Privacy & Cookies

Last Updated - April 2024

PRIVACY POLICY

THE RETREAT COUNTRY HOUSE PRIVACY STATEMENT

The Retreat Country House is committed to protecting and respecting your privacy. We adhere to this Privacy Policy (the “Policy”) together with any disclaimers set out the basis upon which any personal data we collect from you or that you provide to us, or that is provided to us relating to you (“Data” (see also below “What Personal Data We Handle”)) by any means will be processed. Please read the following carefully to understand our use of Data. Please note that the Policy relates only to living individuals in relation to Data relating directly to themselves, and not to persons in any other capacity.

We reserve the right to amend this Policy at any time and from time to time without notice by publishing a new version on our website. If we amend the contents of this Policy, those changes will become effective the moment we publish them on our website. Please refer to the top of this document to see the date of the latest version in force.

WHO WE ARE

This is the privacy policy of Miriam O’Driscoll and Valerie O’Driscoll T/A The Retreat Country House (business registration number 733197). Our registered office is The Retreat, Laurel Walk, Bandon, Co. Cork, Ireland, P72XN70.

WHAT WE DO

Where The Retreat Country House processes Data, we are responsible for the protection of such Data as “data controller”. Data protection law requires us to provide you with the information contained in this statement to outline what we do, or may do, with your Data.

WHAT PERSONAL DATA WE HANDLE

We handle the Data that you provide to us when you make an enquiry, make a reservation, or simply visit our website. This includes when you do so through a third party or agency. This also includes when you complete a web form, send us an email, exchange information on a phone call with us or allow our website to store cookies (for further detail on our cookies policy, please see Cookie Policy).

We handle:

Personal Data – concerning you as an individual which includes your name, age, gender, address, telephone, mobile, e-mail, your preferences, and any other information provided to us by or in relation to you which concern you as an individual.
Business related data – if you are an individual associated with a business or other organisation that is our customer, then your personal data may include the following information that we link to you: business or organisation details (such as name, address, telephone numbers, payment arrangements, etc.), your relationship with that business or organisation (such as owner, partner, director, shareholder, employee, or agent), and your contact details within that business (such as work address, work telephone and mobile numbers, and work e-mail address).
Enquiry and Booking information – information concerning enquiries and bookings made with or through us for your stay or services, including where you are making the enquiry or booking or are the recipient of the travel services to which the enquiry or booking relates. This information may include: records of enquiries and searches for holiday and travel products made by or on your behalf, details of your personal interests, needs and other data relevant to your enquiry; details of results, quotes, proposals, estimates and other information given in response to enquiries; details of the holiday, accommodation, travel, car hire, and other travel services booked or enquired about; details of the passengers / holidaymakers travelling; details of the provider of the travel services (e.g. tour operator); dates and times of travel; price; payment details (including card details); passport information and visa information; foreign exchange requirements and arrangements; and sensitive information such as health, medical, dietary, mobility, disability, religious or other special conditions or requirements.
Survey Information – information collected or generated out of any surveys we conduct.
Competition Information – Information collected or generated out of any competitions or promotions we run.Account, Registration and Loyalty Information – Information concerning any accounts, registrations, or memberships with us, or participation in any loyalty program.
Correspondence – Correspondence, communications and messages, including between you and us, and between us and third parties, including relating to any booking or booking enquiry, or performance of any contract.
Website Usage Information – We may collect information about your visits to, browsing of, and use of our website, unless your web browser blocks this. The range of data we collect will depend on how you interact with our website. This information may include: your IP address (a unique identifier allocated to your computer for your connection to the internet); your computer device details (PC, tablet, smartphone, watch etc.); the make and version of web browser (e.g. Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, Opera, Chrome) you are using; your operating system (e.g. Windows, Windows Phone, OSX, iOS, Android, Linux etc); your time-zone; your browser plug-ins; any web-page you came from, identified as the referrer web page address by your web browser; cookies; page response times; download error; pages and parts of pages you visit; usage you make of our website, including enquiries and searches undertaken, and registrations for accounts, forums etc.; services and products you viewed; length of visit to website and pages; page interaction information (such as scrolling, keys pressed, mouse clicks, touches, and mouse-overs). This will normally be collected and used anonymously, and aggregated for analysis, with your name and any characteristics identifying you remaining anonymous, but our privacy policy will apply, and it will be treated as your personal data, if this information is in any way linked to you personally. This information may also include: data inputted into forms and field; registrations for any accounts, forum, feedback mechanism, social functionality, newsletters or other features of our site; usernames and passwords, log-in / out history, and settings; actions taken within any account or other registration, including view and update and changes to settings; and posts to any forum, feedback, review or other social functionality on our website.

