Classic British Hotels: Privacy & Cookie Statement

We understand that trust is hard-earned. It’s built on truthfulness and transparency. We trust people who act with integrity. We trust companies and brands that go about their business in a consistent way, whose actions are coherent, guided day in, day out by a set of core values. We realise the importance of trust in building lasting, positive relationships, so it comes as no surprise then that the relationship between a customer and a company or brand, between you and us, should also be built on a bedrock of trust.

When you share your personal data with us, you’re entrusting us with it. That’s not something we take for granted. We value your trust and we are committed to protecting and safeguarding your personal data; processing it in a lawful, fair and transparent manner. Besides, mutual trust is good for everyone. After all, the world would be a pretty awful place if we couldn’t trust one another.

Privacy Statement

The Hotel Partnership Ltd, trading as Classic British Hotels (‘we’ or ‘us’ or ‘our’), gathers and processes your personal information in accordance with this Privacy Statement and in compliance with the relevant data protection regulations and laws. This Privacy Statement has been written with you in mind. It sets out a) how and why we use and process your personal data; and b) your rights and point of contact should you have any questions or concerns.

The Hotel Partnership Ltd’s registered office is at Suite 113, The Mayford Centre, Mayford Green, Woking, Surrey GU22 0PP, United Kingdom. We are a company registered in England and Wales under company number 04086593. Our designated Data Protection Officer can be contacted at [email protected].

If you disagree with this Privacy Statement, you should discontinue using our services. If you agree with our Privacy Statement, then you’re all set to book your next Hotel Experience through us.

Right, before we get down to business, here are the questions we’re going to look at, with a link to each question if you’re running short on time, or just want to skip ahead to the bit you need.

1) What kind of personal data does Classic British Hotels collect?
2) Why does Classic British Hotels collect and use your personal data?
3) How does Classic British Hotels share your data with third parties?
4) How does Classic British Hotels make use of mobile devices?
5) How does Classic British Hotels make use of social media?
6) What security and retention procedures does Classic British Hotels put in place to safeguard your personal data?
7) How does Classic British Hotels treat personal data of children?
8) How can you control the personal data you have given to Classic British Hotels?
9) Who is responsible for the processing of personal data on the Classic British Hotels website?

Cookie Statement

1) What is a cookie?
2) How are cookies used?
3) What are you choices?

Definition of Terms

• Hotels: A property that is a current member of Classic British Hotels.
• Hotel Experiences: Anything you book with us that is part of your experience at a member property. This isn’t limited to overnight accommodation, and may include afternoon tea, spa treatments and admission tickets to an attraction, for example.
• Hotel Reservations: Your upcoming Hotel Experience booked with us, identified by your booking ID.

(1) What kind of personal data does Classic British Hotels collect?

We can’t help you book the perfect Hotel Experience without information, so when you use our services – via ClassicBritishHotels.com and via our Reservations Call Centre – there are certain pieces of information we ask for. This is pretty basic stuff – your name, preferred contact details, the names of anybody travelling with you (check they’re happy for you to provide us with this beforehand) and your payment information. You may decide for yourself to submit special requests for your upcoming Hotel Reservation (for example, certain preferences based on any dietary requirements and mobility restrictions).

In addition to this, we automatically collect information from your computer, phone, tablet or other device you are using to access our services. This includes your IP address, the date and time you accessed our services, the hardware, software or internet browser you use, information about your computer’s operating system, information about clicks and which pages have been shown to you. There are also situations in which we receive information about you from others, such as our member hotels, business partners and other independent third parties.

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(2) Why does Classic British Hotels collect and use your personal data?

A) Hotel reservations:

The main reason we ask you for personal details is a pretty good one – it’s to help administer your online Hotel Reservations and ensure you get the best customer service possible. We also use your personal data to contact you and to inform you of the latest deals and special offers and other products or services which we believe may be of interest to you. There are other uses too – Classic British Hotels users can administer their booking online via the front-end of our booking engine platform.

