VILLA AGENCY LIMITED (THE)

PRIVACY POLICY

INTRODUCTION

Villa Agency Limited (The), a company registered in England and Wales with company no. 01841001 and registered office address of The Hames, Ovingdean Road, Brighton, East Sussex, BN2 7BB, trading as The Villa Agency    (referred to as “we”, “us” or “our” in this Privacy Policy), respects your privacy and is committed to protecting your personal data. This Privacy Policy will inform you as to how we look after your personal data when you visit our website (regardless of where you visit it from) or when you otherwise provide personal data to us via other means (such as over the telephone) and tell you about your privacy rights and how the law protects you.

 

This Privacy Policy is provided in a layered format so that you can easily click through to the specific areas set out below.

 

Please also use refer to the Glossary that we have set out at the end of the Policy, if there is any terminology used in this Privacy Policy that you are unfamiliar with or that you don’t fully understand.

 

  1. IMPORTANT INFORMATION AND WHO WE ARE


  2. THE DATA WE COLLECT ABOUT YOU


  3. HOW YOUR PERSONAL DATA IS COLLECTED


  4. HOW WE USE YOUR PERSONAL DATA


  5. HOW WE DISCLOSE YOUR PERSONAL DATA


  6. WHEN WE TRANSFER YOUR DATA OVERSEAS


  7. HOW WE SECURE YOUR DATA


  8. HOW LONG WE RETAIN YOUR DATA FOR


  9. YOUR LEGAL RIGHTS


  10. GLOSSARY

 

1. IMPORTANT INFORMATION AND WHO WE ARE

Purpose of this Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy aims to give you information on how we  collect and process your personal data, including any data you may provide through this website or via any other means (such as over the telephone) when you purchase travel services, when you sign up to our newsletter, when you take part in a competition etc.

This website is not intended for children and the only circumstances in which we collect data relating to children, is where you make a booking of travel services and you have children in your party.

It is important that you read this Privacy Policy together with any other privacy notice or fair processing notice we may provide on specific occasions when we are collecting or processing personal data about you so that you are fully aware of how and why we are using your data. This Privacy Policy supplements the other notices and is not intended to override them.

 

Data Controller

Villa Agency Limited (The) (collectively referred to as “we”, “us” or “our” in this Privacy Policy) is the controller and responsible for your personal data.

We have appointed a data privacy manager who is responsible for overseeing questions in relation to this Privacy Policy. If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, including any requests to exercise your legal rights, please contact the data privacy manager using the details set out below.

 

Contact details

Full name of legal entity: Villa Agency Limited (The)

Email address: mail@thevillaagency.co.uk

Postal address: As Above

Telephone number: 01273 747811

 

You have the right to make a complaint at any time to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), the UK supervisory authority for data protection issues (ico.org.uk). We would, however, appreciate the chance to deal with your concerns before you approach the ICO so please contact us in the first instance.

 

Changes to the Privacy Policy and your duty to inform us of changes

We keep our Privacy Policy under regular review. This version was last updated on 28th November 2024 and historic versions can be obtained by contacting us. It is important that the personal data we hold about you is accurate and current. Please keep us informed if any of the details you provide to us should change, during the course of your relationship with us.

 

Third-party links

This website may include links to third-party websites, plug-ins and applications. Clicking on those links or enabling those connections may allow third parties to collect or share data about you. We do not control these third-party websites and are not responsible for their privacy statements. When you leave our website, we encourage you to read the privacy notice of every website you visit.

 

2. THE DATA WE COLLECT ABOUT YOU

Personal data, or personal information, means any information about an individual from which that person can be identified. It does not include data where the identity has been removed (anonymous data). We may collect, use, store and transfer different kinds of personal data about you which we have grouped together follows:

(A) Identity Data
This includes data relating specifically to your identity, such as your first name, maiden name, last name or similar identifier, marital status, title, date of birth and gender.

(B) Contact Data
This includes data relating to how you may be contacted, such as your billing address, delivery address, email address and telephone numbers.

(C) Financial Data
This include data relating to your means and methods of payment, such as your bank account and payment card details.

(D) Transaction Data
This includes data relating to the transactions you have carried out with us, such as details about payments to and from you and other details of products and services you have purchased from us.

(E) Technical Data
This includes more technical data that we may obtain when you make use of our website, such as your internet protocol (IP) address, your login data, browser type and version, time zone setting and location, browser plug-in types and versions, operating system and platform and other technology on the devices you use to access this website.