We also process Data for other functional purposes. This Data could include Data processed when operating our external closed-circuit television (CCTV) system on the exterior of the Property (The Retreat, Laurel Walk, Bandon, Co. Cork, Ireland P72XN70) being part of our security system; the Data of visitors to the Property or people attending our events at The Property; the Data of visitors to the The Retreat Country House website who go through the material of the website and may need to allow cookies in order to use the service; and the Data of our followers or social media users that leave comments or reactions to our posts on Instagram or Facebook.

WHAT WE DO WITH YOUR DATA

For the purposes of exercising The Retreat Country House’s functions, The Retreat Country House performs the following processing operations in accordance with applicable data protection laws (under which your data protection rights might be restricted):

To operate and provide the search, booking, review, forums and other services, facilities and functions of our website.
To provide information to you about our website, systems and services, including to respond to booking enquiries and searches, and to keep you updated generally.
To enable you to make bookings, and to fulfill, provide, perform, administer, manage, and enforce all bookings, orders, and other contracts which relate to you and to process any transactions authorised or made with us which relate to you.
To communicate with you concerning any enquiries, bookings, services provided, problems and complaints, and to respond to any submissions, enquiries or requests from you.
To keep internal records and maintain reasonable archives, including concerning as to enquiries, bookings, contracts, services, and complaints.
To analyse, audit, provide, operate, administer, maintain and improve our business, website, systems, and services; to carry out surveys and analyse the results; to run promotions and competitions; undertake product or customer research/development; to assist us in and help us to improve our sales, editorial, advertising and marketing processes; to carry out other business development and improvement activities; and to provide training to our staff, sub-contractors and suppliers. For example, we may use your Data to help us profile how our customers generally are using our website. We may also use this information to ascertain interests so that we can better tailor our business offerings.
To carry out direct marketing to you that you have consented to. We do not use or disclose your Data for direct marketing purposes unless we have obtained your consent to this through an opt-in tick box on any form or website of ours.
To report aggregate information concerning usage of our websites. We normally create anonymous statistical data about browsing actions and patterns, and do not identify any individual.
To process Data such as strictly necessary cookies for any user of our website www.retreatcountryhouse.ie and any of its subdomains.
Recording of CCTV footage on the exterior of the Property being part of our security system for the purpose of security and safety of the Property and its guests.
Compliance with legal obligations - we share information with other public authorities as required by law, in particular other government departments. We may also be compelled to share information, which includes Data, with other public authorities for the purposes of cooperation. The legal basis for doing so is that The Retreat Country House must comply with a legal obligation to cooperate as is stated in Section 26(2)(c) of the Data Protection 2018 Act.
Perform a contract – when we deal with service providers and suppliers in their individual capacity or otherwise deal with Data from third parties with whom we are dealing by contract, we deal with such data for the purposes of fulfilling our obligations pursuant to the contract as our legal basis for so doing.
Manage social media accounts – Clicks on links we provide on our website to social media accounts may be counted in aggregate based on the URL and not on any personally identifiable information. We also process Data when managing our Instagram and Facebook social media accounts as individuals interact with our pages on those platforms. We view comments/reactions on our accounts, and these are retained by the social media platform in question. This is done in accordance with our social media policy for the purposes of developing The Retreat Country House network and for public relations purposes in general. Our lawful basis for processing is that such processing it is in The Retreat Country House’s legitimate interest to develop its network.
For any purpose which we have obtained your consent to.

The Retreat Country House will provide you with specific information such as that outlined in this Policy in relation to any further activities (further processing) that we may need to undertake with your data. We will do so before we commence such activities, and only insofar as the purposes of those activities are compatible with the purposes of processing outlined in this section.

