Data Privacy Notice by HRS Hotel Reservation Service HRS GmbH

Responsibility for the Processing of Personal Data

HRS - HOTEL RESERVATION SERVICE HRS GmbH, domiciled at Breslauer Platz 4, 50668 Cologne, Germany (hereinafter referred to as “HRS“) is responsible for the processing of your personal data on its web pages and mobile apps.

In detail:

Responsibility for the collection, processing, and use of your personal data as defined by the General Data Protection Regulation rests with HRS – HOTEL RESERVATION SERVICE - HRS GmbH, Breslauer Platz 4, 50668 Cologne (hereinafter “HRS”).

If you wish to object to the collection, processing, or use of your data by HRS in accordance with these data privacy rules in general or for individual measures, you may send your objection via e-mail, fax, or mail to the following address:

HRS - HOTEL RESERVATION SERVICE

HRS GmbH
Breslauer Platz 4
50668 Cologne

Fax: +49 221 2077 666

E-mail: datenschutz@hrs.de

Insofar as data privacy is concerned, we are always there for you.

You can reach our Data Protection Officer under datenschutz@hrs.de

The most important issue first: data privacy is a matter of trust, and your trust is important to us. We respect your privacy and your personal sphere. Protection and legal processing of your personal data are therefore important issues to us. To ensure that you feel secure when visiting our web pages, whenever we process your personal data, we strictly comply with the legal provisions, and want to let you know how we process your personal data.

In this document, you will find out more on how we use and process your personal data. We are certain that the information is easy to read and transparent, so that you will understand what we want to say, without having a hard time. Furthermore, you will learn how you can contact us in case you have any questions regarding your personal data, which we will be more than happy to answer. Therefore, please read our rules regarding cookies, where we inform you how HRS uses cookies and similar technologies.

You can print or store this document by using the usual functionality of your Internet service program (= browser: in most cases, “File“ -> “Save as“).

Our data privacy rules may change from time to time. As long as you care about your privacy, we recommend that you visit this page on a regular basis to ensure that you are always aware of the latest developments. Which types of personal data are collected by HRS, and on what kind of legal basis?

We collect information regarding your computer. This is your IP address, the browser you use, and your language settings. It is also possible that we receive information about you from third parties or automatically collect other kinds of information. As long as we have received your consent in this respect, data processing is based on Article 6, Paragraph 1, Letter a of the General Data Protection Regulation; as long as these measures are necessary for technical reasons to ensure the functionality of our web pages and services, this is covered by Article 6, Paragraph 1, letter f of the General Data Protection Regulation. Our interest in the security of our offers is essential considering that, in the case of insufficient IT security, its operation as such – just like your personal data – would be greatly jeopardized. We additionally ensure that your interests in this regard are protected through reasonable measures, e.g. data anonymization or pseudonymization. Finally, please note that there is no automatic decision-making process, e.g. within the scope of automatic profiling.

In detail:

Personal information we receive from you

When you contact our Customer Service team or contact us in another manner (for example via social media or through communication with the accommodation booked by you via our website), we collect information regarding these events about you.

Personal information we receive from you about others

In our hotel management platform various functions and contact persons for hotels are stored. You may have been entered by your hotel (usually your employer) in a specific role for your hotel. The data processing of this data is based on Art. 6 para. 1 lit. f GDPR. The legitimate interest of us and your employer is communication. The data processed by us within the scope of this task will be deleted after change by the person responsible at the hotel.

Communication content will be deleted by us after expiry of the legal retention period.

Personal information automatically collected by us

When you visit our websites or use our apps, and even if you do not make any booking, we automatically process the following data: IP address, date and time of your access to our services, hardware, software or browser type, operating system of your computer, application version, and language settings, as well as information regarding clicks and the pages accessed by you.

Why does HRS collect and use your personal data?

We ask you to provide personal data for practical reasons, for administration and processing of your user account, to ensure that you receive the best possible service and protect your data. We use your personal data to contact you or inform you about the latest offers.

In detail:

We use the information collected about you for different purposes. Your personal data may be used as follows:

• Customer Service: We offer international customer service and are available for you around the clock. Whenever you share your details with our Service employees, you allow us to reply to you whenever this is necessary. This includes answering any questions you may have regarding your user account - or also answering other questions.
  