(F) Usage Data
This includes information about how you use our website, products and services.

(G) Marketing and Communications Data
This includes your preferences in relation to whether or not you want to receive marketing from us and our third parties and also your communication preferences.

 

We also collect, use and share Aggregated Data such as statistical or demographic data for any purpose. Aggregated Data may be derived from your personal data but is not considered personal data in law as this data does not directly or indirectly reveal your identity. For example, we may aggregate your Usage Data to calculate the percentage of users accessing a specific website feature. However, if we combine or connect Aggregated Data with your personal data so that it can directly or indirectly identify you, we will treat the combined data as personal data which will be used in accordance with this Privacy Policy.

 

Special Categories of Personal Data

We collect the following special categories of personal data about you. Details about your:

  • dietary requirements which may disclose your religious or philosophical beliefs;
  • health;
  • race or ethnicity;

 

We collect and process the above data only where it is strictly necessary to do so in order to deliver the travel service that you have purchased. Furthermore, we will only collect and process the above special categories of sensitive personal data where you have provided us with your explicit consent to do so.

You are not under any obligation to consent to us processing your sensitive personal data. However, without your consent, we won’t be able to make the necessary arrangements to provide the travel services that you have booked or are attempting to book. As a result, if you do not provide your consent, we will be unable to proceed with your booking.

If you are happy to consent to our use of your sensitive personal data, you will also be able to withdraw your consent at any time. However, as this will prevent us from providing the travel service you have booked, we will be required to treat any withdrawal of consent as a cancellation of your booking and the cancellation charges referred to in the cancellation sections of our Booking Terms and Conditions https://thevillaagency.co.uk/booking-conditions/ will become payable.

 

If you fail to provide personal data

Where we need to collect personal data by law or under the terms of a contract we have with you and you fail to provide that data when requested, we may not be able to perform the contract we have or are trying to enter into with you.

In other words, where we require details from you in order to provide you with your chosen travel services, if you do not provide us with the necessary details then we will not be able to provide the services you have booked or are attempting to book.

In this case, depending upon when you fail to provide the necessary data, we may either not be able to process your booking or we may have to cancel your booking, in which case we will treat this as a ‘cancellation by you’ in accordance with our Booking Terms and Conditions https://thevillaagency.co.uk/booking-conditions/ . We will notify you if we are unable to process a booking or are required to cancel a booking for this reason.

 

3. HOW YOUR PERSONAL DATA IS COLLECTED

We use different methods to collect data from and about you including through:

(A) Direct interactions

You may give us your Identity, Contact and Financial Data by filling in forms or by corresponding with us by post, phone, email or otherwise. This includes personal data you provide when you:

    • make a booking of travel services;
    • subscribe to our newsletter or other publications;
    • request marketing to be sent to you;
    • enter a competition, promotion or survey;
    • give us some feedback.

(B) Automated technologies or interactions

As you interact with our website, we may automatically collect Technical Data about your equipment, browsing actions and patterns.

We collect this personal data by using cookies, and other similar technologies. We may also receive Technical Data about you if you visit other websites employing our cookies. Please see our cookie policy for further details.

(C) Third parties

We may receive personal data about you from various third parties such as analytics providers, advertising networks and search information providers (E.g. Google), some of whom are based outside of the UK. sometimes based outside the UK;

Please note that when using our website, you may be able to share information through social networks like Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. For example, when you ‘like’, ‘share’ or review our services. When doing this, your personal information may be visible to the providers of those social networks and/or their other users. Please remember it is your responsibility to set appropriate privacy settings on your social network accounts so you are comfortable with how your information is used and shared on them. This will not be the responsibility of the Villa Agency.

 

4. HOW WE USE YOUR PERSONAL DATA

We will only use your personal data when the law allows us to. Most commonly, we will use your personal data in the following circumstances:

  • Where we need to manage and/or perform the contract we are about to enter into or have entered into with you;
  • Where it is necessary for our legitimate interests (or those of a third party) and your interests and fundamental rights do not override those interests;
  • Where we need to comply with a legal or regulatory obligation.

See the details on ‘Lawful Basis’ in the Glossary to find out more about the types of lawful basis that we will rely on to process your personal data.

Generally we do not rely on consent as a legal basis for processing your personal data other than in relation to sending direct marketing communications to you via email or text message. You have the right to withdraw consent to marketing at any time by contacting us.