WHAT WE DO NOT DO WITH YOUR PERSONAL DATA

Automated decision making – The Retreat Country House does not undertake any profiling or automated decision making within the meaning of those activities under data protection laws.
Registration of telephone conversations – The Retreat Country House does not audio record or retain audio recordings of phone conversations. Where an individual contacts us by phone, caller numbers are automatically stored on the recipient phone in The Retreat Country House for a limited time in a list of inbound and outbound calls, but no further processing of this data (caller numbers) is carried out. We may only record personal data in the form of notes for the purposes outlined.
We are the administrators of two social media accounts (Instagram and Facebook). Although The Retreat Country House’s personnel view messages or posts received on these social media accounts, the Data contained in the messages/posts and any identifier of the user is not logged or stored other than on the relevant social media platform, and no further processing of such Data is carried out by us other than what is necessary for providing the social media account (see above).

WHERE DO WE STORE YOUR DATA?

When you contact us by email, your information is stored in Google Mail.
When you contact us through our website contact forms, your information is stored on Bristlebird Media Works web servers in our Content Management System (CMS) software.
If you sign up for a newsletter, your name and email address are stored on Bristlebird Media Works email marketing platform.
When you buy gift vouchers or tickets for events at The Retreat Country House, your information is stored on Paypal, our payment gateway.

HOW LONG DO WE KEEP YOUR DATA?

We keep your Data for so long as is reasonably necessary for the purposes for which we use it, and if longer, for any duration required by law, and for statutory claims limitation periods where your Data may be relevant to any possible liability we may have.

When accessing the website, the retention of cookies is in accordance with our Cookie policy.

When the processing activity is recordings by our external CCTV system being part of our security, Data is retained by The Retreat Country House for a period of 30 days.

WHO WE SHARE YOUR DATA WITH?

We may share your Data with third parties in the following circumstances:

We may disclose your Data to third parties (including intermediaries) as necessary to carry out any checks concerning you or enforce any booking or contract with you (including credit, security, fraud and identity checks). This may include credit reference agencies and other companies for use in credit decisions, for fraud prevention and to pursue debtors.
We disclose your Data to third parties (including intermediaries) as necessary to deal with any booking enquiry being made by or for you, to make any booking requested by or for you, to perform and administer any booking for you or other contract with or in respect of you. Such third parties may include any suppliers or sub-contractors and their agents.
We may disclose your Data to any supplier with whom we make any enquiry concerning or book any travel or other products and services for you as agent (whether as agent for you, someone representing you, or the supplier). Details of any third-party operators or other third parties who will be responsible for or supply you with the services booked or enquired about, may be obtained from us on request, and may be stated in any other brochure provided by us.
Where we use third parties to host, provide, operate or supply any part of our websites, databases, systems, business, or services, or carry out on our behalf any of our business functions or actions (including sending mail, processing payments, providing marketing assistance, providing customer and advertising analysis, and providing customer services), then we may provide your Data to them as required for use for or processing as part of those purposes.
Where any facility on our website is clearly designed to make certain of your personal data public (e.g. posts you make to any public forum or reviews facility), then any Data you provide in relation to that forum or other facility, which is provided in circumstance where it is clear that it is intended to be published, will be disclosed to the public accordingly, subject to moderation by us.
We may supply Data to a government authority or regulator where required to comply with a legal requirement, for the administration of justice, for the purposes of customs, visas and immigration, or where reasonably required to protect your vital interests or enforce any booking or other contract. We may disclose your Data where otherwise required by or permitted by law.
If our customer is a business or organisation, and we are holding your Data in your capacity as an associate of that business or organisation (including as agent, representative, contact, employee, officer, owner, partner, or director), then we may disclose to them that Data. If our customer is making a booking or booking enquiry on your behalf, with your authority, then we may disclose to our customer your Data as reasonably required in connection with such booking or enquiry, or the subsequent performance of or payment for any booking made.
If our business is ever transferred to a third party, then your Data will be transferred to the acquirer to enable them to continue the business.
We may provide links to a number of other web sites that we believe might offer you useful information and services. However, those sites may not follow the same privacy policies as us. Therefore, we are not responsible for the privacy policies or the actions of any third parties, including without limitation, any website owners whose sites may be reached through this Site, nor can we control the activities of those websites. We urge you to contact the relevant parties controlling these sites or accessing their on-line policies for the relevant information about their data collection practices before submitting any personal information or other sensitive data.

