privacy policy

For the purposes of the Data Protection Act 1998, we, Interchange and Consort Hotels Limited t/as beacon are a data controller. In order to administer your beacon membership, we need to collect certain personal details from you.

What personal details do we process?

These details will include, where applicable, the names and contact details as requested on the Membership application form. If we need to use any other of your details we will ask you first.

We may also collect personal details from you when you contact us with an enquiry or in response to a communication from us.

How do we use your details?

We may use the details you give us to carry out marketing analysis and profiling of your use of the membership benefits we offer; to administer and contact you about your membership, or the services and products provided by us or beacon suppliers.

We may also use these details to contact you by any means including email, about other services or products offered by us or by our carefully selected suppliers. We will only contact you in this way if you have not previously objected to this. (see below.)

Please note that communications with you (for example telephone conversations and emails) may be monitored and recorded by us for quality assurance, legal, and training purposes.

In what circumstances will we disclose your details to third parties?

We need to pass on your personal details to the suppliers who need to know them so that the services which form the basis of your membership benefits can be provided. These Suppliers may use your details for the purposes of carrying out credit checks on you prior to providing you with their services.

We also pass your personal details onto bcw limited, who manage the central billing process on behalf of beacon in order that your beacon account can be set up and administered by bcw.

Occasionally we hire other companies to provide services on our behalf, for example mailing information to our members. We only provide those companies with the personal details relating to our clients which they require in order to deliver the service. They are prohibited from using that information for any other purpose. We will ensure that anyone to whom we pass your details for this reason agrees to treat it with the same level of protection we are obliged to provide.

We may also need to disclose your personal details where legitimately requested for legal or regulatory purposes, as part of legal proceedings or prospective legal proceedings.

We may need to disclose our customer database, including any personal data relating to you contained therein, to a third party who acquires or attempts to acquire all or substantially all of our business.

Do we protect your personal details?

We have appropriate security measures in place to protect this information.

General

You are generally entitled to ask us (by letter or e-mail) what details of yours are being held or processed, for what purpose and to whom they may be or have been disclosed. We will charge a fee to respond to such a request. We promise to respond to your request within 40 days of receiving your written request and fee. In certain limited circumstances we are entitled to refuse your request. If you believe that any of your personal details which we are processing are inaccurate or incorrect please contact us immediately.

As our privacy statement may change due to developments in the law, we would encourage you to reread our privacy statement from time to time so that you are aware of any changes in how we gather and use personal information.

This privacy statement covers websites owned and controlled by us only. Links to other websites and any information collected by these sites are not covered by this privacy statement.

Website

As part of the new data protection laws we are required to let you know when we use any kind of tracking devices or 'cookies' on our website.

We do use tracking software on our website which simply allows us to see which form of online advertising is sending us the most customers, therefore allowing us to maximise any marketing budget we spend according to what it is delivering us. It also allows us to track the most popular areas of our website. It does not tell us any personal data about you other than what country you are based in. The software does use 'cookies' in order to recognise you when you come back to the site again so we can see how often you visit us. A 'cookie' is simply a piece of information that a website stores on your computer so that it can retain information about you or recognise you at a later time.

To disable cookies, Select 'Tools','Internet Options' from the top menu bar in Internet Explorer. Then select the 'Privacy' tab, move the Settings bar up to 'Medium' and click 'Apply'. Close and restart your browser.

Marketing

We would also like to store and use your personal details for future marketing purposes (for example, sending you details of a promotion including by email). If you do not want us to do this, please tick the box. (Please bear in mind however that we will be unable to provide you with the full benefits of membership if you do not allow us to inform you of such promotions).

We may pass your personal details to our nominated suppliers or our affiliated or associated companies or other selected third parties who may wish to contact you with details of offers or services or events which we feel may be of interest to you. If you do not wish us to do this, please tick the box. (Please bear in mind however that we will be unable to provide you with the full benefits of membership if you do not allow us to inform you of such offers, services or events).