For Your Information

Our Privacy Policy

Privacy Policy and Disclaimer

 

Our Privacy Policy

Your right to privacy is of the utmost importance and we are fully committed to safeguarding your personal information. Coquet Cottages have been fully compliant with the requirements of the Data Protection Act since our company’s formation in 1998.  We are pleased to also now be complying to the enhanced requirements of the General Data Protection Regulations, which came into effect in the European Union on May 25th 2018.

All personal information supplied to Coquet Cottages will be treated in confidence and will not be disclosed to any third parties, except where your consent has been received or where required by law. In order to provide you with a service, this information will be held in the data systems of Coquet Cottages. The only persons permitted to access your information are those employed by or authorised by us. We would also like to keep you informed of our services and special offers. If you would prefer not to receive this information from us, please let us know. See ‘Your rights in relation to this information’, below.

 

Who we are

We are Coquet Cottages Ltd, a self-catering holiday cottage letting agency.  All references to ‘we’ ‘our’ ‘us’ or ‘company’ within this policy or within any opt-in or opt-out notices are deemed to be for Coquet Cottages Ltd (a company registered in England, company no 10906004).  Coquet Cottages operates a website advertising and marketing privately-owned holiday homes for the purpose of operating as an agent in arranging holidays on behalf of the owners of those holiday homes.   Our registered office is Coquet Cottages Ltd, 2 Station Road, Warkworth, Northumberland, NE65 0XP, United Kingdom.  The address of our main office and shop is 20 Dial Place, Warkworth, Northumberland, NE65 0XQ.

 

Data Controller

The Data Controller for Coquet Cottages Limited is Stephanie Ringland, Client Services Director, who can be contacted at info@coquetcottages.co.uk.

 

What information do we collect and how?

Our main purpose in collecting your personal information is to provide you with the services you request from us, and those which we believe will improve your experience with us.

 

We may use your information in the following ways

When you send emails, call or book online with Coquet Cottages, you are sending information to us which may be of a personal nature, such as name, address, telephone number and email address, you also have the option of logging onto our booking system, in which case we will hold an account password.

We will ask for information such as the names of guests in your party, some of whom may be children for whom we request their age in order to provide an age-appropriate service to them.  If you provide us with information for anybody under the age of 18, you are confirming that you are their parent or guardian and you are giving consent for us to process their data.

If you are looking to let with us, we will collect the same information but it will also include your property name, property location and current letting status.

For training and compliance purposes, phone calls may be recorded. Where this is the case you will always be notified beforehand.

Also, information is retained via capture devices using cookies to study which pages have been visited most frequently.  Cookies allow websites to capture information such as user preferences and basic personal information which can be held for as long as necessary.  We use this information so that our website works as efficiently as possible and to enhance our user experience of using our website. You can opt out of the use of cookies at any time by switching them off through your browser.

This helps us to understand how visitors to the site are using it and to improve the site to make it more user-friendly and informative.

We may also use your information in the following ways:

To provide services and features

  • To show your recently saved searches, viewed and wishlisted properties
  • Understand your onsite browsing behaviour in order that we can personalise our marketing service to you
  • Verify your eligibility for any products, services or promotions we offer
  • Provide reviews on our website provided by our holidaymakers
  • To assist you when you contact us
  • To monitor and improve our services
  • To perform functions and services as otherwise described to you when we collected your personal information from you.
  • To calculate your travel time and distance from our property

To fulfil a contract

When you use our services, for example when booking a holiday or letting your property through us, we will need you to supply us with specific information required to fulfil a contract or related contracts, such as the contract between the property owner and guest.  If you refuse to supply all or part of this information, we may not be able to fulfil these contracts. From time-to-time we may offer promotional gifts or services for which we will share certain contact information with our partners for the supply or delivery of a promotional gift or service. Your information will only be used to fulfil that service. For example, to contact you for delivery purposes.

Research and development

Any information we collect could be used for testing, analysis, research and product development.  This provides us with market insights, to develop new products and features and to enhance the safety and security of our services.  It also helps us to measure the performance of our website(s) and the content within them.

Communication between guests, property owners and their housekeepers

We use the information you provide to enable guests, property owners and their housekeepers to identify with one another and communication. For example, a guest may directly contact the property owner or housekeeper to arrange a late arrival or an owner or housekeeper may contact the guest directly after the holiday if personal belongings have been left in the property after their departure and to arrange their return.

Verifying information

We may use or share your information with third parties purely to verify its accuracy, for instance to check the validity of a postcode.

Legal proceedings and requirements

We may use the information we collect to investigate or address claims or disputes relating to your use of our services, or as otherwise allowed by applicable law.

