WhyHotel
Privacy Policy
Last Updated: March 4, 2019
WhyHotel, Inc. (“WhyHotel,”“we,” “our” or “us”) respects your privacy and is committed to protecting it through our compliance with this privacy policy. WhyHotel offers fully furnished apartments (the “Guest Units”) in newly built apartment buildings (individually or collectively, the “Property”) on a long or short-term basis for guests (“ you”) to stay. As used in this privacy policy, the term “you” includes any individual who makes a reservation for or rents a Guest Unit, is staying a Property, accesses or uses a Guest Unit or http://whyhotel.com (the “Site”) or the other WhyHotel Services (defined below).
This privacy policy explains our policies and practices regarding the information we collect from and about you. It is through this privacy policy that we intend to provide you with a level of comfort and confidence in how we collect, use, and safeguard personal and other information we collect and obtain, or that you provide through http://whyhotel.com (the “ Site”) and how you can contact us if you have any questions or concerns. It is our sincere hope that by explaining our data handling practices we will develop a trusting and long-lasting relationship with you.
For the purposes of the EU General Data Protection Regulation 2016/679 (as the same may be updated or amended from time to time, the “ GDPR”), WhyHotel is the data “controller.” This means that we are responsible for deciding how we use certain information that we hold. We are a Delaware corporation registered in the United States with an office located at 810 7th Street NE, Washington, DC 20002, USA.
The GDPR applies to you if you reside in the European Economic Area (an “ EEA Resident”).
Please note that by making a reservation for or renting a Guest Unit, staying at a Property or accessing or using the Site and/or the various other related services, features, functions, software, applications, websites and networks provided by WhyHotel or other features, functions, services or products offered or made available by WhyHotel (together with the Guest Units, the Property and the Site, collectively, the “WhyHotel Services”), you are accepting the practices described in this privacy policy. This privacy policy is also incorporated by reference into the Terms of Service (as modified from time to time, the “Terms”), and the various other policies, agreements and terms and conditions that govern your making a reservation or renting a Guest Unit or your use of the Site and the other WhyHotel Services.
This privacy policy describes the types of information we may collect from you or that you may provide when you make a reservation for or rent a Guest Unit or access or use the Site and/or the other WhyHotel Services, and our practices for collecting, using, maintaining, protecting and disclosing that information.
This privacy policy applies to information we collect or may collect from you:
It does not apply to information collected by any third party, including our Booking Partners and Payment Processors, to the extent the same information is not also collected by us.
Please read this privacy policy carefully to understand our policies and practices regarding your information and how we will treat it. If you do not agree with our policies and practices, your only choice is not to make a reservation or rent a Guest Unit or use the Site or the other WhyHotel Services. By making a reservation or renting any Guest Unit or accessing or using the Site or any of the other WhyHotel Services, you agree to this privacy policy. This privacy policy may change from time to time. Your continued use of the Site and/or any of the other WhyHotel Services, after we make changes is deemed to be acceptance of those changes, so please check the policy periodically for updates. Nothing in the foregoing paragraph is intended to affect any rights that an EEA Resident might have, or restrictions that might apply, under the GDPR.
Minors under 21 years of age may not make a reservation for a Guest Unit (although minors under 21 years of age may stay with a guest who is 21 years or older in accordance with the Terms. No one under age 13 may provide any information on or through the Site or the other WhyHotel Services. We do not knowingly collect personal data from children under 13. If you are under 13, do not use or provide any information on or through any of the WhyHotel Services or any of its features on the Site, and do not use any of the interactive or public comment features of any of the WhyHotel Services or provide any information about yourself to us, including your name, address, telephone number, e-mail address or any screen name or user name you may use. If we learn we have collected or received personal data from a child under 13 without verification of parental consent, we will delete that information. If you believe that we might have any information from or about a child under 13, please contact us at hello@whyhotel.com.