 

Purposes for which we will use your personal data

We have set out below, in a table format, a description of all the ways we plan to use your personal data, and which of the legal bases we rely on to do so. We have also identified what our legitimate interests are where appropriate.

Note that we may process your personal data for more than one lawful ground depending on the specific purpose for which we are using your data. Please contact us if you need details about the specific legal ground we are relying on to process your personal data where more than one ground has been set out in the table below.

 

Purpose/Activity Type of data Lawful basis for processing including basis of legitimate interest
To register you as a new customer.

 

 (a) Identity;

(b) Contact.

 To perform our duties in acting as an Agent or performance of a contract with you.
To process and deliver your booking including:

 

(a) Manage payments, fees and charges;

(b) Collect and recover money owed to us.

 

 (a) Identity;

(b) Contact;

(c) Financial;

(d) Transaction;

(e) Marketing and Communications.

 (a) Performance of a contract with you;

(b) Necessary for our legitimate interests (to recover debts due to us).
To manage our relationship with you which will include:

 

(a) Notifying you about changes to our terms or Privacy Policy;

(b) Asking you to leave a review or take a survey.

 

 (a) Identity;

(b) Contact;

(c) Profile;

(d) Marketing and Communications.

 (a) Performance of a contract with you;

(b) Necessary to comply with a legal obligation;

(c) Necessary for our legitimate interests (to keep our records updated and to study how customers use our products/services).

 
To enable you to partake in a prize draw, competition or complete a survey. (a) Identity

(b) Contact

(c) Profile

(d) Usage

(e) Marketing and Communications

 

 (a) Performance of a contract with you;

(b) Necessary for our legitimate interests (to study how customers use our products/services, to develop them and grow our business).
To administer and protect our business and this website (including troubleshooting, data analysis, testing, system maintenance, support, reporting and hosting of data). (a) Identity

(b) Contact

(c) Technical

 (a) Necessary for our legitimate interests (for running our business, provision of administration and IT services, network security, to prevent fraud and in the context of a business reorganisation or group restructuring exercise);

(b) Necessary to comply with a legal obligation.

 
To deliver relevant website content and advertisements to you and measure or understand the effectiveness of the advertising we serve to you (a) Identity

(b) Contact

(c) Profile

(d) Usage

(e) Marketing and Communications

(f) Technical

 

 Necessary for our legitimate interests (to study how customers use our products/services, to develop them, to grow our business and to inform our marketing strategy)
To use data analytics to improve our website, products/services, marketing, customer relationships and experiences (a) Technical

(b) Usage

 Necessary for our legitimate interests (to define types of customers for our products and services, to keep our website updated and relevant, to develop our business and to inform our marketing strategy)

 
To make suggestions and recommendations to you about goods or services that may be of interest to you (a) Identity

(b) Contact

(c) Technical

(d) Usage

(e) Profile

(f) Marketing and Communications

 

 Necessary for our legitimate interests (to develop our products/services and grow our business)
To monitor our communications with you in order to check any instructions given to us, for training purposes, for crime prevention, to improve the quality of our customer service and to defend legal claims. (a) Identity

(b) Contact

(c) Technical

 (a) Necessary for our legitimate interests (to assist us in training our employees and defend our business in the event of a claim).

 

(b) Necessary to comply with a legal obligation;

 

 

 

Marketing

We strive to provide you with choices regarding certain personal data uses, particularly around marketing and advertising. We have established the following personal data control mechanisms:

 

Promotional offers from us

We may use your Identity, Contact, Technical, Usage and Profile Data to form a view on what we think you may want or need, or what may be of interest to you. This is how we decide which products, services and offers may be relevant for you (we call this marketing).

 

You will receive marketing communications from us if you have requested information from us or purchased services from us and, in each case, you have not opted out of receiving that marketing. We sometimes use a marketing platform which allows you to subscribe or unsubscribe from our marketing. You may also ask us to remove you from our database completely after you have completed your holiday.

 

Third-party marketing

We will get your express opt-in consent before we share your personal data with any third party for marketing purposes.

 

Opting out

You can ask us or third parties to stop sending you marketing messages at any time by following the opt-out links on any marketing message sent to you or by contacting us at any time.

 

Monitoring communications

We may monitor, record, store and use any email or other communication with you in order to check any instructions given to us, for training purposes, for crime prevention and to improve the quality of our customer service.

 

Cookies

You can set your browser to refuse all or some browser cookies, or to alert you when websites set or access cookies. If you disable or refuse cookies, please note that some parts of this website may become inaccessible or not function properly. For more information about the cookies we use, please see our Cookies Policy.