  
  • User Account: You can create a user account on our web portal. We use this information to administer this account, and you can use different useful functions. As part of the user account your name, e-mail address and function in the hotel, as well as your permissions are stored. Based on the user account, we log user activity and evaluate the activity logs for security purposes. Especially when accessing credit card data, the accesses are logged and evaluated in case of suspected illegal use as well as in random samples in order to detect criminal and illegal uses. The data processing is in our legitimate interest in accordance with Art. 6 para. 1 lit. f) GDPR
• Other Communication: we may possibly contact you via e-mail, mail, telephone, or text message, depending on which contact information you have shared with us. We will also process the communication you have shared with us. This may be based on the following reasons:
  
  
  • Answering and processing of all requests made by you. We may possibly send you other messages of an administrative nature, including security information.
• Ensuring Secure and Reliable Service: To create a reliable environment for you, other travelers, the business partners of HRS, and our accommodation partners, we may use personal data to detect and prevent fraud and other illegal and/or undesired activities. We may additionally use personal data for risk assessments and security purposes - including authentication of users.
• Improvement of our Service: We also use personal data for analytic purposes. This not only serves to improve our service and optimize the experience of users, but may also be carried out for testing purposes, troubleshooting, and improvement of the functionalities and quality of our online travel service. In this respect, it is our goal to optimize our online platform and customize it according to your needs and thereby make our web pages and apps even more user-friendly and attractive.
• Whenever you call the HRS Customer Service, the phone call may be monitored or recorded for training purposes or quality management. Recorded calls are stored for a limited period of time and will be automatically deleted as long as HRS has no justified interest to keep such recording for a longer period of time (in its reasonable discretion), for example within the scope of the detection of fraudulent activities. All call records are processed pursuant to these data privacy rules.
• Legal Purposes: In certain cases, we may use your data for the handling and resolution of legal conflicts or use the same within the scope of investigations and to ensure conformity with the compliance guidelines. We may also use your data to enforce the terms of use of the online booking service of HRS in our reasonable discretion.

Processing of your data as described is supported by the following legal bases

• Contractual Performance: The use of your data may be necessary to perform the contract into which you enter with us. For example, as long as you use our service to make an online booking, we will use your data to comply with our duty to complete and carry out the booking according to our mutual agreement.
• Legitimate Interests: We may use your data for our legitimate business interests. This allows us to provide you with the most personalized content on the website & apps, in e-mails, and in newsletters or optimize and promote our products and services as well as the contents on our website; in addition, this may serve for administrative or legal purposes as well as the detection of fraudulent activities.
• Consent: Under certain circumstances, your consent to use your personal data for certain direct marketing activities is presumed. You are entitled to withdraw your consent at any time by contacting us at the addresses at the bottom of this data privacy notice.

How long does HRS keep your personal data on file?

We only keep your data as long as the data privacy-related purpose for their maintenance continues to exist. For example, for the performance of hotel bookings, this means that your data are deleted after completion of the booking process and/or your stay – of course, only as long as these data are not subject to longer compulsory retention periods by law (for example, for tax purposes). If this is the case, we keep the data on file until the end of the pertinent retention periods.

In all cases, information regarding your computer, which is necessary to ensure IT security (compare above), is also only kept on file as long as this is required for the above-mentioned purpose – meaning that, if data of use are only required for the respective session, they are automatically deleted as soon as you close your browser and/or leave our web pages.

In case you granted your consent to any more comprehensive data processing (compare above), we will basically only store your data until you withdraw them. The e-mail address datenschutz@hrs.de may also be used for such purpose.

How does HRS share your data with third parties?

The HRS services integrate different third parties in different manners and for different reasons. They are parties, which assist HRS with different tasks, financial institutions, advertising companies, or authorities, in some cases. Your personal data will not be transferred to areas outside of the European Union and/or the European Economic Area. Click the link below to find out more about how this information that we receive from you is used and shared with these parties.

In detail:

Third-Party Service Providers

We may use service providers to process your personal data on our behalf. This may serve different purposes, such as, for example, the sending of promotional contents as well as administration and support. All third-party service providers are bound by order data processing agreements and are only authorized to process your personal data exclusively for the aforementioned purposes.

Competent Authorities

We disclose personal data to enforce the law as long as this is required by law or urgently necessary for the prevention, detection, or legal prosecution of criminal acts or fraud. In addition, we may share personal data with the competent authorities under certain circumstances to protect our rights and accommodations or the rights and accommodations of our business partners.

Business Partners

We cooperate with business partners throughout the entire world. Some of these business partners have been retained to market and/or promote our services and assist our business partners during the marketing and promotion of their travel service. Business partners may also include the HRS Group, of which HRS is a part. This may mean that its services are integrated in our website and apps, that it has the option to display an individual offer on our page, or that the online booking service of HRS is integrated on its website and/or apps.

Whenever you make a booking via the web pages or apps of our business partners, certain personal data provided to them by you are forwarded to us. As long as the business partner provides customer service, HRS will share booking-relevant data with the business partners (as needed) to offer you the best possible and most appropriate service. Whenever you make a booking via the web pages of our business partners, the business partners may receive certain elements of your personal data, which are relevant for the respective booking. This serves their internal purposes (including analytic purposes) and, whenever you request this, the implementation of marketing actions.