B) Marketing activities:

We use your information for marketing activities. These activities include:

• Using your contact information to send you regular news of hotel and travel-related products and services. You can unsubscribe from email marketing communications quickly, easily and at any time – just click on the Unsubscribe link included in each newsletter.
• Based on your information, individualised offers may be shown to you on the Classic British Hotels website, in mobile apps or on third-party websites/apps (including social media sites) and the content of the site displayed to you may be personalised. These may be offers that you can book directly on the Classic British Hotels site, or on co-branded sites, or other third-party offers or products we think you might find interesting.
• When you participate in other promotional activities, relevant information will be used to administer these promotions.

C) Communicating with you:

We may use your information to get in touch by email, by post, by phone or by texting you – which method we choose depends on the contact information you’ve previously shared with us and how we process the communications you send to us. There could be a number of reasons for getting in touch with you, including:

• Responding to and handling any requests you or your booked Hotel have made.
• If you have not finalised a Hotel Reservation online, we can contact you with a reminder to continue with your reservation.
• When you use our services, we can send you a questionnaire or invite you to provide a review about your experience with Classic British Hotels or the Hotel.
• We also send you other material related to your Hotel Reservations, such as information that we feel might be useful to you in planning or getting the best out of your Hotel Experience or a summary of previous Hotel Reservations you made through Classic British Hotels.

D) Improving our services:

We also use personal data for analytical purposes. This is part of our drive to improve our services and enhance the user experience. The main goal here is to optimize and customize our online platform to your needs, making our site easier and more enjoyable to use. We strive to only use pseudonymized data for these analytical purposes.

E) Guest reviews:

During and after your Hotel Experience you book through us, you may be invited to submit a review. This invite asks for information about the Hotel. By completing a guest review, you are agreeing that it can be displayed on, for example, the relevant Hotel information page on our website or on the Hotel’s website. This is to inform other travellers about the quality of the Hotel you used or other experiences you choose to share.

F) Promotion of a safe and trustworthy service:

To create a trustworthy environment for you, your fellow travellers, Classic British Hotels’ business partners and our Hotels, we may use personal data for the detection and prevention of fraud and other illegal or unwanted activities. Similarly, we may use personal data for risk assessment and security purposes, including the authentication of users and reservations. For such purposes, we may have to stop certain reservations or put on hold reservations until we have finished our assessment.

G) Legal purposes:

Finally, in certain cases, we may need to use your information to handle and resolve legal disputes, for regulatory investigations and compliance, to enforce the terms of use of the Classic British Hotels online reservation service or Classic British Hotels reservation call centre, or to comply with lawful requests from law enforcement.

Providing your personal data to Classic British Hotels is voluntary. However, depending on the type of service you may want to use, we may only be able to provide you with this service if certain personal data is collected. For instance, we cannot process your Hotel Reservation if we do not collect your name and contact details.

If we use automated means to process personal data which produces legal effects or significantly affects you, we will implement suitable measures to safeguard you rights and freedoms, including the right to obtain human intervention.

To process your personal data as described above, we rely on the following legal bases:

In view of purpose A, Classic British Hotels relies on the legal basis that the processing of the personal data is necessary for the performance of a contract, specifically to finalize and administer your Hotel Reservation. If the required personal data is not provided, Classic British Hotels cannot finalize the Hotel Reservation, nor can we provide customer service.

In view of purposes B to F, Classic British Hotels relies on its legitimate commercial business interest to provide its services, to prevent fraud and to improve its services. When using personal data to serve Classic British Hotels’ or a third party’s legitimate interest, Classic British Hotels will always balance your rights and interests in the protection of your personal data against Classic British Hotels’ rights and interests or those of the third party.

For purposes G, Classic British Hotels relies also where applicable on compliance with legal obligations (such as lawful law enforcement requests). Where needed under applicable law, Classic British Hotels will obtain your consent prior to processing your personal data for direct marketing purposes.

If you wish to object to the processing set out under B to F, please contact [email protected].

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(3) How does Classic British Hotels share your data with third parties?

There are different parties integrated into the Classic British Hotels services in various ways and for various reasons. The primary purpose is to share your data relevant for your Hotel Experience with the Hotel to complete your Hotel Reservation. There are also other parties which can receive some of your data, which are parties we involve to provide you with the Classic British Hotels services, financial institutions, advertisers or in some cases governmental or other authorities. We do not sell or rent your personal data.