Information We Collect About You and How We Collect It
We collect or may collect several types of information from and about you and other Guests of the Guest Units and the users of the Site and the other WhyHotel Services, including:
We collect this information:
Certain transactions may also involve you calling us or our calling you. Please be aware that we may monitor and, in some cases record such calls for staff training or quality assurance purposes.
You may now or in the future provide pictures, text, data, information and other input or any other content linked, posted, and/or submitted by you or other users to be published or displayed (hereinafter, “posted”) on or through the Site or any of our social networking pages (e.g., Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and other similar networking pages), or transmitted to third parties or other users of or any of the other WhyHotel Services (collectively, “User Content”). Your User Content is posted on and transmitted to others at your own risk. We cannot control the actions of other users of the Site or the other WhyHotel Services, or our social networking pages, with whom your User Content is shared. Therefore, we cannot and do not guarantee that your User Content will not be viewed, downloaded or shared by unauthorized persons.
Use of Cookies and Other Tracking Technologies
The technologies we use for automatic data collection may include:
Your web browser may offer you a “Do Not Track” option, which allows you to signal to operators of websites and web applications and services (including behavioral advertising services) that you do not wish such operators to track certain of your online activities over time and across different websites. We do not honor any web browser “Do Not Track” signals or other mechanisms that provide you with the ability to exercise choice regarding the collection of personally identifiable information about your online activities over time and across third-party websites or online services. At present, no universally accepted standards exist on how companies should respond to do-not-track signals. In the event a final universally accepted standard is established, we will assess and provide a response to these signals.
Third-Party Responsibilities and Services
We use or partner with other third-party companies, agents or contractors for various purposes in connection with our business and operations (“ Service Providers”), including, our Booking Partners, making reservations, texting, ID scanning, CRM, property management, billing and payments, credit card gateway, cloud hosting, relationship building, the marketing and growth of our business and the performance of services on our behalf, such as gathering and analyzing information and the provision of services to you. In the course of performing these responsibilities and providing such services, these other companies may have access to your information, including your personal data. We may also share information, including your personal data and other information, with these Service Providers in order to enable them to perform these responsibilities and to provide these services. Many Service Providers have adopted their own privacy policies, which are not subject to control by WhyHotel. You should always review the policies of these Service Providers to make sure that you are comfortable with the ways in which they collect, use, maintain, protect and disclose your information. We do not specifically list our current Service Providers because they change from time to time.If you would like the names of our Service Providers (if we are permitted to disclose), please email usat hello@whyhotel.com.
The Service Providers may also transmit cookies to your computer or device, when you click on ads that appear on or through the Service. Also, if you click on a link to a third-party website from the Site, including, links to news and articles about us and the Properties, such third party may also transmit cookies to you and we do not have any control over that. Please be aware that cookies placed by third parties may continue to track your activities online even after you are no longer using any of our Services, and those third parties may not honor “Do Not Track” requests you have set using your web browser.
We use The Booking Button by SiteMinder to take bookings through our Site. We do this to provide a reliable and secure booking process while concentrating on our real business of hospitality. Any personal information you share when making a booking will be shared with SiteMinder in order to process it. SiteMinder runs their services out of Oregon, USA so your personal information may be transferred there.
You can learn more about SiteMinder and their approach to privacy.
Facebook Pixel
We use Facebook Pixel to track conversions and direct relevant advertising to our customers. Facebook Pixel allows us to measure the effectiveness of our advertising by understanding the actions Users take on the Website.
You can opt out by following the instructions here: http://optout.aboutads.info.
More information about Facebook and its privacy policy can be found here:https://www.facebook.com/about/privacyshield.
Use of Remarketing with Google Ads, Google Analytics and other Remarking and Analytic Services
We use or may in the future use a variety of remarketing and analytic services including:
· Google Ads - The Site uses Google Ads to advertise in search results to previous visitors to our site or to individuals who search for specific key terms or phrases. It could mean that we advertise to previous visitors who haven’t completed a task on our site, for example using the contact form to make an enquiry. This could be in the form of an advertisement in the Google search results or on a site in the Google Display Network Third-party vendors, including Google, use cookies to serve ads based on someone’s past visits to the Site. Of course, any data collected will be used in accordance with this privacy policy, as well asGoogle’s privacy policy.
