Right now, we’re in the information age. Information is available to website owners and internet users, including preferences for vacation rentals, the number of family members, birthdays, favorite colors, and much more. Although a lot of this information can be useful in understanding your visitors, users still need to be fully informed and aware that data collection is taking place. Keeping visitors in the dark could have major repercussions, such as decreased bookings or, worst yet, legal action.
Both you and your visitors are safeguarded by having a vacation rental privacy policy on your website. Keeping site users informed and remaining knowledgeable about guest data will help your business develop and be protected.
While it’s likely that most visitors to your website won’t read your privacy policy cover to cover, it’s still important to be detailed. You can avoid future legal issues by taking all necessary privacy precautions.
What does a vacation rental website privacy policy entail?
The privacy statement for vacation rentals is meant to inform prospective customers and website visitors about how you intend to use, share and store personal data. This should include details on the beginning of data usage, how you acquired the data, and how, when, and where data is collected after collection.
Since your privacy policy only applies to holiday rentals, please include sections or articles outlining the crucial data you save and its intended use. Consider gathering and storing information about visitors’ preferred holiday destinations; they might be relieved to learn your purpose for doing so and avoid unintentionally discouraging them from visiting your site.
Are privacy policies required for vacation rentals?
Many vacation rental firms need to understand the value of adopting a privacy policy since they only view themselves as tiny enterprises. No matter the size of your business, you should still include a privacy agreement on your vacation rental website, even if all of your visitors are friends or past visitors.
The definition of “invasion of privacy” is broad, and the penalties can be severe. Even if you have the best of intentions, any information you record, gather, or scribble down must be shared with visitors; otherwise, major issues may arise.
The guest experience is obvious. Before the guest ever makes a reservation, the goal is to satisfy them. You want to impress the visitor before they ever become a “guest,” whether that means arousing their wanderlust with alluring photographs, earning their trust with positive reviews, or making the booking process simple. You must declare this if you are gathering any information, whether it be for guest satisfaction or another purpose.
Conforming to CCPA and GDPR
Angering clients is one thing, but violating privacy regulations is quite another. Rigorous privacy rules may apply to you or your vacation rental home, depending on where you are located. The EU’s data protection law is known as GDPR. Even though the document is lengthy and written in legalese, it is essential to comprehend if you do business in the EU. The best way to comply with GDPR is to create a privacy policy that is as thorough as possible. When legally defending your company, no detail is too tiny. GDPR violations may be punished with hefty fines or fees of up to 20 million euros or 4% of global revenue.
Regarding CCPA compliance, the scope is slightly more constrained but just as significant. While not exclusive to California, these rules are state-specific. If you are found to violate this state statute, you will be subject to hefty fines.
What should a privacy statement on a vacation rental website contain?
The moment has come to develop your vacation rental website’s privacy policy if 20 million euro fines needed to be persuading more already. When it comes to internet rules, having good intentions is insufficient. Compliance entails covering every piece of data acquired in great detail. Fortunately, if you decide to write the privacy policy yourself, we’ve provided a template and delineated the important article sections to make it easier.
Introduction
You must introduce your business, the regulations you’re following, and any other pertinent background information at the top of the page. For our purposes, we’ve provided the GDPR code. However, privacy laws are not just governed by this body of legislation. Other sets of requirements to take into account can be:
- COPPA
- CalOPPA
- U.S. Data Protection Rules
- CCPA
- PIPEDA
- State statutes
Maintaining compliance with the law for your company will depend on your ability to research the privacy laws unique to your location.
Address and name of the Controller
Simply place the accountable individuals here. Usually, it will be you, your business, or any pen name or earlier trademark you may have used. It will be helpful to add all of your properties here and make it obvious that they are subsidiaries of your vacation rental business if you have several properties listed under your company.
Information gathered from your website
This section is the most important part of your vacation rental privacy agreement. Visitors to your website and guests are curious about the specifics of your tracking. Even if you are not currently gathering a certain type of data, you should include any existing data or data intended to be mined. Imagine you are a visitor to a website, and you believe the owner is merely collecting your contact information when they are tracking every page you visit, third parties connected to the user, and other information… You would be quite irate! In this part, describe the exact data you are gathering for your guests.
Reasons for processing
Even if website users agree to acquire their data, they can be curious as to why. Do you gather information to better the guest experience or sell it to outside parties? To prevent lawsuits and/or irate customers, it’s crucial to disclose the purpose of data collection.
Storing data
Another consideration is the length of time you intend to retain their information on file. Do you keep records of prospective guests for a week or 10 years? This might significantly influence whether a website visitor accepts your privacy statement or not. You must inform your visitors if you intend to keep this data for an extended period.
The basis for the processing is legal
In essence, this means that you won’t utilize the data unless you have permission to. The user and the applicable data regulations or legislation must consent. For instance, even if you have the user’s agreement to collect their address, you must utilize pricing personalization only if they live in a more affluent area. All parties shall adhere to the legal foundation.
Disclosure of data
Here, it is specified where the information will be disclosed. You must inform your website’s visitors if you share user information with third parties, such as OTAs, Paypal, or other integrations. The data disclosure section must include a complete list of all third parties.
The Data Subject’s Rights
Users retain the ability to object, withdraw consent, and request modifications to their data agreement even after giving their approval. Visitors to your website need to be informed of their privacy rights about your vacation rental privacy policy. These rights may consist of the following:
- Ability to confirm
- Right of entry
- Right to correction
- Freedom to revoke
- Right to processing restriction
- Data portability rights
- Right to withdraw data protection consent Right to object
- Users of your website should be aware of their rights regarding the privacy of their personal information.
Security
They want to ensure visitors’ data is secure rather than just using it. Anyone who hears the phrase “data breach” can become frightened, but this is especially true of visitors who input their credit card numbers and personal information to make a reservation with you. Describe your data security procedures in this section to ensure the digital safety of your visitors. If you utilize any third-party software to guard data, it should be noted here.
Links
There’s still considerable misconception on the internet about how linking works. Users need to be made aware that you are no longer responsible for their privacy and data protection when they leave your site by clicking on an embedded link on your page. Know that your privacy policy does not move over to other sites.
Cookies
Now, this is a controversial matter. With all the hype about data harvesting, the controversy of using cookies has also come up. Although you should have a separate cookie policy for your vacation rental website, you may still insert a little sentence here that notifies users of your site’s cookie usage.
You can also redirect or link users to your separate cookie policy if you have one. It’s suggested to have a separate policy for cookies instead of combining, especially if you must conform to GDPR, as they include a comprehensive section about cookie usage. It’s usually better to be safe than sorry, so mention your cookie policy here.
Validity and modifications
To wrap off your vacation rental website privacy policy, you’ll need to include a section or two about validity and revisions. Validity states that so long as the privacy policy is the same as it was at the time that the user approved, it is genuine.
On the other side, if you have amended your privacy policy, you’ll need to let people know, as their earlier consent will no longer be enough. When they sign the privacy policy, users agree that the agreement could change, but they should be informed of any modifications made.
How to change your vacation rental privacy policy
If you’ve made it through the legalese, then you’re probably ready to adopt your new vacation rental privacy policy and be done with it forever. Unfortunately, policies, regulations, and data needs vary, meaning that you could need to alter your privacy policy in the future. You needn’t fear, as adjustments are significantly easier than building them from scratch. You can alter your privacy policy at any time. Some causes for adjustment might be:
- New third-party collaboration
- Change in data regulation laws
- Adding a subsidiary or changing the company name
