Not only for vacation rental owners but also for any businesses that require data collection from their customers and website visitors, having a privacy policy in place is a must. A vacation rental website privacy policy should clarify what the vacation rental owner is going to do with the personal information collected from guests, how the data will be processed, and for what purpose it is going to be used. Offering your privacy policy builds trust between you and your guests, keeping you safe from costly and time-consuming legal battles. In addition, it is an essential document as it is required by law in most countries. For all of these reasons, you might find the vacation rental website privacy policy sample template offered at the end of this article useful.
The privacy policy you need for your vacation rental or direct booking website needs to be adjusted and explicitly reflect the details of your hospitality business, your own privacy considerations, the legal basis, the international laws, etc. It needs to be in plain language, characterised by clarity, accuracy, and comprehensibility, in order to build an environment of transparency between you as the owner, and your employees and your guests.
Here we will shortly explain what exactly a privacy policy is, why you need one, and what should be included in a vacation rental website privacy policy sample template to make sure you’re safeguarded against future legal hassles.
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What is a Vacation Rental Privacy Policy? Why Do You Need One?
As a vacation rental owner, a serviced apartment and aparthotel operator, or a hotelier, especially if you’re aiming for more direct bookings, you should set conditions to encourage your customers or prospects to put a lot of trust into your business, and feel they can count on you. The more transparent you are, the more trustworthy your vacation rental business will appear, which in turn affects your revenue and thus net profits. As mentioned before, a vacation rental privacy policy is technically a legal document that informs your guests about how their personal information is gathered and how it is going to be processed by your short term rental business. It is required by international laws in most parts of the world to obtain consent before collecting and processing user data.
Personal data of your guests is considered a valuable marketing tool for future direct booking campaigns, provided that you get your guests’ consent. A vacation rental website privacy policy sample template must include the following elements:
What Should be Included in a Vacation Rental website Privacy Policy?
1. The Personal Information You Collect
Start with clarifying the exact type of personal information you are collecting from your customers/guests. It helps to make a detailed list of these items such as names, addresses, payment information, etc.
2. The Tools You Apply
Guests have the right to know the methods you apply to collect information. There are various methods or tools, and you need to clearly explain all of them such as whether you collect their info through using filled forms, observing CCTV cameras, etc.
3. The Usage of This Information for Your Business
Make sure to be as specific as possible in listing all the ways you will be using the information to make the document more organised and comprehensible. Here are some examples of how you may use the personal information:
– For advertising purposes
– To notify guests about changes or the news they might be concerned with
– To make some services possible
– For emergency cases
– For communication services
4. The Legal Basis of Data Processing
Write down specifically the legal basis for using the personal information of your guests. This helps the guests to feel they are in safe hands. Remember to state that, in necessary cases like updating the privacy policy when the law changes, the guests will be notified.
5. How Is the Information Going to Be Shared?
If you work with any third-party company, let your guests know about their existence, and why it is needed to share the information with them. Simply explain how and under what circumstances such information might be handled to another party. Also check the terms of use of any of these services to figure out which clauses you have to include in your privacy policy to comply with theirs.
6. The Duration You Keep the Data
The question of how long you keep their personal information is a relevant one that needs a clear answer from the guests’ point of view.
7. Is the Information in Safe Hands?
Reassure your guests about the safe environment you store their personal data, and that it is kept away from any unauthorised access, destruction, and loss. Write about the security policies and protection protocols you apply.
8. What Are Guests’ Rights in Relation to Their Personal Information?
Make sure to provide your guests with the option to opt-out or unsubscribe from your database. Explain how you make it possible for them to edit or change their information in the future. The customers must be authorised to withdraw their active consent at any point.
9. How to Contact and Complain?
Provide a list of all the various ways for your customers to contact you such as email address, phone number, address, etc. Offer multiple ways so that they know you are easily accessible.
How to Make Your Own Vacation Rental Website Privacy Policy
The aforementioned factors are considered as the very basic questions that any vacation rental website privacy policy clearly must answer. However, each vacation rental business requires its own specific website privacy policy. It is important to keep it simple and straightforward, but be careful not to be naive about it. You can never be too specific when it comes to legal documents, so you’d better be as clear and detailed as you can rather than remain ambiguous and blurry. Make sure the document is easily available on your website or app, and that the guests have to read them and actively state their consent before putting in any personal data. It is very likely that you change parts of the website privacy policy to keep it updated based on the requirements of the law and your own experience. Include this right in the privacy policy and clarify the ways you will use to notify the users about any possible changes.
Zeevou’s Vacation Rental Website Privacy Policy Sample Template and more…
Here at Zeevou, we’ve put together a draft document as a vacation rental website privacy policy sample template, taking into consideration everything discussed above. The best part is that you can download, make changes, and use it for free. Please be advised that you need to customise it based on your preferences and needs. Read it carefully and revise it to fit your own privacy practice.
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With Zeevou, for the first time in the hospitality industry you are empowered to collect a GDPR-compliant database of guests’ real email addresses. In the first step of Zeevou’s Automated Booking Processing, guests are required to insert their real email addresses instead of OTA’s forwarding email addresses. This enables you to start email marketing to former guests. To know more about how to build customer loyalty and get more returning guests, check the Guest CRM feature Zeevou offers.