 

Change of purpose

We will only use your personal data for the purposes for which we collected it, unless we reasonably consider that we need to use it for another reason and that reason is compatible with the original purpose. If you wish to get an explanation as to how the processing for the new purpose is compatible with the original purpose, please contact us.

If we need to use your personal data for an unrelated purpose, we will notify you and we will explain the legal basis which allows us to do so.

Please note that we may process your personal data without your knowledge or consent, in compliance with the above rules, where this is required or permitted by law.

 

5. DISCLOSURES OF YOUR PERSONAL DATA

We may have to share your personal data with the parties set out below for the purposes set out in the table in paragraph 4 above.

(A) Internal Third Parties as set out in the Glossary.

(B) External Third Parties as set out in the Glossary.

(C) Specific third parties, such as our villa partners and their associated businesses.

(D) Third parties to whom we may choose to sell, transfer, or merge parts of our business or our assets. Alternatively, we may seek to acquire other businesses or merge with them. If a change happens to our business, then the new owners may use your personal data in the same way as set out in this Privacy Policy.

We require all third parties to respect the security of your personal data and to treat it in accordance with the law. We do not allow our third-party service providers to use your personal data for their own purposes and only permit them to process your personal data for specified purposes and in accordance with our instructions.

 

6. INTERNATIONAL TRANSFERS

Many of our external third parties are based outside the UK so their processing of your personal data will involve a transfer of data outside the UK.

Where you have requested a booking for travel arrangements which are located or otherwise due to be fulfilled outside the UK, we will have to transfer your personal data to the suppliers fulfilling or providing those travel arrangements outside the UK in order to make your booking and for those suppliers to be able to provide you with the travel arrangements you have booked.

 

Whenever we transfer your personal data out of the UK, we ensure a similar degree of protection is afforded to it by ensuring at least one of the following safeguards is implemented:

  • We will only transfer your personal data to countries that have been deemed to provide an adequate level of protection for personal data.
  • Where we use certain service providers, we may use specific contracts approved for use in the UK which give personal data the same protection it has in the UK.

Where we are unable to rely on one of the safeguards outlined above when transferring data to those suppliers outside the UK, we may rely on a derogation under Article 49 of the UK GDPR in order to transfer your personal data so that we can perform the contract we have with you. We will only do this where the transfer of personal data is necessary to perform our contract with you, and where it is proportionate for us to rely on the exemption. You also acknowledge that where your personal data is transferred outside the UK, controls on data protection may not be as wide as the legal requirements within the UK.

Please contact us if you want further information on the specific mechanism used by us when transferring your personal data out of the UK.

 

7. DATA SECURITY

We have put in place appropriate security measures to prevent your personal data from being accidentally lost, used or accessed in an unauthorised way, altered or disclosed. In addition, we limit access to your personal data to those employees, agents, contractors and other third parties who have a business need to know. They will only process your personal data on our instructions and they are subject to a duty of confidentiality.

We have put in place procedures to deal with any suspected personal data breach and will notify you and any applicable regulator of a breach where we are legally required to do so.

 

8. DATA RETENTION

How long will you use my personal data for?

We will only retain your personal data for as long as reasonably necessary to fulfil the purposes we collected it for, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, regulatory, tax,  accounting, or reporting requirements. We may retain your personal data for a longer period in the event of a complaint or if we reasonably believe there is a prospect of litigation in respect to our relationship with you.

To determine the appropriate retention period for personal data, we consider the amount, nature, and sensitivity of the personal data, the potential risk of harm from unauthorised use or disclosure of your personal data, the purposes for which we process your personal data and whether we can achieve those purposes through other means, and the applicable legal, regulatory, tax, accounting or other requirements.

By law we have to keep basic information about our customers (including Contact, Identity, Financial and Transaction Data) for six years after they cease being customers for tax purposes.

In some circumstances you can ask us to delete your data: see Request erasure below for further information.

In some circumstances we may anonymise your personal data (so that it can no longer be associated with you) for research or statistical purposes in which case we may use this information indefinitely without further notice to you.

 

9. YOUR LEGAL RIGHTS

Under certain circumstances, you have rights under data protection laws in relation to your personal data. Please click on the links below to find out more about these rights:

(A) Request access to your personal data.

(B) Request correction of your personal data.

(C) Request erasure of your personal data.

