Privacy Policy

This privacy policy was last updated on 6th October 2020.

Ways Away is committed to protecting the security of our customers’ personal data. This privacy policy will describe how we collect, use and store your personal data and the lawful basis for doing so whenever you visit our website, book a holiday, join our newsletter or interact with us on social media. It will also tell you about your rights and how the law protects you.

Whenever we mention "Ways Away", "we", "us" or "our" in this privacy policy, we are referring to the Ways Away Group which is the controller of, and thus responsible for, this website.

This privacy policy details our relationship with people who have booked or are looking to book a holiday with us, either as an individual or as part of a group, via our website or through any of our third-party booking agencies.

Our website is not designed for children and so we do not knowingly collect data relating to children unless it is in specific regards to a holiday booking.

Please note: if you are completing a booking on behalf of a group then our privacy policy applies to all personal data given to us. You are required to bring this privacy policy to their attention so that they can understand how we collect, use and store their personal data.

If you have any questions about this privacy policy or would like to exercise your legal rights, please contact Ways Away in writing, either by:

Email: info@waysaway.co.uk

Post: 6 Mount Boone, Dartmouth, TQ6 9PB

You also have the right to make a complaint to the ICO (www.ico.org.uk) at any time however we would prefer it if our customers contacted us in the first instance to voice their concerns.

Changes to Your Personal Information

Our privacy policy is always under review and subject to change as our business grows and the services we offer our customers diversifies. Any updates to our privacy policy can be found on this page. It is paramount that the personal data we hold about you is accurate and up to date, therefore please inform us of any changes to your personal details by using the contact information above.

Third-Party Website Links

The Ways Away website includes links to and from third-party websites, plug-ins and applications, these allow us to give our customers the best booking experience. By clicking on these links, you may be allowing third parties to collect, store or share your personal data. Ways Away have no control over these third-party websites, plug-ins or applications and so we cannot be held responsible for their privacy policies. We advise all our website visitors to read the privacy policies of all third-party websites to understand what personal data they may collect about you and how they may process it.

How We Collect Your Data

This section outlines the types of personal data we collect about yourself. We only collect personal, identifying data when it is provided by you or on your behalf in regards to a holiday booking. This data is important and necessary because it allows us to fulfil any special requirements you may have in regards to your holiday. For example, if you require an additional bed, child facilities or disability-friendly properties.

We never collect any information about criminal convictions or offences.

We do collect, analyse and store aggregated data which allows us to perform statistical analysis of our website however we never combine this with your personal data. This data cannot personally identify any of our customers.

Ways Away collect our customers’ personal data through the following ways:

Direct interactions.

This is when your personal data is provided either by yourself or on your behalf, often in regards to a booking. We will collect your data (such as identity, contact details and financial data) when you complete an online form, subscribe to our newsletter, book a holiday, leave a review or correspond with us either by post, phone, email or social media.

Automated technology.

Whenever you browse our website, we automatically collect your personal data such as technical and usage through automated technologies including cookies, server logs and other similar technologies. More information concerning our use of cookies is available further on in this privacy policy.

Publicly available information.

In order to improve our customers’ experience, maintain our properties’ standards and add additional content to our website, we gather publicly available information from sources such as TripAdvisor and Reevo and other review sites.

Third-Parties

We collect our customers’ personal data from various third parties who may be based outside of the EEA (European Economic Area). These include:

-         Analytics providers such as Google

-         Social media platforms such as Facebook Inc.

-         Search engine providers such as Google

-         Third-party booking and payment processing platforms such as Booking.com and Eviivo.

If You Fail to Provide Your Personal Information

If we are required by law or under the terms of a booking contract to collect your personal data and you fail to provide it, we will cancel your booking but will notify you of this.

How We Process Your Personal Data

Ways Away will only use your personal data in according to the law. Most commonly, we will use your personal data:

  • to perform the booking contract
  • to comply with a legal obligation
  • to carry out our business interests such as marketing.

Types of Personal Data

Below you will find an explanation of the type of data we receive from you and store in order to fulfil our contractual obligation to you.

Contact data

Billing address, email address and telephone numbers. 

Financial data

Basic payment details and transaction history.

Identity data

First name, maiden name, last name, social media username or a similar identifier. 

Marketing and communication data

Your communication and marketing preferences in receiving promotional information from us and our third parties. 

