolve ongoing disputes, or enforce our agreements.

Your rights

You have certain rights in relation to your personal information. You have the right to request that we:

provide access to any personal information we hold about you;
update any of your personal information which is out of date or incorrect;
delete any personal information which we are holding about you;
restrict the way that we process your personal information;
prevent the processing of your personal information for direct marketing purposes;
provide your personal information to a third-party provider of services;
provide you with a copy of any personal information which we hold about you; or
consider any valid objections which you have to our use of your personal information.

We will consider all such requests and provide our response within a reasonable period (and in any event within any time period required by applicable law). Please note, however, that certain personal information may be exempt from such requests in certain circumstances. If an exception applies, we will tell you this when responding to your request. We may request you provide us with information necessary to confirm your identity before responding to any request you make.

Third party sites

Our website contains links to other websites operated by third parties. Please note that this privacy policy applies only to the personal information that we collect through our sites or services, and we cannot be responsible for personal information that third parties may collect, store and use through their website. You should always read the privacy policy of each website you visit carefully.

Changes to this Privacy Policy

This privacy policy was last updated in May 2018.

Please check back regularly to keep informed of updates to this privacy policy. Where we make significant changes to this privacy policy, and we have your email address, we will send you notification of the changes.