Google has additional information available about its Remarketing Privacy Guidelines, Policies, and Restrictions on its website.
Links to Other Websites
Our Site may contain links to other websites. If you choose to click on a link to an advertiser or other third- party website, you will be directed to that party's website. We do no control third party websites which may place their own cookies or other files on your computer, collect data, solicit personal information or follow different rules regarding the use or disclosure of the personal information. We encourage you to read the privacy policies or statements of the other websites you visit. The fact that we link to a website or present an advertisement is not an endorsement or representation of our affiliation with that party, nor an endorsement of its privacy policies.
We will only use information that we collect about you or that you provide to us, including any personal data for the purposes described in this privacy policy and when applicable law allows us to do so. We will generally use your information based on the following legal grounds:
· Where the use of your information is necessary for the performance of a contract that we are about to enter into or have entered into with you or a third party;
· Where the use is necessary for the purposes of our legitimate interests (or those of a third party);
· Where we need to comply with a legal or regulatory obligation; or
· Where you have given your consent (which can be withdrawn at any time).
We use information that we collect about you or that you provide to us for the following purposes:
We may also use any information that has been anonymized or in an aggregated form that does not directly identify you for any purpose (including to create and distribute marketing materials such as testimonials, case studies, white papers, savings calculators and other similar purposes) to the extent not prohibited under any applicable law or regulation.
Some of the information that we collect automatically is statistical data and does not include personal data, but we may maintain it or associate it with personal data we collect in other ways or receive from third parties or you provide to us. It helps us to improve the Guest Units, the Site and the other WhyHotel Services, and to deliver a better and more personalized service, including enabling us to:
Storage and Transfer of Your Information
We may store any information that we collect (personal data or otherwise) ourselves or in databases owned and maintained by us, our affiliates, agents or Service Providers. If you access or use the Site or any of the other WhyHotel Services outside of the United States, information that we collect about you may be transferred to servers inside the United States and maintained indefinitely, which may involve the transfer of information out of countries located in the European Economic Area and other parts of the world unless otherwise prohibited by applicable law or agreed by WhyHotel and you. By allowing WhyHotel to collect information about you, you consent to such transfer and processing of such information without restriction. We may also store some information locally on your computer or other devices. For example, we may store information as local cache so that you can open the Site and view content faster.
Although users from all over the world may access the Site and the other WhyHotel Services, keep in mind that no matter where you live or where you happen to use our services, you consent to us processing and transferring information in and to the United States and other countries whose data-protection and privacy laws may offer fewer protections than those in your home country.
Disclosure of Your Information
We may disclose anonymized or aggregated information about our users, and information that does not identify any individual, without restriction.
We may disclose personal data and other information that we collect or you provide as described in this privacy policy:
We may also disclose your personal data and other information:
Choices About How We Use and Disclose Your Information
We strive to provide you with choices regarding the personal data you provide to us. We have created mechanisms to provide you with the following control over your information:
Accessing and Correcting Your Information
You may change, correct or delete any personal data that you have provided to us by contacting us by e-mail at hello@whyhotel.com. We may not accommodate a request to change information if we believe the change would violate any law or legal requirement or cause the information to be incorrect.
If you delete your User Content from any of the WhyHotel Services (including any User Content stored in the cloud), copies of your User Content may remain viewable in cached and archived pages, or might have been copied or stored by other users of the Servers or the Site. Proper access and use of information provided on or through any of the WhyHotel Services, including User Content, are governed by the Terms.
Your California Privacy Rights
California Civil Code Section § 1798.83 permits users of the Site that are California residents to request certain information regarding our disclosure of personal data to third parties for their direct marketing purposes. To make such a request, please send an e-mail to us at hello@whyhotel.com or write to us at: WhyHotel, Inc., 810 7th Street NE, Washington, DC 20002, USA.