Holiday profile data

Any bookings made by you, your property preferences, feedback and survey responses. 

Usage data

Information about how you use the Ways Away website including browsing actions and journey. These help us to improve our website performance, design and functionality. 

Technical data

Your internet protocol (IP) address, browser type and version, time zone setting and location, browser version, platform and information about other devices you may use to access our website. 

Transaction data

Details about our properties you have previously booked either through us or our third-parties.

Our Lawful Basis

This is the lawful basis upon which we use to collect, store and use your personal data.

Consent

Where you have given your consent for us to use your personal data for a specific purpose, for example to receive our newsletters.

Contract

When using your data is necessary for us to fulfil our contractual obligations to you, such as confirming your holiday booking.

Legal Obligation

This is when we have a legal or regulatory obligation to hold and process your data.

We have created a table below to explain the lawful basis of which we process your data.

What We Do

What Data We Use

Our Lawful Basis

To accept, manage and communicate with you regarding your holiday booking.

Contact, identity, financial and marketing preferences.

To fulfil our contractual obligations with you.

To send a review request.

Contact, identity, holiday profile and marketing preferences.

To gain feedback on our properties and service and improve our business.

To manage, improve and test our website (analysis, maintenance, hosting and reporting)

Usage and technical data.

To run and grow our business, prevent our website from hacking and improve our IT systems.

To promote our latest offers, property launches and other marketing purposes such as making property recommendations.

Contact, identity, holiday profile, technical and marketing preferences.

To understand how our customers use our website, to grow our business and to inform our future marketing strategies.

Marketing

We strive to always be transparent about how we process your personal data and how we use it to communicate with you for marketing purposes.

We may analyse and use your personal data to form a view of what holiday properties, services, offers or other things we think may be of interest to you. For example, if you have expressed an interest previously in dog-friendly properties or properties which allow children.

When you send an enquiry and book a holiday with us, we will automatically add your details onto our marketing lists.  

We may share your personal data with our third-party affiliates who carry out marketing services on our behalf (for example, organisations which we use to send e-mails to our customers), but only where we have the right to do so.

In accordance to stringent data protection laws, we always provide our customers with the option to change their marketing and advertising preferences at the bottom of every marketing email they receive from us.

If you are unhappy and would like to be removed from our mailing lists then please contact us using the information provided above or click the ‘unsubscribe’ link at the bottom of our marketing emails.

If you do opt out of receiving marketing information from us, we may still use your personal data for other purposes, for example in connection with your holiday booking however we will always act within the lawful basis for doing so.

A Change of Purpose

We will only use your personal data for the reason that we collected it for however if we feel it could be beneficial for us to use it for another purpose – always still within our lawful basis – we shall. If we would like to use your personal data for an additional reason, we will notify you. In rare circumstances we may have to use your personal data without your prior knowledge such as if there is a requirement by law.

Cookies

We utilise cookies on our website because they allow us to provide our customers with a tailored experience and to make routine improvements to our website.

What is a cookie?

Simply put, cookies are small files which contain information and are stored on your browser or your device’s hard drive, once you have given your consent. Ways Away’s website uses four different types of cookies and we’ve outlined them below.

Strictly necessary cookies.

These cookies are critical to the functionality and operation of our website. They enable you experience the interactive features of our website, to browse our properties and confirm your holiday booking. Please note: these cookies do not store identifiable data.

Analytical cookies.

In order to maintain our website’s high standard and improve our customer’s journey, we utilise analytical cookies. They allow us to count the number of visitors to our website, see how they use our site and understand the content they enjoy the most. They are integral to running a modern, accessible and secure website.

Functionality cookies.

These cookies allow us to recognise repeat visors to our website which in turn allows us to deliver personalise offers and remember your preferences, such as previous holiday searches.

Third-party cookies.

Third-parties such as social networks and website analysis services may implant use cookies which we have no control over.

Disabling Cookies

You can disable and block cookies at any time through your browser settings, yet if you do so some parts of our website may not function properly.

Sharing Your Personal Data

We may have to share your personal data with the aforementioned third parties but rest assured, they must also respect the security of your personal data and act within the law as they process your data to fulfil their contractual obligations to us.

