Overview

Our Privacy Policy

This policy details how we use and store your personal information here at Lowland Lettings, along with why that information is stored – and how we protect your privacy when doing so.

We pledge to handle any personal information under our control with a great deal of care, and to keep that information safe whilst respecting your privacy and rights.

It’s our aim to be 100% clear when collecting your information, and how we are going to use it.

Lowland Lettings is a family-run business offering all manner of helping with holiday lets, from taking bookings and welcoming guests, to helping with property management and going the extra mile to ensure your guests have the best possible holiday.

Our use of personal information allows us to operate in the Scottish Borders and East Lothian, providing holiday lets and property management, helping to ensure we offer a professional and personal service.

This policy is effective from 25th May 2018.

Privacy Policy

Who are we?

In terms of this privacy policy, ‘Lowland Lettings’, ‘we’ or ‘our’ means: Lowland Lettings - a partnership based in the Scottish Borders.

How we collect and store information about you

We collect and store information about you in a couple of different ways which we’re going to detail now.

Information you provide to us directly

You may get in touch with us to make an enquiry, or to book a self-catering holiday let either over the phone or online via our website. You may also wish to seek help or advice when running your own holiday let in the Scottish Borders. When you’re using our website, we also collect personal information using what’s known as cookies (see below) and other methods of tracking. This means we’ll receive information regarding the type of device you’re using to access our site, and the settings your device may provide us with additional details about the type of device you’re using, the specific model and operating system you’re using, your device settings, and why a crash has occurred (if applicable). This is in accordance with common website practice. For more details on the the information available to us through your device, check with your manufacturer or OS provider.

Information you provide to us indirectly

Your information may be passed onto us by third parties. For example, when you book one of our properties through Booking.com, your card details will be passed onto SuperControl, our booking software company. From there we can have encrypted access to this information to process your details. We’d also advise you to check any privacy policy that has been provided where there is any mention of a third party giving us your data. For example when you place a booking through a third party website i.e:

• Booking.com’s privacy policy
• SuperControl’s privacy policy
• AirBnB’s privacy policy
• TripAdvisor’s privacy policy
• Owners Direct privacy policy

Information from other sources

We may also use information from the sources detailed below:

Social media

Your privacy settings for social media platforms such as Facebook or Twitter might be set up so that you give us permission to access certain information from those platforms - for example, tagging us in a post or photo.

Information available publicly

We may also collect information available from public sources such as company websites, public social media accounts, the electoral register and Companies House. This helps us to put together a more complete picture of someone’s interests in Lowland Lettings.

The personal information we collect

We store, collect and use the information detailed below:

• Your name
• Your email address
• Your address and contact details (mobile number and/or landline)
• Details of your booking (including the number of guests in your party)
• Your bank or payment details where you’ve provided these to make a payment
• Any queries or requests you’ve submitted to us
• Any other personal information you’ve provided to us

How we use your personal data

We’ll use your personal information in the following ways:

• Take bookings for your stay as a guest in one of our properties
• Property management and/or managing bookings for your holiday let
• Keep a record of your relationship with us
• Contact you regarding your booking or property
• Respond to any complaints or queries you get in touch with us about
• Better understand how to improve the services we provide by analysing data and conducting market research
• Send correspondence to you
• Display content that is suitable for the device you’re viewing our website on (such as a smartphone, tablet or PC)
• Protect our staff
• Practice due diligence
• Conduct training and/or quality control via our systems
• Audit and administration of our accounts
• To meet legal obligations, such as fulfilling a contract with you, or our obligations to regulators, government and/or bodies of law enforcement
• Establish, enforce or defend legal claims

How we protect your information

We ensure that the appropriate technical and organisation safeguards are in place in order to protect your personal data. This includes using a secure network.

Sharing your information with other organisations

We’ll never pass or sell your information onto third parties for their marketing efforts. As a caveat, we may disclose your personal data to third parties regarding some of the other purposes we’ve set out in this privacy policy to:

• Owners of the holiday let you’ve booked
• Marketing agencies performing services on our behalf
• IT service providers
• Analytics and search engine providers

Please note that we do reserve the right to disclose your information to third parties under the following conditions:

• We sell or buy any business assets and disclose your personal information to a prospective buyer or seller of these assets
• All of our assets are acquired by a third party - your personal information may be included in those assets

Keeping your information updated

We may from time-to-time use information from external sources to keep our records updated. This includes sources such as the public electoral roll, and the post official national change of address database. We’ll only use sources we’re confident that you’re aware of and where you are fully informed of how your information may be accessed and used. This helps us to ensure we never store duplicate records or preferences that are out-of-date - and also helps make sure we don’t contact you against your wishes (when you’ve explicitly asked us not to). We want to give you full control of your data, and you may feel free to opt out from this activity at any time. To find out more, just contact us via info@lowlandlettings.co.uk or give us a call on 01835 869 927. If you wish to let us know of a change in your contact details, similarly just get in touch via the phone number or email address above. We will update our records accordingly and appreciate you informing us of any changes.

How long we keep hold of your data

Lowland Lettings has specific guidelines in place to determine how long we keep hold of your personal data. These are determined by both legal and operational considerations. As an example, we’re required to keep some of your information for tax purposes.