European Privacy Rights for EEA Residents
You have the right to ask us not to process your personal data for marketing purposes. We will usually inform you (before collecting your personal data) if we intend to use your personal data for such purposes or if we intend to disclose your personal data to any third party for such purposes. You can exercise your right to prevent such processing by checking certain boxes on the forms we use to collect your personal data. You can also exercise the right by contacting us directly.
In certain circumstances, you have the right to: (a) request access to any personal data we hold about you and related data, (b) obtain without undue delay the rectification of any inaccurate personal data, (c) request that your personal data be deleted provided that the personal data is not required by us for (i) compliance with a legal obligation under European or Member State law or other applicable law or (ii) the establishment, exercise or defense of a legal claim, (d) prevent or restrict processing of your personal data, except to the extent processing is required (i) to comply with a legal obligation under European or Member State law or applicable law or (ii) for the establishment, exercise or defense of legal claims; and (e) request transfer of your personal data directly to a third party where this is technically feasible.
If you are an EEA Resident in France, you also have the right to set guidelines for the retention and communication of your personal data after your death.
If you reside in a jurisdiction other than the European Economic Area, you may also have similar rights to the above. Please contact us at hello@whyhotel.com if you would like to exercise one of these rights, and we will comply with any request to the extent required under applicable law.
In addition, where you believe that we have not complied with its obligation under this Privacy Policy or European law, you have the right to make a complaint to an EU Data Protection Authority, such as the UK Information Commissioner’s Office.
You can exercise any of these rights by contacting us athello@whyhotel.com or write to us at: WhyHotel, Inc., 810 7 th Street NE, Washington, DC 20002, USA.
How Long We Store Your Personal Data
We will only retain your personal data, in a form which permits us to identify you, for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes we collected it for. We will retain and use your personal data as necessary to satisfy any legal, accounting or reporting requirements, to resolve disputes or to enforce our agreements and rights. After that, we will either securely delete or anonymize your personal data so that it cannot be linked back to you.
Data Security
We understand that the security of your personal data is important. We provide reasonable administrative, technical, and physical security controls to protect your personal data. However, despite our efforts, no security controls are 100% effective and WhyHotel cannot ensure or warrant the security of your personal data. Any transmission of personal data is at your own risk. We are not responsible for circumvention of any privacy settings or security measures contained on the Site.
The safety and security of your information also depends on you. Where we have given you (or where you have chosen) a password for access to and use of the Site and/or the other WhyHotel Services, you are responsible for keeping this password confidential. We ask you not to share your password with anyone. We urge you to be careful about giving out information in public areas of any of the WhyHotel Services as the information you share in public areas may be viewed by any other user of the Site and the other WhyHotel Services.
We may post any changes we make to our privacy policy on this page with a notice that the privacy policy has been updated on the home pages of the Site for at least 30 days and/or notify you of such changes by email. If we make material changes to how we treat your personal data or other information that are materially less protective than provided in this privacy policy, we will use reasonable efforts to notify you by e-mail using the e-mail address specified in your account and/or through a notice on the home page of the Site to attempt to secure your consent to the changes. The date the privacy policy was last updated is identified above. You are responsible for ensuring that we have an up-to-date, active and deliverable e-mail address for you, and for periodically visiting the Site and this privacy policy to check for any changes. Like our Terms, of which this privacy policy is a part, your use, and/or continued use after our efforts to contact you, of the Site or any of the other WhyHotel Services, means that you agree to be bound by such changes.
Survival
The policies indicated in this privacy policy will remain effective, even if the Terms and the other agreements between you and us are terminated and you are no longer renting any Guest Units or using the Site or any of the other WhyHotel Services.
Contact Information
To ask questions or comment about this privacy policy and our privacy practices or if you need to reach us for any other reason, you may contact us by e-mail at hello@whyhotel.com or by mail at WhyHotel, Inc., 810 7th Street NE, Washington, DC 20002, USA.
© Copyright WhyHotel, Inc. 2019