Privacy Policy

1. Who we are

Monster Homes Ltd, trading as MOHOS, is the controller of personal information covered by this Privacy Policy.

We are based in Inverness, Scotland. For privacy enquiries, please contact us at office@mohos.uk.

2. Information we may collect

Depending on how you interact with us, we may collect:

• your name and contact details, including email address and telephone number;
• booking details such as arrival and departure dates, number of guests and preferred property;
• messages and information you provide when contacting us;
• payment and transaction information, although full card details are normally handled by the relevant payment provider rather than stored by us;
• information needed to verify the identity of a lead guest where verification is required;
• information about issues, damage, additional charges or other matters arising during a stay;
• technical information relating to use of our website, including cookie and analytics data where you have given the required consent;
• records we are required to keep for accounting, tax, legal or regulatory purposes.

3. Where we obtain personal information

Most information is provided directly by you when you contact us, complete a form, make a booking, communicate with us or stay at a MOHOS property.

We may also receive booking and contact information from third-party booking platforms such as Airbnb or Booking.com where you make a reservation through those services, and from payment providers where relevant to a transaction.

Where you initially provide personal information to a third-party booking platform, that platform is responsible for its own collection and use of your information under its privacy policy. Once information is passed to us, we are responsible for the way we use and protect it for our own purposes.

We may also receive personal information when you contact us through social media or leave a review or feedback through a third-party service. Those platforms process information under their own privacy policies.

4. How and why we use personal information

We may use personal information to:

• respond to enquiries and provide information about availability;
• create, manage and administer bookings;
• communicate check-in, access and stay information;
• process or reconcile payments and additional charges;
• verify the identity of a lead guest where reasonably required;
• provide guest support and deal with problems during or after a stay;
• protect our properties, systems and business against fraud, misuse or security risks;
• maintain financial and business records;
• comply with legal, tax, licensing and regulatory requirements;
• understand how our website is used where analytics consent has been provided;
• send marketing communications where you have chosen to receive them and where applicable law permits us to do so;
• manage and respond to reviews, feedback and social-media communications.

5. Lawful bases for processing

The lawful basis we rely on depends on why we are using the information.

Contract

We use personal information where it is necessary to take steps at your request before a booking is made, or to perform our contract with you once a booking has been confirmed.

Legal obligation

We may process and retain information where necessary to comply with tax, accounting, licensing or other legal obligations.

Legitimate interests

We may use information where necessary for our legitimate business interests, for example to respond to general enquiries, protect our properties, prevent fraud, secure our website, recover sums properly due to us or establish, exercise or defend legal claims, provided those interests are not overridden by your rights and interests.

Consent

Where consent is required, including for non-essential cookies, analytics and certain marketing communications, we rely on your consent. You can withdraw or change cookie consent at any time through our cookie settings, and you can withdraw marketing consent at any time using the unsubscribe option provided or by contacting us.

6. Booking and contact enquiries

When you contact us or submit an enquiry, we use the information you provide to respond to your request and, where relevant, take steps towards a booking.

If you do not provide information that is reasonably necessary to create, verify or manage a booking, we may be unable to accept the booking, provide access to the accommodation or deliver the requested service.

When a booking is confirmed, we use the booking information to administer the reservation, communicate with the lead guest, provide access information, manage the stay and deal with any payments, charges or issues connected with that booking.

7. Identity verification

We may ask the lead guest to show valid photographic identification before check-in or before access details are released.

Identification is used only to verify identity. We do not retain a copy of the identification document after verification. We may retain a limited record confirming that an identity check was completed.

8. Payments

Where a payment is made through a third-party payment provider, that provider may process payment information in accordance with its own privacy policy and security requirements.

We do not normally receive or store full payment-card details. We may retain transaction information such as the amount, date, payment status, reference number or other information required for booking administration and accounting.

9. Cookies and analytics

Our website uses cookies and similar technologies. Some cookies are necessary for the website to operate or to remember your privacy choices. These cannot normally be disabled through the cookie banner.

We also use analytics technologies, including Google Analytics through Google Tag Manager, to help us understand how visitors use the website. Non-essential analytics storage is used only where the required consent has been provided.

You can accept, reject or customise non-essential cookies using the CookieYes consent controls available on our website and can change your preferences later.

10. Who we may share personal information with

We do not sell personal information.

Where necessary, we may share information with:

• website hosting, IT, email and security service providers;
• payment providers and banking services;
• booking platforms where a reservation is made or managed through them;
• accountants, professional advisers and insurers where reasonably necessary;
• contractors or service providers where information is needed to deal with a specific guest or property issue;
• government bodies, regulators, law-enforcement authorities or courts where required by law or reasonably necessary to protect legal rights;
• analytics and consent-management providers where the relevant processing is enabled.

Service providers acting on our behalf are expected to use personal information only for the purposes for which it is provided and to protect it appropriately.

11. International data transfers

Some technology providers we use may process information outside the United Kingdom. Where personal information is transferred internationally, we rely on an appropriate legal mechanism or safeguard required by UK data protection law, such as UK adequacy regulations or approved contractual safeguards where applicable.

12. How long we keep personal information

We keep personal information only for as long as reasonably necessary for the purpose for which it was collected, including any legal, accounting, tax, dispute-resolution or fraud-prevention requirements.

Booking and financial records may need to be retained for up to 6 years after the end of the relevant accounting period where required for company tax and accounting purposes.

General enquiries that do not result in a booking will normally be retained only for as long as reasonably necessary to deal with the enquiry and any related follow-up. Records may be retained for longer where there is an active dispute, legal claim, investigation or other legitimate reason to do so.

Copies of photographic identification used only for identity verification are not retained after verification.

13. How we protect personal information

We use reasonable technical and organisational measures designed to protect personal information against unauthorised access, loss, alteration or misuse. Access to personal information is limited to those who reasonably need it for business purposes.

No internet-based system can be guaranteed to be completely secure, but we review the information we hold and the services we use with the aim of keeping data appropriately protected.

14. Your data protection rights

Depending on the circumstances, UK data protection law may give you rights including the right to:

• ask for access to personal information we hold about you;
• ask us to correct inaccurate or incomplete information;
• ask us to erase personal information in certain circumstances;
• ask us to restrict the way we use information in certain circumstances;
• object to certain processing based on legitimate interests;
• receive certain information in a portable format where the right to data portability applies;
• withdraw consent at any time where we rely on consent.

These rights are not absolute and may be subject to legal exceptions. To exercise a privacy right, contact us at office@mohos.uk. We may need to verify your identity before dealing with a request.

15. Questions and complaints

If you have a question or concern about how we use your personal information, please contact us first at office@mohos.uk and we will try to resolve it.

You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), the UK regulator for data protection. Information about making a complaint is available at ico.org.uk.

16. Links to other websites

Our website may contain links to third-party websites or services. Those websites and services operate under their own privacy policies and are responsible for how they collect and use personal information. We encourage you to review their privacy information before providing personal data to them.

17. Changes to this Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our business, website, service providers or legal requirements. The latest version will be published on this page with its revision date.