Your rights

According to UK data protection law, you have rights over any personal information that is held about you. We’ve broken these down for you below:

The right to access your personal information

It’s your right to request access to any personal data we hold about you. It’s also your right to request a copy of that information from us - which we will provide to you unless legal exceptions dictate otherwise. If you wish to access your information, you may send a written request to Linda Maclaughlan at Lowland Lettings, Friars Acre, Jedburgh, Roxburghshire, TD8 6BN. Alternatively, you can contact the DPO here.

The right to have incorrect personal information corrected

It’s your right to get any inaccurate or incomplete information we hold about you amended. If you think the information we hold about you might be wrong or incomplete, just provide us with the details (using the details mentioned above) and we’ll investigate and correct any inaccurate information.

The right to restrict use of your personal information

It’s your right to ask us to restrict the processing of some or all of your personal information if:

• Some information we hold about you is incorrect
• We’re not legally allowed to use it
• You require us to retain your information in order to establish, exercise or defend a legal claim
• You believe your right to privacy outweighs our interests to use your information for a specific purpose and you object to this

The right to be forgotten

It’s your right to request that we delete some or all of your personal information from our system. We will carry out this request as long as there are no legal exceptions preventing us from doing so.

The right for your personal information to be portable

If we’re processing your personal information by automated means (either to carry out a contract with you or having received your consent to do so) it’s your right to request we provide you or another service provider with that information in a digital or machine-readable format.

The right to object to the use of your personal information

If we happen to be processing your personal information based on our own interests or for research or statistics, you have the right to object to your information being used in this way. If we’re processing your information for the purposes of direct marketing, and you decide to object, we’ll stop processing your information as soon as possible. You can exercise any of the above rights at any time. To do so, please contact Linda Maclaughlan at Lowland Lettings, Friars Acre, Jedburgh, Roxburghshire, TD8 6B. Alternatively, you can email info@lowlandlettings.co.uk. It’s possible we may need to request further information and/or proof of your identity. However, all requests will be responded to within one month - unless we contact you to state otherwise. Please bear in mind that exceptions will apply to several of the above rights, and not all rights will be applicable in all circumstances. For more details, it’s recommended that you check the guidance outlined on the UK Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) website.

How we use cookies

Cookies are basically little text files placed on your computer by the websites you visit, and are essential to ensure a website is functioning optimally. Often they contain a unique number which can recognise your computer when you return to a website you’ve been to before. They also collect statistics to ensure maximum site functionality, along with monitoring how well our ads performing. Third party cookies set by Lowland Lettings:

Google Analytics

We use Google Analytics to measure how people are using our website via cookies. This information then helps us improve our website for visitors. We may also use it to measure how effective our ads are, and allow relevant ads to be shown to people who have shown interest in specific sections of our website - or to exclude them from specific ad campaigns that won’t interest them. If you’ve explicitly opted into Google’s data privacy policy, Google will also be able to identify you across multiple devices by associating your IP address with other data they hold, so you can be identified across multiple devices. To refuse the use of cookies, select the appropriate settings on your browser (instructions on how to do this below). There’s also a Google Analytics opt-out browser add-on which is available to install by clicking through to this external link. Installing this add-on will stop the transmission of information generated by cookies regarding your use of any website and of your IP address to Google. Read the Google Analytics privacy policy via this external link

AdWords and DoubleClick

We use AdWords and DoubleClick to help measure how effective our online ads are, helping to maximise the cost-effectiveness of our campaigns. These cookies have two main roles:

1. To track anonymised conversion data to help us gauge how effective our ads are
2. To serve ads to or exclude visitors who have visited our website

Another role of these cookies means that we can also limit how many times someone sees our ads. Click through to Google’s privacy policy (external link) and the DoubleClick privacy policy (external link).

MailChimp

MailChimp is the world’s largest email automation service. We use MailChimp to send out any emails, including newsletters, updates or promotions. We also use MailChimp to store our email list and monitor how recipients are reacting to emails (such as click and open rates) to gauge how we can improve in future. Learn more about MailChimp’s privacy policy by following this external link.

HotJar

HotJar is a popular analytics tool that shows us how visitors are using our website and which areas are most frequented by displaying what’s known as heatmaps. We also receive feedback via surveys this way, allowing us to improve your experience on our website and that you always find the information you need. Check HotJar’s privacy policy via this external link.

Other cookies

Please bear in mind that we may use additional cookies from third-party or analytics partners from time-to-time over the short-term to improve the effectiveness of our ads.

Disable cookies on browsers

If you want to disable cookies on your web browser (such as Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Safari or Internet Explorer), just click the ‘Help’ menu in the toolbar. This should guide you on how to change the settings on your browser, and how to disable cookies completely. For more guidance, click this link to AllAboutCookies.org (external link).

Changes to this policy

There may be future changes to this privacy policy. If any significant changes occur regarding the way your personal information is handled, we’ll make this clear via our website - or by contacting you via email.

Contact us

If you would like to get in touch with us for any reason (whether to ask a question, leave a comment, suggest a change or make a complaint) please contact us via info@lowlandlettings.co.uk or give us a call on 01835 869 927. You can also reach us by post: Lowland Lettings Friars Acre The Friars Jedburgh Roxburghshire, TD8 6BN