Job applicants

In order to assist us with our recruitment process, we ask for information from job applicants.  The information collected will be solely used in connection with the consideration of the job application .  We may retain this information, but purely and solely for the purposes of considering an application for a current or future position.  We do not use third parties in our recruitment process, so the data will be retained wholly by Coquet Cottages Ltd.

 

Information sharing and disclosure

We always treat your data with sensitivity and keep it secure.  There are times when we share your information with others where it is either necessary to perform out services or where you have provided consent to do so.

Other parties that we share your data with include:

Guests, property owners and their housekeepers

When making an enquiry about a holiday, we may need to share details about the guests in order for the owner to verify they can provide the service requested. Once a holiday is booked and confirmed, we will share both the guest details and details of their party with the owner, and the owners details with the guest in order that they can communicate directly for the purpose of fulfilling the contract for the holiday.

The general public

If you submit content through public forums such as blogs, social media and review websites, any personal information provided in such forums is done so at your own risk as voluntarily provided by you. We may provide reference to those websites on our own website but we do not hold this data.

Third party advertising platforms

We may share your data with third party advertising platforms such as Google or Facebook to provide relevant and personalised marketing content, for instance in relation to a competition win. This information may be joined with information held within our systems.  To opt out or review your privacy settings, please see ‘Your rights’ below.

With relevant authorities

In the event of a dispute or for legal reasons, we may need to share your information if required or allowed by law.  For example if you use another person’s credit card, we may be required by law to share information on the credit card holder, including holiday information.

With your consent

We may share your information other than as described in this policy if we notify you and you provide your consent for this purpose.

 

How long do we keep this information for?

We keep this information for a maximum of 7 years.  This is primarily because it is a legal requirement that we hold financial records required by HMRC for tax and accounting purposes, however once you book with us, you automatically become a member of our Loyalty Scheme, whereby we offer a discount for booking a second and subsequent stays with us. It is a requirement of this discount scheme that we are able to verify you have booked with us previously and to do this we need to have details of your booking history on record to link the new booking to and validate the discount.   You have the right to ask us to remove your details that we have held for more than 7 years, details below, however we would not be able to validate any discount claim if there were no previous records on file for you.

 

How is the information used and by whom?

The information you provide is used to process your enquiry, administer your booking or otherwise respond to your request.

We treat information provided by you with the utmost privacy and do not disclose it to anyone other than employees of Coquet Cottages, and in the case of administering bookings, the owner of the property you have booked and, where appropriate, the owners’ housekeeper (who will be preparing the property for your stay).  If you have booked an additional product or service as an addition to your holiday, we will pass the appropriate information to that third party purely in order to deliver that product or service to you.  Coquet Cottages will ensure that any third party such as this is fully aware of their obligations under GDPR, and it will be their responsibility to adhere to the requirements of the legislation accordingly.  So you can be confident that any information you provide to us will be safeguarded.  We do not share, sell or rent your information to any other person, company or organisation in any way other than as described. By disclosing personal information to us you consent to the collection, storage and processing of information in the manner described in this policy.

We may from time to time, as a customer of Coquet Cottages Limited and therefore being deemed as having a legitimate interest in our company, forward a newsletter or other correspondence to your email address for the purposes of bringing to your attention new properties and information which we believe will be of interest, new features, special offers or information pertaining to your upcoming holiday such as local events that we believe may be of interest.

 

What security measures do we have in place to protect this information?

We are registered under the Data Protection Act 1988 and our security procedures for storing and disclosing customer details conform with this Act. We are not responsible for the privacy practices of sites which are linked to this site, we therefore recommend you read the privacy statements and policies on each site to which you are asked to submit personal information.

We have a Data Protection Policy which all our staff fully understand and adhere to.

 

Site security

We have extensive measures in place to secure our website and network and protect it from any kind of data breach or cyber attack.  We adopt best practices and operate a secure data network protected by industry-standard firewall and virus protection to safeguard personal identifiable information.  Sensitive data such as payment card information is secured by SSL encryption.  Session requests to our website server are monitored to detect any fraudulent behaviour or site attacks.  Where we become aware that our site security has been compromised, or any non-public data has been disclosed to unrelated third parties as a result of external activity, for example in the case of an external security attack on our website or systems, we will carry out an internal investigation and notify and cooperate with law enforcement authorities.

 

Your rights in relation to this information

You can opt-out of being sent this information at any time by contacting us and we will ensure your receive no further communications from us.  If you wish us to delete all information pertaining to you, we can do this, however if we have transactional information pertaining to you, we have to, by law, retain that information for a minimum of 7 years, however if we do not have any transactional data and your information is being held purely for marketing purposes, we can detete all your personal information upon request if you so wish.  If you decide that you no longer wish to receive this kind of information from Coquet Cottages, you should email info@coquetcottages.co.uk to advise us.

