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Hostelbookers Privacy Policy

HostelBookers understands and respects the importance of your privacy and we are committed to safeguarding your personal information. In providing our booking service and access to any Hostelbookers account you may open, we must collect personal information from you and make subsequent use of it as detailed below.

HOW?

We will only collect personal information from you by specifically asking for it:-

When you make a booking with us, over the telephone or via our internet booking facilities.
When you register with us for newsletters, email updates, enter competitions or take part in surveys and customer feedback.
When you create a user account via this website.
When you write, fax, telephone or email us to make an enquiry.

WHAT INFORMATION WILL WE COLLECT?

We may collect all or some of the following information relating to you or other members of your party:-

names and contact details (address, email address, telephone number)
credit/ debit card or other payment details
special requirements such as those relating to any disability or medical condition which may affect the chosen holiday arrangements
dietary restrictions (which may disclose your religious beliefs)
travel preferences

Some of the information we collect (such as about health or religion) will only be collected on the condition that we have your positive consent to its use. We will seek this consent when necessary.

WHAT WILL WE DO WITH IT?

For the purpose of providing you with our services, we may disclose the information to the providers of the services making up your holiday arrangements (who could be located outside the UK/EEA).
In order for you to travel overseas, it may be mandatory (as requested government authorities) to disclose your information for immigration, security and anti-terrorism purposes, or any other purposes which they determine appropriate. Even if not mandatory, we may exercise our discretion to assist where appropriate.
We may need to disclose our customer list including any personal information relating to you to a third party who acquires or attempts to acquire all or substantially all of the asset/ stock in our company or our website.
We may also disclose information to organisations who act as “data processors” on our behalf, or to other organisations who perform business functions on our behalf, some of whom are outside the UK/EEA. These functions include administration, providing services (and contacting you where necessary), customer care, business management and operation, re-organisation/structuring/sale of our business (or our group companies), risk assessment, security and crime prevention/detection, research and analysis, marketing, monitoring, measuring and assessing customer purchasing preferences and trends, dispute resolution, credit checking and debt collection.
We may from time to time contact you (by email and by post) with information about special offers, brochures, new products, forthcoming events or competitions. If do not wish to receive such information, you may ask us in writing not to receive it. If you set up an account via our website, you will be able to tell us how you would like to receive such information when we send it by email (by unsubscribing to our email alerts)
If you set up an account via our website, we will store your personal information and information about the bookings that you have made with us that have been performed and those that are due to be performed in the future. This is so you can access this information when you come to use our site. We will retain this personal information until the later of: a) 6 months after you close down your account with us or b) a year after your last booking activity.

We have taken all reasonable steps to have appropriate security measures in place to protect your information. Outside the European Economic Area, controls on data protection may not be as wide as the legal requirements in this country.

WHAT CAN I DO?

If you do not agree to our use of the information as set out above, you should inform us as soon as possible by contacting us at http://www.hostelbookers.com/contact/

You may ask us in writing for a copy of the information we hold about you (for which we may charge a fee) and to correct any inaccuracies in your information. We aim to respond to you within 21 days from the date of request.

Please note that in order for us to provide you with optimum service, we use ‘Cookies’ on our website. ‘Cookies’ are a feature of web browser software which allows web servers to temporarily store information within your browser. ‘Cookies’ allow us to obtain information regarding users of our site which essentially helps us to provide you with a better user experience and tailor our services to your individual needs. We don’t store and record any of your passwords or other highly sensitive data. Most browsers automatically allow ‘cookies,’ however usually your web browser will enable you to disable ‘cookies’ should you wish to do so.

If you want to know more about what cookies are and how to control them, please visit AboutCookies.org. Be aware that restricting cookies may impact on the functionality of our website.

Below is a list of the main cookies we use and what they are used for:

Cookies	Description
.hostelbookers.com	We use different servers within HostelBookers, this cookie ensures users are kept on the same server throughout their visit on the site.
JSESSIONID	This cookie identifies your preferences while you are visiting HostelBookers. i.e. if your search was "London hostels", the website will (in the first instance) only show you availability for properties in London.
Google Analytics & ns_session	These cookies collect information about how you use HostelBookers' website. This information is used in reports and helps us to improve your experience of the website.
HBLOCATIONCURRENCY	This cookie enables our website to remember your preferred currency.
ns_cookietest	This is used to confirm that your browser is able to accept cookies.
Criteo	These cookies display personalized advertisements based on the past websites you have visited.
HB_AFF	This cookie helps us to identify whether you reached our website via one of our partners.

Please note that our website contains certain literature and hyperlinks to websites owned by third parties. This privacy statement covers websites owned and controlled by us only. Links to other websites and any information collected by these sites are not covered by this privacy statement.

MONITORING

To ensure that we carry out your instructions accurately, to help improve our service and in the interest of security, we may monitor and/or record: (1) your telephone calls; and (2) customer transactions and activities on our website. All recordings are and shall remain our sole property.

UPDATES AND CHANGES

As our privacy statement may change due to developments in the law we encourage you to re read this from time to time so you are aware of any changes in how we gather and use your personal information.