• The Hotel you booked: In order to complete your Hotel Reservation, we transfer relevant reservation details to the Hotel you have booked. Depending on the Hotel Reservation and the Hotel, this can include your name, contact details, payment details, the names of the guests travelling with you and any preferences or other information you specified when you made your Hotel Reservation. If you have a query about your Hotel, we may contact the Hotel and ask them to handle your request. Unless payment is made during the booking process via the Classic British Hotels website or the Classic British Hotels reservations call centre, we will forward your credit card details to the booked Hotel for further handling (assuming you’ve provided us with those details during your booking process). In cases of reservation-related disputes, we may provide the Hotel with information about the reservation process as needed to handle the dispute. This may include a copy of your reservation confirmation as proof that a Hotel Reservation was actually made.
• Third-party service providers: We use service providers to process your personal data on our behalf. This processing is for several purposes, including sending out marketing material or validating the correctness of the email address you provided during the booking process. Third party service providers are bound by confidentiality clauses and are not allowed to use your personal data for other purposes than instructed by Classic British Hotels.
• Payment providers and (other) financial institutions: When a chargeback is requested for your Hotel Reservation by either you or by the holder of the credit card used to make your reservation, we need to share certain reservation details with the payment service provider and the relevant financial institution to handle the chargeback. This may also include a copy of your reservation confirmation or the IP address used to make your reservation. We may share information with relevant financial institutions, if we consider it strictly necessary for fraud detection and prevention purposes.
• Competent authorities: We disclose personal data to law enforcement insofar as it is required by law or is strictly necessary for the prevention, detection or prosecution of criminal acts and fraud or if we are otherwise legally obliged to do so. We may need to further disclose personal data to competent authorities to protect and defend our rights or properties, or the rights and properties of our business partners.
• Business partners: We work with many business partners around the world. These business partners distribute or advertise the Classic British Hotels services, including the services and products of our Hotels.

• Advertising partners: We share personal data with advertising partners as part of marketing the Classic British Hotels services via third parties (to ensure that relevant advertisements are shown to the right audience). For more information on personalised advertisement and your choices, please read “How are cookies used?” and “What are your choices?” in our Cookie Statement.
• The Hotel Partnership Ltd, which Classic British Hotels is part of: Other brands of the The Hotel Partnership Ltd may act as Hotel Providers or business partners distributing our services through their online platforms. Outside of sharing your personal data to finalise and administer your Hotel Reservation, we may need to share some parts of your personal data for fraud detection and prevention purposes as permitted by applicable law and as strictly necessary to protect The Hotel Partnership Ltd, including Classic British Hotels, its customers and business partners from fraudulent activities and investigating and handling data security breaches.

The transmission of personal data as described in this Privacy Statement may include overseas transfers of personal data to countries whose data protection laws are not as comprehensive as those of the countries within the European Union. Where required by European law, we shall only transfer personal data to recipients offering an adequate level of data protection. In these situations, as may be required, we make contractual arrangements to ensure that your personal data is still protected in line with European standards. You can ask us to see a copy of these contractual agreements using the contact details below.

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(4) How does Classic British Hotels make use of mobile devices?

We offer versions of the Classic British Hotels website that have been optimised for mobile and tablet browsing. These mobile websites process the personal details you give us in much the same way as our website does. You may grant us access to your location data or contact details in order to provide services requested by you. Please read the instructions of your mobile device to understand how to change the settings and enable the sharing of such data.

We make use of something known as cross-device tracking in order to optimize our services and marketing activities. This may be done with or without the use of cookies. For more information about cookies and other similar technologies, please see our Cookie Statement. With cross-device tracking, Classic British Hotels is able to track user behaviour across multiple devices. As part of cross-device tracking, Classic British Hotels may combine data collected from a particular browser or mobile device with another computer or device linked to the computer or device from which the data was collected.

In order to optimize the content of the Classic British Hotels newsletter, Classic British Hotels combines the searches and reservations made from different computers and devices. You can unsubscribe from the Classic British Hotels newsletter at any time.

Personalised advertisements shown to you on other websites or in apps, can be offered based on your activities on linked computers and devices. By amending your cookie settings on your device (see in our Cookie Statement under “What are your choices”), you can change your cross-device tracking settings for advertisement purposes.

