Privacy Policy

1. Who we are

C'est La Stay is an earthen guest house and hostel in Edayanchavadi, Auroville, Tamil Nadu 605101, India ("we", "us"). We are responsible for the personal data described in this policy.

This policy covers our website cestlastay.com, our guest portal and staff application at app.cestlastay.com, and your stay with us. For any privacy question or request, write to stay@cestlastay.com.

2. What we collect

When you request a booking

Your first and last name, email address, phone number (optional), arrival and departure dates, number of guests, the stay you chose and any special requests you write to us.

When you check in and during your stay

• Your address and country, and the type and number of your government-issued photo ID, which Indian law requires us to record for every guest.
• For foreign nationals, passport and visa details, which we are legally required to report to the Indian immigration authorities (Form C).
• Your room, service requests you make, your bill and payments, and any rating or feedback you leave.

Payments

Card payments are processed by Stripe. We receive confirmation of the payment, but we never see or store your full card number.

Newsletter

If you subscribe to our seasonal notes, we keep your email address and where you signed up.

Messages

If you email us, we keep your message and our reply so we can help you.

Website usage

Our website uses Google Analytics, which sets cookies to tell us how visitors use the site: pages viewed, approximate location, device and browser type. Like any website, our hosting provider also records technical data such as your IP address and browser when you load a page.

Staff sign-in

Our staff sign in to app.cestlastay.com with their Google or Apple account. We receive only their email address and an account identifier from Google or Apple, and use them only to confirm who is signing in. We don't receive or store passwords, and we don't access anything else in the account.

3. How we use your data

• To respond to your booking request, confirm your reservation and prepare your stay.
• To check you in, look after you during your stay, handle your requests and bill you correctly.
• To meet our legal obligations, such as keeping the guest register, reporting foreign guests to the immigration authorities, and keeping tax and accounting records.
• To send emails about your booking: confirmation, a reminder the day before you arrive, and a thank-you note after you leave, which may include an offer for a return visit.
• To send our newsletter, only if you subscribed.
• To understand how our website is used and improve it.
• To keep our systems secure and prevent misuse.

We do not sell your personal data, and we don't use it for automated decisions about you.

4. Who we share it with

We share personal data only with the service providers who help us run the website and the guest house, and only as far as they need it:

• Vercel (website hosting), Railway (application servers) and Neon (database)
• Stripe (card payments)
• SendGrid and Resend (sending and receiving email)
• Twilio (text messages, when we send you one)
• Google (website analytics, web fonts and staff sign-in) and Apple (staff sign-in)

We also disclose information to government authorities where the law requires it, for example Form C reports for foreign guests, or in response to a lawful request.

5. Where your data is stored

Some of our service providers store or process data outside India, including in the United States and the European Union. When we use them, we rely on their contractual commitments to protect your data.

6. How long we keep it

We keep booking and guest records for as long as we need them to provide your stay and to meet our legal, tax and accounting obligations. Newsletter subscriptions are kept until you unsubscribe. Website analytics data is kept according to our Google Analytics retention settings. When we no longer need personal data, we delete or anonymise it.

7. Your rights

Under India's Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023, and other data protection laws that may apply to you (such as the GDPR if you are in the European Union or the United Kingdom), you can ask us to:

• tell you what personal data we hold about you and how we use it;
• correct or update data that is inaccurate or incomplete;
• delete your data, unless we are legally required to keep it;
• stop sending you newsletters or offers, or withdraw any consent you've given;
• nominate someone to exercise these rights on your behalf if you are unable to.

Email stay@cestlastay.com with your request. We may need to confirm your identity before acting on it. If you're not satisfied with our response, you can complain to the Data Protection Board of India or to the data protection authority where you live.

8. Cookies

Our public website uses Google Analytics cookies only to measure visits. You can block or delete cookies in your browser settings, or install Google's Analytics opt-out add-on. Our guest portal and staff application store a sign-in token in your browser to keep you signed in; it's removed when you sign out.

9. Information from Google

We use information we receive from Google sign-in only to identify staff members signing in to our application. Our use of information received from Google APIs adheres to the Google API Services User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements.

10. Security

We use encrypted (HTTPS) connections, limit access to personal data to the staff who need it, and choose service providers with strong security practices. No system is perfectly secure, but we work to protect your data and will act promptly if something goes wrong.

11. Children

Our website and booking service are meant for adults. We don't knowingly collect personal data directly from children; where a child stays with us, the details we need are provided by the accompanying parent or guardian.

12. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy from time to time. When we do, we'll change the date at the top of this page. If the changes are significant, we'll make that clear on our website.

13. Contact

For any question, request or complaint about your personal data, contact us at stay@cestlastay.com or write to C'est La Stay, Edayanchavadi, Auroville, Tamil Nadu 605101, India.