Home > Privacy Policy > Hotels using Simplotel Platform
This privacy policy (“Privacy Policy”) explains our privacy practices for the website www.simplotel.com (the “Website”), and our technology (such as our content management system and booking engine) (“Software Services”) provided for merchants or hotels using Simplotel services (“Merchant(s)”);.
The Website and the Software Services are operated by Simplotel and its subsidiaries, licensees and affiliated companies (collectively, “Simplotel/We/Our”).
By visiting the Website and/or by using our Software Services the Merchant(s) accepts the terms of this Privacy Policy. Any external links to other websites are clearly identifiable as such, and we are not responsible for the content or privacy policies of the other websites. We recognize the importance of the Merchant(s) privacy and respect that you want to safeguard the personal information shared with us. We make it our priority to ensure that the Merchant(s) personal information (including bank details) remains secure and confidential and is used only for the intended purpose. In this Privacy Policy we explain our practices regarding personal information we collect when the Merchant(s) uses the Website and/or the Software Services.
1. GENERAL
1.1) This Privacy Policy describes how we collect, use, consult or process any personal information provided through the Website or through our Software Services (collectively, the “Services”).This Privacy Policy is intended to inform the Merchant(s) how we gather, define, and use the information that is provided to us when using our Services. Please take a moment to read this Privacy Policy carefully.
1.2) Simplotel may change or amend this Privacy Policy from time to time to incorporate necessary future changes. Simplotel’s use of the Merchant(s) Data shall be in adherence with the provisions of the relevant privacy policy under which the information was collected, regardless of new or conflicting provisions in an updated Privacy Policy.
1.3) Simplotel terms require all account owners to be at least eighteen (18) years of age (or have the permission and supervision of a responsible parent or legal guardian), therefore this policy does not discuss the use of our Services by minors.
1.4) For the purposes of this Privacy Policy:
1.4.1) If you are using the Services of Simplotel to design and/or improve your website services and improve the experience of your customers; and/or have created a Simplotel account, or have you shall be classified as a Merchant;
1.5) Please read through this Privacy Policy to better understand what data we use and how we use your data for each of the above classifications.
2. COLLECTION OF THE MERCHANT(S)’ DATA
2.1) In the course of providing the Services to you, Simplotel collects the following information that you shall provide to us through (a) forms and emails; or (b) entering data into the content management system; (c) Simplotel’s sales team (“Merchant Data”):
2.1.1) Contact details (for instance, last name, first name, telephone number, email)
2.1.2) Property information (for instance, property photographs, information about the hotel, room tariffs and payment).
2.1.3) Details about the business (Pan Card, GST details, copy of the cheque book and bank account information)
2.1.4) Details about your payment gateway including payment gateway keys, etc., to collect money from your customers.
2.2) We may automatically collect some information about your hardware devices when you access Simplotel. For example, when you utilize our Services, through a third party service such as Google Analytics we may collect your internet protocol (“IP”) and the type of device you use, as well as your geographic location. We may combine this automatically gathered information with other information, including other Merchant Data we have collected about you;
2.3) We may receive and store certain types of information known as “cookies” when you access the one of our websites. A website may contain links to third-party trackers on their individual websites, such data shall be governed by the individual website’s policies and not through this Privacy Policy
2.4) We may receive information from third parties (including, for example business partners, providers of technical, payment and delivery services, social media service providers, advertising networks, analytics providers, and search information providers) about your usage trends;
2.5) If you send us personal correspondence, such as emails, we may collate such information into a file specific to you.
3. USE OF THE MERCHANT DATA
3.1) In order to request a demo from Simplotel or send an enquiry to us, you may provide us with some information, such as your name, hotel name, business email, and phone number. When you provide this information to us, we will use it to enable you to obtain your online demo. In this case, the legal basis for our processing of your personal data is your consent and the performance of a contract with you, or to take steps at your request prior to entering into a contract. When you (on behalf of your organisation) proceed to request, purchase and/or use the right to use any of our products and/or services, further information may be requested from you (such as bank account, payment gateway information, and other information for invoicing and payment) and processed accordingly, based on the same legal grounds. In addition, invoices are stored to comply with legal (tax) obligations. These invoices for compliance purposes if requested might be shared with authorities.