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(5) How does Classic British Hotels make use of social media?

The use of social media services may be integrated with the Classic British Hotels services in various ways, which will involve us collecting some of your personal data or the social media provider receiving some of your information. We use it partly to facilitate the use of online reservation services, but also to promote our Hotels’ travel-related products and services and to advertise, improve and facilitate our own services.

• Integration of social media plugins: We have integrated social media plugins into the Classic British Hotels website. This means that when you click on one of the buttons (such as Facebook’s ‘Like’ button) certain information is shared with these social media providers. If you are logged in to your social media account at the same time, your social media provider may relate this information to your social media account and possibly present your actions on your social media profile to be shared with others in your network.
• Other social media services and features: We have integrated other social media services (like social media messaging) to interact with Classic British Hotels. We maintain social media accounts on several social media sites. Whenever you connect with Classic British Hotels through social media, your social media service provider may allow you to share information with Classic British Hotels. If you choose to share, you will generally be told by your social media provider which information will be shared.

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(6) What security and retention procedures does Classic British Hotels put in place to safeguard your personal data?

We observe reasonable procedures to prevent unauthorised access to, and the misuse of, personal data.

We use appropriate business systems and procedures to protect and safeguard the personal data you give us. We also use security procedures and technical and physical restrictions for accessing and using the personal data on our servers. Only authorized personnel are permitted to access personal data in the course of their work.

We will retain your personal data for as long as we deem it necessary to enable you to use our services, to provide our services to you, to comply with applicable laws, resolve disputes with any parties and otherwise as necessary to allow us to conduct our business, including to detect and prevent fraud or other illegal activities. All personal data we retain will be subject to this Privacy Statement. If you have a question about a specific retention period for certain types of personal data we process about you, please contact us via the contact details provided below.

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(7) How does Classic British Hotels treat personal data of children?

The services offered by Classic British Hotels are not directed at children under 16 years old. For children younger than 16 years old, the use of any of our services is only allowed with the valid consent of a parent or a guardian. In limited cases as part of a reservation, purchase of other travel-related services, or in exceptional other circumstances (such as features addressed to families), Classic British Hotels may collect and use information of children only as provided by the parent or guardian or with their consent. If we become aware that we process information of a child under 16 years old without the valid consent of a parent or guardian, we reserve the right to delete it.

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(8) How can you control the personal data you have given to Classic British Hotels?

We want you to be in control of how your personal data is used by us. You can do this in the following ways:

• you can ask us for a copy of the personal data we hold about you;
• you can inform us of any changes to your personal data, or you can ask us to correct any of the personal data we hold about you;
• in certain situations, you can ask us to erase, or block or restrict the processing of, the personal data we hold about you, or object to particular ways in which we are using your personal data; and
• in certain situations, you can also ask us to send the personal data you have given us to a third party.

Where we are using your personal data on the basis of your consent, you are entitled to withdraw that consent at any time subject to applicable law. Moreover, where we process your personal data based on legitimate interest or the public interest, you have the right to object at any time to that use of your personal data subject to applicable law.

We rely on you to ensure that your personal data is complete, accurate and current. Please do inform us promptly of any changes to or inaccuracies of to your personal data by contacting us.

For any of your requests in regards to this Privacy Statement and to exercise any of your rights or if you have a complaint, please contact us by contacting our Data Protection Officer at [email protected]. You may also contact your local data protection authority.

If you wish to object to the processing of your personal data on the basis of legitimate interest and no opt-out mechanism is available to you directly, please contact us at [email protected].

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(9) Who is responsible for the processing of personal data via Classic British Hotels and how to contact us?

The Hotel Partnership Ltd controls the processing of personal data as described in this Privacy Statement. The Hotel Partnership Ltd is a private limited liability company, incorporated under the laws of England and Wales, and has its offices at Suite 113, The Mayford Centre, Mayford Green, Woking, Surrey GU22 0PP, United Kingdom.

If you have any questions about this Privacy Statement or about our processing of your personal data, please contact our data protection officer via [email protected] and we’ll get right back to you. For questions about your reservation, please contact our customer service team via Contact Us page.