This Policy does not address, and we are not responsible for, the privacy, information or other practices of any third parties. We have no control over, and are not responsible for, this third party’s collection, use and disclosure of your Data. In addition, we are not responsible for the information collection, use, disclosure or security policies or practices of other organisations, such as Facebook, Apple, Google, Microsoft or any other app developer, app provider, social media platform provider, operating system provider, wireless service provider or device manufacturer, including with respect to any Data you disclose to other organisations through or in connection with the Apps or our Social Media pages.

YOUR RIGHTS ON YOUR DATA

Subject to restrictions set out in Data Protection Act, 2018 and the General Data Protection Regulation, you can exercise your rights in relation to your Data that is processed by The Retreat Country House:

The right to be informed about the processing of your personal data;
The right to access your personal data;
The right to rectification of your personal data;
The right to erasure of your personal data;
The right to data portability;
The right to object to processing of your personal data and the right to withdraw consent;
The right to restrict processing of your personal data.

CONSENT

By using our website and voluntarily providing any Data to us through booking, enquiring or browsing, you confirm that you agree to and consent to the terms of this Policy on your behalf and on behalf of others you are representing including but not limited to organisations and whose information you submit and including the collection and use of information, to the extent that your consent is required by any applicable law. Continued access and use of the Site without acceptance of the terms of this Policy relieves us from responsibility to the user.

SECURITY

For your own privacy protection, we encourage you to maintain anti-virus and other malware protection software on your computers and other devices, and to maintain your own measures to protect your personal data. Please do not include sensitive personal data in any e-mails you may send to us, including payment card information. We also encourage you to be careful about who you give personal data to. We never contact you to ask you for sensitive personal data, such as payment card information, or sensitive personal data such as passport numbers or log-in details, and we will only ask you for such information in person or through our website, or by telephone in connection with a booking you are making or have made. Please let us know if you someone purports to contact you in our name.

USE OF SERVICES BY MINORS

Our website and all the services provided are not intended for individuals under the age of eighteen (18) and we request that they not do not use our website and do not provide personal information through our website. Our Policy prohibits us from accepting users who are under the age of 18 and all persons under the age of 18 are directed not to use, post information to or submit queries on this website. Should we inadvertently acquire personal information or other data from users under the age of 18, we will not knowingly provide this data to any third party for any purpose whatsoever, and any subsequent disclosure would be due to the fact the user under age 18 used the website and submitted personal information without solicitation by or permission from us.

ACCURATE, COMPLETE AND UP TO DATE

We are not responsible for ensuring that any personal information submitted by you on or through our website and our online services are accurate and up-to-date. Should you wish to verify whether or not the personal information you provided us with, that is held or may still be held by us is up-to-date, you may contact us at info@retreatcountryhouse.ie.

We will endeavour to respond to your request as soon as reasonably practicable.

ADEQUATE, RELEVANT AND NOT EXCESSIVE

Unless specifically requested, we ask that you not send us, and you not disclose, any sensitive personal information on or through our website and our online services or otherwise to us.

Please note that we may need to retain certain information for recordkeeping purposes and/or to complete any transactions that you began prior to requesting a change or deletion. There may also be residual information that will remain within our databases and other records, which will not be removed. In addition, there may be certain information to which we are unable to enable you to review, for legal, security, or other reasons.

COMPLAINT RESOLUTION MECHANISM

The laws we comply with are regulated by Data Protection Commissioner. If you have any questions about our privacy policy, about how we process your personal data or have any complaints, please contact us at info@retreatcountryhouse.ie and we will strive to assist you and resolve your issue. Should you wish to seek assistance from a government regulator, the Data Protection Commissioner contact details are here below:

Data Protection Commissioner
Canal House
Station Road
Portarlington
Co. Laois
Ireland
R32 AP23

COOKIE POLICY

WHAT’S A COOKIE?