3.2) We use your Merchant Data and other information we obtain from your current and past activities through your use of our Services to: resolve disputes; troubleshoot problems; collect fees owed; measure consumer interest in the services and features provided by us, inform you about our offers, products, services, and updates; customize your experience; detect and protect us against error, fraud and other criminal activity.
3.3) We or our group companies, may collect, hold and use information you share with us in order to provide our services and products to you.
3.4) Simplotel uses this data to deliver web pages or our other solutions (including but not limited to booking engine, email marketing solutions, or reservation solutions) to you upon request, to customize the site to your interests, to measure traffic within our Services. , and let advertisers know the geographic locations of those using our Services. You agree that we may use your Merchant Data to contact you and deliver information to you that, in some cases, are targeted to your interests. Such portion of the Merchant Data provided by you to Simplotel that may be personal or sensitive in nature, will not be provided to third parties without previous consent of the user concerned. Merchant Data of a general nature may however be revealed to external parties.
3.5) We use or may use the data collected through cookies, log file, device identifiers, location data and clear gifs information to: (a) remember information so that you will not have to re-enter it during your visit or the next time you visit the site; (b) provide custom, personalized content and information; (c) provide and monitor the effectiveness of our Services; (d) monitor aggregate metrics and demographic patterns; and (e) diagnose or fix technology problems.
3.6) We may use third parties that we refer to as internal service providers to facilitate or outsource one or more aspects of the business, product and service operations that we provide to through our Services and therefore we may provide some of the Merchant Data directly to these internal service providers. These internal service providers are subject to confidentiality agreements with us and other legal restrictions that prohibit their use of the information we provide them for any other purpose except to facilitate the specific outsourced Website related operation, unless you have explicitly agreed or given your prior permission to them for additional uses. If you provide additional information to an internal service provider directly, then their use of your Merchant Data is governed by their applicable privacy policy.
3.7) In the event you choose to make use of our services and make payments via net banking, credit/debit card or online wallets, you shall be required to provide information, which may include payment instrument number (e.g., credit card), name and billing address, the security code associated with the payment instrument, etc (“Payment Data”). We may use your Merchant Data to contact you in regard to payment related issues. We use Payment Data to complete transactions, as well as to detect and prevent fraud. When you provide Payment Data, you acknowledge that such payment gateway may collect your payment information, but such information is not stored on our servers.
3.8) We may share your data with review websites which help us collect reviews and feedback for our software on our behalf. The review providers may reach out to you via email or other means to facilitate review and or feedback collection for Simplotel’s products and Services.
4. SHARING YOUR USER DATA
We do not sell, otherwise disclose, or share the Merchant Data that we collect and hold, except as described in this Privacy Policy.
4 .1) We may share the Merchant Data and your information (including but not limited to, information from cookies, log files, device identifiers, location data, and usage data) with businesses that are legally part of the same group of companies that Simplotel is part of, or that become part of that group (“Affiliates”). Affiliates may use this information to help provide, understand, and improve the Service.
4.2) We also may share your Merchant Data as well as information from tools like cookies, log files, and device identifiers and location data, with third-party organizations (including but not limited to payment gateways channel managers, cloud telephony providers, domain providers, email service providers, etc.) that help us provide the Services to you. Our service providers will be given access to your information as is reasonably necessary to provide the Services under reasonable confidentiality terms. We may share your Merchant Data with third party services such as email providers and network providers to send you confirmation emails, and text messages.
4.3) If you choose to make a payment online using the online payment facility of our website, Your Data such as Name, Email id, may be shared with our various payment gateways we use to process payments. This is necessary for the payment gateway to process your payment to us.
4.4) We may remove parts of data that can identify you and share anonymized data with other parties. We may also combine your information with other information in a way that it is no longer associated with you and share that aggregated information.