Transferring Your Data Internationally

We will only share your personal data within the Ways Away Group but may have to share your information with a selected number of third-parties when we would like to use their services. In most cases they are located outside of the European Economic Area (EEA) which means we would transfer your data internationally. We may transfer data to US-based service providers but only those who operate in accordance to the Privacy Shield which requires them to provide stringent protection to all personal data shared between the Europe and the US.

Your Data’s Security

We have stringent security measures in place to help prevent your personal data from being accidentally lost, used or accessed in an illegal way. Your data will only be accessed by individuals within our business who have a legitimate interest to do so such as for creating our email campaigns, to contact you regarding your holiday booking or for responding to any enquiries you may have made.

Our staff always act with the strictest confidentiality and we have procedures in place in the case of a data breach. If one arises, we make a commitment to contact all our affected customers and the applicable regulatory body.

How We Store Your Data

Ways Away Group will only store your data for as long as it is necessary for us to perform our duties, including managing your booking, marketing and any legal requirements, accounting and conducting statistical analysis. When we run our website reports we anonymise all personal data so that it cannot identify our customers.

All companies are required to keep basic customer information such as contact, identity and transactional data for up to six years after the end of the tax year. Please note: we will only use your basic financial data such as credit and / or debit card details in order to process the payment for your holiday. We do not store any of your card details.

In the case of a complaint or the prospect of litigation we may have to retain your personal data for a longer period however, in this circumstance, we will notify you.

Your Legal Rights

We always respect the rights of our customers and website visitors. We will never charge an administration fee if a customer wishes to exercise their legal rights by requesting the removal of their personal data. If you wish to complain you can do so at any time by using the contact details provided at the top of this privacy policy.

Access to your data

You can ask Ways Away for a copy of the personal data we hold about you and check that we are processing it lawfully.

Correction

You can ask us to correct any inaccurate personal data we hold about you.

Erasure

You can ask us to delete your personal data in the instance that:

  • there is no sound reason why we should continue to process it
  • you suspect we have used your data inappropriately
  • local data laws have changed and we have yet to comply with them

Please note: sometimes we may not be able to enact your request for specific legal reasons, if this is the case, we shall notify you.

Objection

At any time, you may object to how Ways Away process your personal data if you believe it will impact on your fundamental rights and freedoms.

Restrict processing

You can also request that we suspend or restrict the use of your personal data if you believe the data in incorrect, you don’t believe that we’ve used it lawfully (but you don’t want us to erase it) or that you are in the process of a third-party legal claim.

Request a transfer

At any time, you may request a transfer of all the personal data you have provided to us.

Withdraw your consent

You can redact your consent to the manner of which we process your personal data but it will not affect the lawfulness of how we used your data previously.

Our Third-Parties

Group companies

Other companies within the Ways Away Group (based within the United Kingdom) may process your data strictly for marketing purposes.

Service providers

These are third-parties who provide IT, system administration services, website design, hosting and marketing services. They may be based inside or outside of the EU.

Some of our third-party service providers include:

  • Property management companies who aid us to facilitate your holiday such as to clean properties and arrange key collections.
  • Payment and booking service providers such as Eviivo, Grimaldi Building, 154A Pentonville Rd, Islington, London N1 9JE
  • Review websites such as Reevo and TripAdvisor
  • Marketing service providers such as Mail Chimp, 675 Ponce De Leon Ave NE #5000.
  • Third-party booking platforms such as Booking.com. Booking.com B.V., Herengracht 597, 1017 CE Amsterdam, Netherlands

Professional advisors

Such as lawyers, bankers, auditors and insurers based within the United Kingdom who may provide consultancy, banking, legal, insurance and accounting services to Ways Away Group.

Regulators and other authorities

They are based within the United Kingdom or the Republic of Ireland and may require reports on our business such as HM Revenue & Customs.

Glossary

Please see below an explanation of terms featured in this privacy policy.

Aggregated data

This is information such as statistical or demographic data which may be derived from personal data to perform an analysis of our website and marketing strategies. It cannot be used to personally identify you.

Controller

The person within the company who determines the purposes and methods of processing personal data.

Data subject

A living person (a customer) who is identifiable by their personal data.

Personal data

This is information which can identify a data subject. This does not include anonymised or aggregated data.

Processor

Those who are responsible for processing personal data on behalf of the controller.

ICO

Information Commissioner’s Office, the UK supervisory authority for data protection issues.