A cookie is a small text file that may be stored on your computer or mobile device that contains data related to a website you visit. It may allow a website “remember” your actions or preferences over a period of time, or it may contain data related to the function or delivery of the site. Cookies can be set by the owner of the website or in some cases by third party services the website owner allows to present other information, run content or provide other functionality such as analytics.

HOW ARE THEY USED ON THIS SITE?

We use cookies to track your use of our website. This enables us to understand how you use the site and track any patterns with regards to how you are using our website. This helps us to develop and improve our website as well as products and / or services in response to what you might need or want.

COOKIES ARE EITHER:

Session cookies: these are only stored on your computer during your web session and are automatically deleted when you close your browser – they usually store an anonymous session ID allowing you to browse a website without having to log in to each page but they do not collect any personal data from your computer; or Persistent cookies: a persistent cookie is stored as a file on your computer and it remains there when you close your web browser. The cookie can be read by the website that created it when you visit that website again. We use persistent cookies for Google Analytics.

Cookies can also be categorised as follows:

Strictly necessary cookies: These cookies are essential to enable you to use the website effectively, such as when buying a product and / or service, and therefore cannot be turned off. Without these cookies, the services available to you on our website cannot be provided. These cookies do not gather information about you that could be used for marketing or remembering where you have been on the internet.
Performance cookies: These cookies enable us to monitor and improve the performance of our website. For example, they allow us to count visits, identify traffic sources and see which parts of the site are most popular.
Functionality cookies: These cookies allow our website to remember choices you make and provide enhanced features. For instance, we may be able to provide you with news or updates relevant to the services you use. They may also be used to provide services you have requested such as viewing a video or commenting on a blog. The information these cookies collect is usually anonymised.

THE COOKIES WE SET INCLUDE

Email newsletters related cookies

This site offers newsletter or email subscription services and cookies may be used to remember if you are already registered and whether to show certain notifications which might only be valid to subscribed/unsubscribed users.

Forms related cookies

When you submit data to through a form such as those found on contact pages or comment forms cookies may be set to remember your user details for future correspondence.

SOCIAL MEDIA POLICY

The Retreat Country House’s Instagram account and Facebook account are all managed by the The Retreat Country House. This policy details the type of content we publish as well as how we interact with others on these platforms.

Our social media accounts allow The Retreat Country House to market our services, communicate news and updates in a timely manner.

WHERE WE ENGAGE

The Retreat Country House will engage on:

Our Website (www.retreatcountryhouse.ie);
Our Instagram account (https://www.instagram.com/theretreat_countryhouse/?igshid=OGQ5ZDc2ODk2ZA%3D%3D );
Our Facebook account (https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61554135470777 )

Pages, accounts or groups (other than those listed above) bearing the The Retreat Country House name do not represent The Retreat Country House. The Retreat Country House may decide to utilise additional/other forms of social media in the future, at which point this policy will be updated.

CONTENT

Followers of the The Retreat Country House’s social media can expect information including:

Content from our website, including guidance for both individuals and businesses.
Press releases.
Coverage of events attended or organised by The Retreat Country House
Marketing of The Retreat Country House and local attractions.

FOLLOWERS

The Retreat Country House will not be obliged to follow any of its followers/other social media users. If The Retreat Country House follows a Facebook and/or Instagram account, it will not imply endorsement of any kind. The Retreat Country House has the right to block any user(s), and remove any content, on its social media channels that is not in-line with this policy.

QUERIES, REPLIES AND DIRECT MESSAGES

The Retreat Country House will monitor our Facebook and Instagram accounts. Feedback will be monitored and acted upon as appropriate. However, The Retreat Country House is not obliged to reply individually to posts or direct messages. The Retreat Country House will also not respond to those wishing to make complaints or report a breach through social media. The best way to communicate with us, make a complaint, or report a breach is via the details on our website.

ABUSIVE/SPAM LANGUAGE

Abusive or spam messages, posts and comments will be deleted and it might result in followers being blocked and reported directly through the dedicated channels of the social media platform where the abuse took place.

DATA PROTECTION

The public should not post any personal information publicly, and if they do so it is done at their own risk.

REVIEW OF POLICY

The Retreat Country House will review this Policy over time in the light of any ongoing operational procedure amendments.