4.5) When you use our Services, we will process some personal data (of your guests and potential guests) for or on behalf of your organisation. This means we operate as a ‘processer’ for your organisation, while your organisation is a ‘controller’, in accordance with EU privacy laws and regulations. Your organisation is responsible to ensure that you process (personal) data in accordance with applicable (privacy) laws and regulations, and that a valid legal basis applies for your processing of personal data using our systems.
4.6) We use or may use your Merchant Data to send out automated metrics mailers, analytics and any end user data that might have been collected on the Merchant Website. All of our Merchant Data is stored on our servers in Singapore, and might be processed in either India and/or the United States of America. Some of our 3rd parties may track your IP address to provide you content from a server close to you in order to give you a fast experience. In such cases, your IP address may be in servers across the world
4.7) In developing our products and services, we keep the following primary purpose in mind: to increase direct bookings on your organisation’s website by helping your organisation improve its booking process and personalise offers and interactions with (potential) guests.
4.8) We advise your organisation to provide all required information about its processing of personal data, including our processing of personal data for or on behalf of your organisation. For this purpose, we offer a standard explanation suggested by us, under the express condition that your organisation acknowledges and agrees that it remains solely responsible for any information provided or not provided by your organisation about its processing of personal data, including its use of our product and services and its own particular purpose it may have with them.
4.9) Simplotel does not collect, retain, or share data regarding a particular user’s activity across multiple websites or applications that are not owned by Simplotel. Simplotel does assign each user a unique user ID within the scope of an individual website. Simplotel may collect IP or any other information but would not allow Simplotel to identify the same particular user on more than one website but does not collect or retain IP or any information that would allow Simplotel to identify the same particular user on more than one website.
4.10) Simplotel may share your sensitive information with any third party without obtaining your prior consent in the following limited circumstances:
4.10.1) When it is requested or required by law or by any court or governmental agency or authority to disclose, for the purpose of verification of identity, or for the prevention, detection, investigation including cyber incidents, or for prosecution and punishment of offences. These disclosures are made in good faith and belief that such disclosure is reasonably necessary for enforcing the terms, this Privacy Policy, or for complying with the applicable laws and regulations.
4.10.2) Simplotel proposes to share such information within its group companies and officers and employees of such group companies for the purpose of processing Merchant Data on its behalf. Simplotel also ensures that the recipients of such information agree to process such information based on our instructions and in compliance with this Privacy Policy and any other appropriate confidentiality and security measures.
5. COMMUNICATION AND MARKETING
5.1) When you create an account and/or obtain access to the our Services, you will be able to receive promotional emails regarding latest offers and discounts from us.
5.2) Please note that in case you don’t wish to receive such e-mail, you have the full liberty to opt-out of such communication at any time.
5.2.1) To unsubscribe from our email list, you can send us the email at contact@simplotel.com
5.2.2) Please note, that should you opt-out of our emailing list, as described here, we will not be able to remove your information from the databases of affiliates, franchisees or business partners with which we have already shared your Data, prior to the date of your opt-out request.
6. RIGHTS UNDER THE EU PRIVACY LAW
6.1) If you are in the EU, in addition to the above-mentioned rights the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) grants you specific rights, summarized below, which you can in principle exercise free of charge, subject to statutory exceptions, regarding your data. To exercise any of your rights, you can file a request via email at contact@simplotel.com
6.1.1) Right to withdraw consent: Wherever we rely on your consent, you will be able to withdraw that consent at any time you choose and at your own initiative by contacting us at contact@simplotel.com..While you will not be able to withdraw consent for any transaction based emails or other such communication required for business purposes, you will be able to opt out of product update related communication.
6.1.2) Right to access and rectify your data: You have the right to access, review, and rectify your information. You may be entitled to ask us for a copy of your information, to review or correct it if you wish to rectify any information like your name, email address, passwords and/or any other preferences.
6.1.3) Right to erasure: You may request that we erase your information in certain circumstances, such as where we collected your information on the basis of your consent, and you withdraw your consent;
6.1.4) Right to restriction of processing: Under certain circumstances described in EU Privacy Law, you may ask us to restrict the processing of your information.