(D) Object to processing of your personal data.

(E) Request restriction of processing your personal data.

(F) Request transfer of your personal data.

(G) Right to withdraw consent.

If you wish to exercise any of the rights set out above, please contact us.

 

No fee usually required

You will not have to pay a fee to access your personal data (or to exercise any of the other rights). However, we may charge a reasonable fee if your request is clearly unfounded, repetitive or excessive. Alternatively, we may refuse to comply with your request in these circumstances.

What we may need from you

We may need to request specific information from you to help us confirm your identity and ensure your right to access your personal data (or to exercise any of your other rights). This is a security measure to ensure that personal data is not disclosed to any person who has no right to receive it. We may also contact you to ask you for further information in relation to your request to speed up our response

Time limit to respond

We try to respond to all legitimate requests within one month. Occasionally it may take us longer than a month if your request is particularly complex or you have made a number of requests. In this case, we will notify you and keep you updated.

 

10. GLOSSARY

 

LAWFUL BASIS

  • Legitimate Interest
    means the interest of our business in conducting and managing our business to enable us to give you the best service and the best and most secure experience. We make sure we consider and balance any potential impact on you (both positive and negative) and your rights before we process your personal data for our legitimate interests. We do not use your personal data for activities where our interests are overridden by the impact on you (unless we have your consent or are otherwise required or permitted to by law). You can obtain further information about how we assess our legitimate interests against any potential impact on you in respect of specific activities by contacting us.
  • Performance of Contract
    means processing your data where it is necessary for the performance of a contract to which you are a party or to take steps at your request before entering into such a contract.
  • Comply with a legal or regulatory obligation
    means processing your personal data where it is necessary for compliance with a legal or regulatory obligation that we are subject to.

 

THIRD PARTIES

  • Internal Third Parties
    Other companies in the in our Group who are based in the UK and provide services such as administration and leadership reporting.
  • External Third Parties
    i. Suppliers of travel services based in the various destinations we work with and who provide the travel services that make up any booking of travel services that you make with us.
    ii. Service providers most likely based in the UK who provide IT and system administration services.
    iii. Professional advisers including lawyers, bankers, auditors and insurers based who provide consultancy, banking, legal, insurance and accounting services.
    iv. HM Revenue & Customs, regulators and other authorities based in the United Kingdom.

YOUR LEGAL RIGHTS

You have the right to:

  • Request access
    to your personal data (commonly known as a “data subject access request”). This enables you to receive a copy of the personal data we hold about you and to check that we are lawfully processing it.
  • Request correction
    of the personal data that we hold about you. This enables you to have any incomplete or inaccurate data we hold about you corrected, though we may need to verify the accuracy of the new data you provide to us.
  • Request erasure
    of your personal data. This enables you to ask us to delete or remove personal data where there is no good reason for us continuing to process it. You also have the right to ask us to delete or remove your personal data where you have successfully exercised your right to object to processing (see below), where we may have processed your information unlawfully or where we are required to erase your personal data to comply with local law. Note, however, that we may not always be able to comply with your request of erasure for specific legal reasons which will be notified to you, if applicable, at the time of your request.
  • Object to processing
    of your personal data where we are relying on a legitimate interest (or those of a third party) and there is something about your particular situation which makes you want to object to processing on this ground as you feel it impacts on your fundamental rights and freedoms. You also have the right to object where we are processing your personal data for direct marketing purposes. In some cases, we may demonstrate that we have compelling legitimate grounds to process your information which override your rights and freedoms.
  • Request restriction of processing
    of your personal data. This enables you to ask us to suspend the processing of your personal data in the following scenarios:
    (a) if you want us to establish the data’s accuracy;
    (b) where our use of the data is unlawful but you do not want us to erase it;
    (c) where you need us to hold the data even if we no longer require it as you need it to establish, exercise or defend legal claims; or
    (d) you have objected to our use of your data but we need to verify whether we have overriding legitimate grounds to use it.
  • Request the transfer
    of your personal data to you or to a third party. We will provide to you, or a third party you have chosen, your personal data in a structured, commonly used, machine-readable format. Note that this right only applies to automated information which you initially provided consent for us to use or where we used the information to perform a contract with you.
  • Withdraw consent at any time
    where we are relying on consent to process your personal data. However, this will not affect the lawfulness of any processing carried out before you withdraw your consent. If you withdraw your consent, we may not be able to provide certain products or services to you. We will advise you if this is the case at the time you withdraw your consent.