Whenever you make a booking on the website of a business partner, please familiarize yourself with the data privacy rules of such business partner to find out how business partners may process your personal data. Whenever we offer you other travel-related products and/or services, your data will be shared with the business partners offering such products and/or services under certain circumstances to process or carry out your order. To detect and prevent fraud, we may share information regarding our users with business partners, as long as this is indispensable for such purpose.

What security measures does HRS take to protect your personal data?

According to the European data protection laws, we engage in reasonable measures to ensure protection of your personal data against abuse and unauthorized access.

In detail:

According to the European Data Protection Act, we implement reasonable procedures to ensure the protection of your personal data against abuse and unauthorized access.

To protect your personal data, we use the respective business systems and processes. Additionally, we use security procedures as well as technical and access restrictions whenever our servers access and use your personal data. Only authorized employees have access to your personal data for proper performance of their tasks.

How does HRS handle personal data of children?

HRS is a service whose use is permitted for people at least 18 years of age. We exclusively process information about children based on the consent of their parents or legal representatives.

In detail:

The services of HRS are not intended for children less than 18 years of age. Our services may only be used with the valid consent of one parent or a legal representative. In the event that data of children less than 18 years of age are transmitted to us, we reserve the right to delete such data. In certain cases in connection with a booking or the purchase of other travel-related services or under exceptional circumstances (e.g. functions intended for families), HRS is entitled to collect and use data of children exclusively with the consent of the parent.

Which rights do you have regarding personal data transmitted to HRS by you?

You are at all times entitled to demand information regarding the personal data which we have collected about you. You may request a summary of your personal data by sending such a request to the website https://gdpr.hrs.com/HRS. Please fill in any and all information requested in the form so that we can process your request.

Please note that – in case you do use contact forms – we collect, handle and store the personal information that you provide via such contact form for the purpose of processing your request.

Under special circumstances, e.g. in the case of a dispute regarding the legality of processing, you have an additional right regarding restricted data processing. Furthermore, you are entitled to demand the disclosure of your personal data in a structured, common, and machine-readable format. Furthermore, under certain circumstances, you may be entitled to object to any data processing on the basis of Article 6, Paragraph 1, letters e, f as well as for purposes of direct advertising at any time. As long as you have granted your consent to us insofar as more comprehensive processing is concerned (compare above), you may basically withdraw this consent at any time – e.g. by sending a message to the above-specified e-mail address.

Finally, you are entitled to file a complaint with the competent Data Privacy Supervisory Agency in case of any disagreements.

In detail:

You are at all times entitled to view your personal data which are stored by us. To receive an overview of your personal data, please request a summary of your personal data by sending such a request to the website. . Please fill in any and all information requested in the form so that we can process your request.

You may also contact us if you believe that your personal data stored by us are incorrect or as long as you believe that we are no longer entitled to have your personal information or the present data privacy rules. Please send request a summary of your personal data by sending such a request to the website https://gdpr.hrs.com/hrs. Please fill in any and all information requested in the form so that we can process your request. We will process your request according to the applicable European Data Protection laws.

You can delete your user account at any time by logging into your account on the HRS website or apps and selecting the option to delete your account.

Rules Regarding Cookies

Cookies and other tracking technologies may be used on our web pages and in our apps in many different ways. For example, they ensure that the HRS web pages are operational, they analyze traffic, or they are used for advertising purposes. These technologies are either used directly by us or by our business partners, including third-party service providers and advertisers who work with us. For more information regarding cookies, their use, and your options in this respect, please click here.

Google Maps

We include a map into our website for the purpose of visualization provided by Google Inc., 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, USA via the Google Maps API. If you have the map displayed, a connection to the Google Servers is being made under which the IP-Address is transferred to Google. Google can analyze the use of the Google Maps functionality by the visitor. In addition, Google can write and read Cookies. These Cookies can be Google User Cookies which are directly connected to your identity. We are using these on the basis of our legitimate interest according to Art. 6 Abs. 1 lit. GDPR. Further information can be found in the Google privacy documents which can be found here.

Log Files

Whenever you access the HRS web pages or apps, user data are transmitted by the respective Internet browser and stored in log files, the so-called server log files. The datasets which are stored in the process contain the following data: date and time of the visit, name of the page visited, IP address, referrer URL (original URL from which you accessed the website), data volume transmitted, as well as product and information on the browser version used.

The IP addresses of users are deleted or anonymized after completion of use. In the case of anonymization, IP addresses are modified in such a manner that individual information regarding personal or factual circumstances can no longer be associated with a specific natural person or a natural person which can be determined or where such an association would require an unreasonable amount of time, costs, and effort.

We analyze these logfile data sets in an anonymized manner to further improve our offering and the web pages and apps, and make them more user-friendly, to find and correct errors more quickly, as well as manage server capacities. For example, we may determine at what time use of the HRS web pages and apps is particularly popular and provide a data volume to ensure the fastest possible booking process for you. In addition, by analyzing the log files, we can also speed up the detection and correction of any errors of the web pages or apps.