6.1.5) Right to data portability: You may request that we provide a copy of your information to you in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format in certain circumstances.
7. RIGHTS UNDER THE CALIFORNIA ONLINE PRIVACY PROTECTION ACT
7.1) As a resident of California, in addition to the above-mentioned rights the California Online Privacy Protection Act (“CalOPPA”) grants specific rights summarized below, which you can in principle exercise free of charge, subject to statutory exceptions, regarding your data. To exercise any of your rights, you can file a request via email at contact@simplotel.com.
7.1.1) California Civil Code Section 1798.83, known as the “Shine The Light” law, permits our customers who are California residents to request and obtain from us a list of what personal information (if any) we disclosed to third parties for direct marketing purposes in the preceding calendar year and the names and addresses of those third parties. Such requests may be made only once a year and are free of charge.
7.1.2) Most web browsers include a do not track (“DNT”) feature or setting that you can activate to signal your privacy preference. This will allow for your Visitor Data not to be monitored and collected. As this stage, no uniform technology standard for recognizing and implementing the DNT signals have been confirmed. As such, we do not currently respond to DNT browser signals or any other mechanism that automatically communicates your choice not to be tracked online. If a standard for online tracking is adopted that we are required to follow in the future, we will inform you about such practice in a revised version of this privacy notice.
8. SUB-PROCESSORS
8.1) To support delivery of our Services, Simplotel may engage and use data processors with access to certain Customer Data (each, a “Subprocessor”). This section provides important information about the identity, location and role of each Subprocessor.
8.2) All our processors and sub-processors are required to take appropriate security measures to protect your personal information in line with our policies. We do not allow our processors and sub-processors to use your personal data for their own purposes. We only permit them to process your personal data for specified purposes and in accordance with our instructions. The list of Subprocessors we use is below.
Amazon Web Services
Cloudinary
Google Analytics
Google Maps
Brevo
Value First
Google Adwords
Zoho CRM
Zoho Books
Godaddy domain and email service
Gmail services
Meta (WhatsApp)
Review sites such as Hotel Tech Report, Capterra, etc.
Payment Gateways such as InstaMojo, PayPal, AirPay, etc.
Our Banks and perhaps regulatory authorities for reporting requirements and compliance purposes.
8.3) As our business grows and evolves, the Subprocessors we engage may also change. We will endeavour to provide the owner of Customer’s account with notice of any new Subprocessors to the extent required under the Agreement, along with posting such updates here. Please check back frequently for updates.
9. SECURITY
9.1) The security of your data is important to us. Your Simplotel account information is protected by a password. It is important that you protect against unauthorized access of your account and information by choosing your password carefully and keeping your password and computer secure by signing out after using our services.
9.2) We have implemented procedures to help protect the information that you provide to us. However, no method of transmitting or storing electronic data is ever completely secure, and we cannot guarantee that such information will never be accessed, used, or released in a manner that is inconsistent with this policy. You agree and acknowledge that we may engage third-party services providers for the provision of cloud service storage solutions, and Simplotel is not responsible for any lapse in security on the part of such service providers. We expressly disclaim any representation or warranty, whether express or implied, with respect to ensuring, guaranteeing, or otherwise offering any definitive promise of security in connection with your Information. YOU ARE SOLELY RESPONSIBLE FOR MAINTAINING THE SECRECY OF YOUR ACCOUNT INFORMATION AT ALL TIMES.
9.3) You shall be solely responsible for all activities performed by you through your Simplotel account. Simplotel assumes no responsibility or liability for the improper use of information relating to usage of credit cards and/or debit cards by you, whether online or off-line.
9.4) To protect your privacy and security, we will verify your identity before granting access or making changes to your personally identifying information. One you have registered with Simplotel, your Simplotel ID and Password are required in order to access your profile information.
10. CONTACT US
10.1) Questions, comments, remarks, requests or complaints regarding this Privacy Policy are welcome and should be addressed by the Merchant(s) to contact@simplotel.com.