You have the right to ask us what information we are holding for you, this is known as a ‘Subject Access Request’. This, as well as requests to delete data we may hold for you can be requested by telephone, email or post and we will endeavour to respond to you as soon as possible, but certainly within one month.

Accessing and correcting your information

If you have registered with our booking system as a user, you can edit your name, postal address, telephone number and email address yourself within your booking account, or by contacting us direct to request the change and we will effect the change or rectify any inaccuracies for you.

Marketing opt-outs

You may opt-out of receiving any marketing communications from us by contacting us via email at info@coquetcottages.co.uk or by post to our Data Controller, Coquet Cottages Ltd, 20 Dial Place, Warkworth, Northumberland, NE65 0XQ, or by calling 01665 710700 and asking for the Data Controller.

You can also opt-out of certain marketing communications by email: follow the unsubscribe link which is positioned at the bottom of all our marketing emails to update your preferences.  It is important to understand that if you do opt-out of our marketing communications, you may still be sent non-marketing emails and messages, such as the confirmation of bookings you make with us, balance reminders, post-holiday surveys and important information for your stay (road-works, etc.)

 

Other information

The Coquet Cottages website contains links to other websites which are either owned by Coquet Cottages Ltd or by unrelated third parties.  Coquet Cottages Limited are not responsible for the privacy policies and practices of any linked website. Once you leave our website using an external link, our responsibility to you with regard to data security ends. Please check the privacy policies on other websites in this event.

 

If you have any concerns regarding the privacy of your information, please contact us at info@coquetcottages.co.uk or telephone 01665 710700.  You have the right to complain about the processing of your personal data. Please contact us using the details above.  If you are still disatisfied, you have the right to complain to the Information Commissioners Office.  We may update this Privacy Policy at any time to ensure it remains up to date and relevant, in which case it will be posted on our website and be available upon request.

 

Disclaimer

Contractual Arrangement

Coquet Cottages acts as an agent for the owners of the holiday properties available to book via this website. Letting arrangements are made by Coquet Cottages as an agent for the owner of the property. A contract between you and the owner will be formed once a minimum of a deposit payment has been received by us as the agent on behalf of the owner and confirmation of the booking has been sent to you. As an agent, Coquet Cottages is not and at no time will be party to that contract and will have no liability to you for any fees, expenses, damages or loss resulting from your booking. See our full Booking Conditions for more information.

 

Accuracy of Information

Before booking any holiday property on this site, you should understand that the information provided outlines what services, features and facilities the property offers, but not necessarily what it does not offer, so if in any doubt about any aspect of the property or what is available, you should either contact Coquet Cottages or the owner directly if you have been provided with their contact details.

Coquet Cottages takes every care to ensure the accuracy, both written and verbal, of the property, the area and local amenity details. All information on this website is provided in email or verbal communications, is given in good faith and is believed to be correct at the time of writing, going to press or otherwise communicated. Coquet Cottages cannot be held responsible for changes beyond its control which may become known after writing or otherwise communicating.

In addition, whilst we advertise properties as non-smoking or no pets as instructed by the owner, we cannot guarantee the fact. Coquet Cottages’ description of a property shows the amenities that property has but generally does not state what is not in the property. Furthermore, neither Coquet Cottages nor the owner can accept liability for happenings outside its reasonable control such as the breakdown of domestic appliances, plumbing, wiring, temporary invasion of pests, neighbouring building or refurbishment works, damage resulting from exceptional weather conditions or the owner’s negligence resulting in loss, injury or accident. Please be aware that if a property is advertised as having an enclosed garden, this does not necessarily mean a secure garden. It may be enclosed by hedging, open style fencing or have a low wall or fence.

 

Use of the Website

The website is provided ‘as is’ and ‘as available’ and you expressly agree by using it that the use of our website is at your own risk. Coquet Cottages makes no warranties (implied or express) of any kind as to the website being fit for a particular purpose, merchantability, non-infringement or otherwise. You agree that if you download or otherwise obtain any content of Coquet Cottages’ website you do so at your own risk and you are solely responsible for any damage or loss of data that arises as a result. Coquet Cottages is not responsible and excludes liability for the content of any web sites linked to it.

Coquet Cottages makes no warranty that the website will be uninterrupted, secure or error-free, nor that all the information is accurate or reliable – although make every endeavour to ensure it is, nor can Coquet Cottages make any warranty for the quality of any products, services, information or other material purchased or obtained by you through Coquet Cottages as an agent, nor that anything purchased will meet your expectations. Coquet Cottages cannot guarantee their website is error-free or virus free, or that the Site does not contain anything which may have destructive properties.

If you have any concerns or queries, please email us or telephone us on 01665 710700.

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