Privacy Policy

1. Who We Are

Balblair Cottages is a self-catering holiday cottage directory and booking service based in Balblair, Easter Ross, Highland, IV19. We operate the website www.balblaircottages.com.

For the purposes of data protection legislation, Balblair Cottages is the data controller responsible for your personal data. You can contact us at info@balblaircottages.com.

2. Information We Collect

We may collect and process the following personal data about you:

Contact information — your name, email address, and phone number when you submit an enquiry via our contact form.
Usage data — information about how you use our website, including the pages you visit, time spent on the site, and the links you click.
Technical data — your IP address, browser type and version, operating system, and device information, collected automatically by our server logs.
Cookie data — preferences and identifiers stored in cookies on your device (see the Cookies section below).
Referral data — the website or search engine that referred you to our site.

We do not collect or store payment card details. Any booking transactions are processed entirely by our third-party booking partners (such as Hoseasons, Sykes Cottages, or Holiday Cottages) on their own secure platforms.

3. How We Use Your Information

We use the information we collect for the following purposes:

To respond to your enquiries and provide customer support.
To improve and maintain our website and the services we offer.
To understand how visitors use our site and which properties attract the most interest.
To send you relevant information or updates if you have given your consent to receive these.
To comply with legal obligations.
To detect and prevent fraud or misuse of our services.

We will never sell your personal data to third parties, nor use it for purposes incompatible with those described above.

4. Legal Basis for Processing

Under UK GDPR, we rely on the following lawful bases to process your personal data:

Consent — where you have given clear consent for us to process your data for a specific purpose, such as sending you marketing communications.
Legitimate interests — where processing is necessary for our legitimate business interests (such as improving the website and preventing fraud), provided these are not overridden by your rights.
Legal obligation — where we are required to process data to comply with the law.
Contract — where processing is necessary to fulfil a contractual obligation to you.

5. Sharing Your Information

We do not sell, trade, or rent your personal data to third parties. We may share your information in the following limited circumstances:

Booking partners — when you click through to book a cottage, you are redirected to a third-party booking platform (such as Hoseasons, Sykes Cottages, or Holiday Cottages). Any data you provide on those platforms is subject to their own privacy policies.
Service providers — we may share data with trusted service providers who help us operate our website (such as hosting providers and analytics services), under strict data processing agreements.
Legal requirements — we may disclose your data if required to do so by law or in response to valid requests by public authorities.

6. Cookies & Tracking

Our website uses cookies — small text files placed on your device — to improve your experience and help us understand how visitors use our site.

We use the following types of cookies:

Essential cookies — required for the website to function correctly. These cannot be switched off. They include a cookie that records your cookie consent preference.
Analytics cookies — these help us understand how visitors interact with our site, which pages are most popular, and where visitors come from. We use this information to improve the site.
Preference cookies — these remember your choices on the site (such as your favourite cottages) so you do not have to re-enter them on each visit.
Third-party cookies — our booking partner widgets and embedded maps may set their own cookies. These are controlled by those third parties and are subject to their privacy policies.

You can control and manage cookies through your browser settings. Please note that disabling certain cookies may affect the functionality of our website. You can also withdraw your consent at any time by clicking "Decline" in our cookie banner.

7. Third-Party Links

Our website contains links to other websites, including cottage booking platforms, local attraction pages, and partner sites. We are not responsible for the privacy practices or content of those third-party sites. We recommend you review the privacy policy of any external site you visit.

8. Data Retention

We retain your personal data only for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes for which it was collected, or as required by law.

Enquiry and contact form data is retained for up to 2 years, after which it is securely deleted.
Server log data (including IP addresses) is retained for up to 12 months for security and analytical purposes.
Cookie data is retained for the duration specified in each cookie (typically 30 days to 12 months).

9. Your Rights

Under UK GDPR, you have the following rights regarding your personal data:

Right of access — you can request a copy of the personal data we hold about you.
Right to rectification — you can ask us to correct any inaccurate or incomplete data.
Right to erasure — you can request that we delete your personal data, subject to certain legal exceptions.
Right to restrict processing — you can ask us to limit how we use your data in certain circumstances.
Right to data portability — you can request that we transfer your data to you or a third party in a structured, machine-readable format.
Right to object — you can object to the processing of your data where we rely on legitimate interests as our legal basis.
Right to withdraw consent — where processing is based on consent, you can withdraw it at any time without affecting the lawfulness of prior processing.

To exercise any of these rights, please contact us at info@balblaircottages.com. We will respond within 30 days. You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) if you believe we have mishandled your data.

10. Security

We take the security of your personal data seriously. Our website is served over HTTPS, and we implement appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect your data against unauthorised access, alteration, disclosure, or destruction.

However, no method of transmission over the internet is 100% secure. While we strive to protect your personal information, we cannot guarantee its absolute security.

11. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices or legal requirements. When we do, we will revise the "last updated" date at the top of this page. We encourage you to review this policy periodically.

Continued use of our website after any changes constitutes your acceptance of the updated policy.

12. Contact Us

If you have any questions, concerns, or requests regarding this Privacy Policy or the way we handle your personal data, please get in touch:

Email: info@balblaircottages.com
Phone:
Address: Balblair, Easter Ross, Highland, IV19

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