LEGAL: Our Privacy Policy

Bookastay is strongly committed to your right to privacy and to taking steps designed to secure your personal information. To earn your trust and confidence in our commitment, the intent of this policy is to fully disclose our privacy practices to you. We will only use your personal information in accordance with this Privacy Policy.  First and foremost you need to know that our policy is to NOT sell, rent or otherwise distribute our membership database!.

If you have any concerns, questions or comment on our Privacy Policy or our privacy practices please contact us.

When you become a member

When you become a member, either by registering for our newsletter, making a rental enquiry (booking or question) or registering a property, we request that you provide certain personal details (including your name, email address, date of birth and phone numbers).  This information also becomes part of your personal profile - which saves you time when you make your next enquiry.  You can update your personal profile, and add additional information, at anytime when you re-use the system.

When you make a booking enquiry

When you make a rental enquiry through our website your contact details are past on to the owner or property manager of the property you are enquiring about so they can contact you. 

When you list a property

When you register to list a property we request that you provide additional information about you and the property you are listing. This information becomes part of your Personal and Property Profiles which you can change at anytime when you are logged in.

When you add members to a property

If you are added to a bach by a property owner or property manager we collect personal information necessary to invite you to join this facility, i.e. your first name, last name and email address. When you accept this invitation and complete your registration you are asked to provide additional information including your contact phone number. This information becomes part of your Personal Profile which you can change at anytime when you are logged in.

How we secure your membership

We use individual member passwords as a security mechanism to prevent unauthorized access to your information. You should not disclose this password to any third party. The information you provide is stored on our own dedicated servers. We use appropriate technologies, tools and best practice methodologies to prevent access to these machines from anyone without appropriate authority.

How we use email

When you register you are automatically opted-in to relevant communications.  You can opt out of receiving these communications from us. 

However, if you have a property listed we reserve the right to contact you regarding critical website updates and key alerts indicating outstanding requests - and this may be in an email newsletter-style format.  We fully comply with the requirements of the New Zealand Unsolicited Electronic Messages Act 2007 (Express and Inferred consent).

We also use email to acknowledge “solicited transactions”, e.g. confirming membership, automatically alerting you of booking requests made by members.

Finally, your email address may also be used if it becomes necessary to contact you individually for any reason.

How we use Text Messages (SMS)

We do not use text messaging for marketing purposes.  If you are Owner or Property Manager we can send you text alerts or critical announcements.  We will only do this if you have validated your mobile number and given us permission to send you text messages.

How we use cookies

“Cookies” are small pieces of information that are stored by your browser on your computer’s hard drive. Cookies can be used to recognize you as a member and can be used to automatically configure services. We use Cookies for what is termed “session management” - after a certain amount of time we will automatically log you out if you’ve forgotten to do so.

When you visit our website, we may record your “IP addresses” and information on the type of operating system (e.g. Windows XP or Apple OS) and browser software (e.g. Microsoft Internet Explorer, Netscape, Opera etc.) you are using. This information is used to diagnose problems with our service and for planning capacity and compatibility. Your IP address may also be used to help gather aggregated demographic information, such as which ISP you are using or what country you are connecting from.

How we secure financial transactions (credit card payments)

For online financial transactions we uses PaymentExpress a.k.a Direct Payment Solutions Ltd (DPS) (as does Trade Me, Air New Zealand and Ticketek in New Zealand). PaymentExpress provide the encryption, connection and billing facility for credit card transactions. We do not store credit card information, or even receive this information, on our servers. For more information about DPS see http://www.paymentexpress.com.

With whom your information is shared

The information you provide is stored in our database and used by us in accordance with this Privacy Policy. We do not provide customer lists or contact details to our advertisers or business partners. And will not share this information in a manner that identifies you as an individual without your express permission, e.g. when you making a booking request you are asking us to pass on your details to another member.

We may, from time to time hire a third party to act on our behalf for projects such as software development, market research, competition management.  The information we provide will be protected by a confidentiality agreements that will obligate the third party to use the information solely to complete the specific project.

We may deploy 3rd party tools and platforms for bulk email processing, support desk operations or sales CRM.  We will do the utmost to ensure that our use of these platforms meet our obligations under this Privacy Policy.

In addition to the circumstances described above, we may disclose your information if required to do so by law, or in the good faith belief that disclosure is otherwise necessary or advisable, including when we have reason to believe that disclosing the information is necessary to identify, contact or bring legal action against someone who may be causing interference with our rights or properties, whether intentionally or otherwise, or when anyone else could be harmed by such activities.

Please note that on our site we have advertisements and links to other websites that may collect personal information from you. This Privacy Policy does not cover the information practices or policies of such websites. We encourage you to read their privacy policies as they may be materially different from our Privacy Policy.