Cookie Statement

Cookies and other tracking technologies can be used in various ways, such as making the Classic British Hotels website work, to analyse traffic, or for advertisement purposes. These technologies are either used by us directly, or by our business partners, including third party service providers and advertisers we work with. If you want to learn more about what a cookie is, how they are used and what your choices are, please read more here.

(1) What is a cookie?

A cookie is a small amount of data that is placed in the browser of your computer or on your mobile device. So-called “first party cookies” are cookies which are served by the entity operating the domain through which the cookie is served. Classic British Hotels’ own cookies are therefore “first party cookies”. In case we allow others to service cookies through the Classic British Hotels website, these cookies are so-called “third party cookies”.

In addition, there is a difference between session cookies and permanent cookies. Session cookies will only exist until you close your browser. Permanent cookies have a longer lifespan and are not automatically deleted once you close your browser. We strive to serve cookies or allow the serving of cookies with a maximum lifespan of 5 years. Only in exceptional circumstances, such as for security purposes and where absolutely necessary, will a cookie have a longer lifespan than that.

Next to cookies, other tracking technologies are used which are similar to cookies. These can include web beacons (also known as pixel tags, web bugs or gifs), tracking URLs or software development kits (SDKs). A web beacon is a tiny graphic image of just one pixel that can be delivered to your computer as part of a web page request, in an app, in an advertisement or in an HTML email message. Pixels can be used to retrieve information from your device, such as your device type or operating system, IP address, and time of visit. They are also used to serve and read cookies in your browser. Tracking URLs are used to understand from which referring website the Classic British Hotels website is used. SDKs are small pieces of code included in apps, which function like cookies and web beacons.

All these technologies are together referred to in this Cookie Statement as “cookies”.

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(2) How are cookies used?

Cookies are used for different purposes. They allow you to be recognised as the same user across the pages of a website, between websites or when you use an app. The types of information that we collect through cookies include IP address; device ID; viewed pages; browser type; browsing information; operating system; internet service provider; timestamp; whether you have responded to an advertisement; the referring URL; and features used or activities engaged in within the website.

Our website uses cookies for different purposes:

• Technical cookies: We try to give our visitors an advanced, user-friendly website that adapts automatically to their needs and wishes. To achieve this, we use technical cookies to show you our website and to make it function correctly. These technical cookies are absolutely necessary for our website to function properly.
• Functional cookies: We also use functional cookies to remember your preferences and to help you to use our website efficiently and effectively. Passwords will, however, always be encrypted. These functional cookies are not strictly necessary for the functioning of our website or apps, but they add functionality and enhance your ClassicBritishHotels.com experience.
• Analytics cookies: We use these cookies to gain insight into how our visitors use the Classic British Hotels website. This means we can find out what works and what doesn’t, optimize and improve our website, understand the effectiveness of advertisements and communications, and ensure we continue to be interesting and relevant. The data we gather can include which web pages you have viewed, which referring/exit pages you have entered and left from, which platform type you have used, which emails you have opened and acted upon, and date and time stamp information.

• Commercial cookies: We use third-party cookies as well as our own to display personalized advertisements on our websites and on other websites. This is called “retargeting,” and it is based on browsing activities, such as the destinations you have been searching for, the hotels you have viewed and the prices you have been shown.

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(3) Which cookies do we use?

The cookies listed below are in use on this website.

More details on the way Google uses information, when our website uses its services, an be found here: https://policies.google.com/technologies/partner-sites

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(4) What are your choices?

To learn more about cookies and how to manage or delete them, simply visit allaboutcookies.org and the help section of your browser. In the settings for browsers such as Internet Explorer, Safari, Firefox or Chrome, you can set which cookies to accept and which to reject. Where you find these settings depends on which browser you use. Use the “Help” function in your browser to locate the settings you need.

If you choose not to accept certain technical and/or functional cookies, you may not be able to use some functions on our website. We currently do not support “Do Not Track” browser settings. In case a common standard has been developed which defines what exactly is meant by “Do Not Track” browser signals, we will review this Cookie Statement again.

If you have any questions about this Cookie Statement, please send an email to [email protected]. Our Cookie Statement may also be amended from time to time. So visit this page regularly to keep abreast of updates.

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