Alpine Answers Privacy Policy
1. Introduction
1.1 We are committed to safeguarding the privacy of our website visitors and clients; in this policy we explain how we will treat your personal information.
1.2 We use cookies on our website. Essential cookies are always on. We only use analytics and advertising cookies if you agree, and you can change your choice at any time. Section 13 explains which cookies we use and how to change your choice.
2. Our brands
2.1 Alpine Answers owns and operates the following brands and websites, all of which are covered by this privacy policy:
Alpine Answers: www.alpineanswers.co.uk
Alpine Luxury Chalets: www.alpineluxurychalets.com
3. Collecting personal information
3.1 We may collect, store and use the following kinds of personal information:
(a) information about your computer and about your visits to and use of this website (including your IP address, geographical location, browser type and version, operating system, referral source, length of visit, page views and website navigation paths);
(b) information that you provide to us when booking ski hire through our site including your name and email address, and the names of people in your party;
(c) information that you provide to us for the purpose of subscribing to our email notifications and/or newsletters (including your name and email address);
(d) information contained in or relating to any communication that you send to us or send through our website (including the communication content and metadata associated with the communication);
(e) information that you provide us when making a holiday booking including your name and date of birth, your postal address, your email, your telephone number(s) and the names and dates of birth of the other members of your party; and
(f) any other personal information that you choose to send to us.
3.2 Before you disclose to us the personal information of another person, you must obtain that person's consent to both the disclosure and the processing of that personal information in accordance with this policy.
4. Using personal information
4.1 Personal information submitted to us through our website will be used for the purposes specified in this policy or on the relevant pages of the website.
4.2 We may use your personal information to:
(a) administer our website and business;
(b) personalise our website for you;
(c) enable your use of the services available on our website;
(d) supply to you services purchased or enquired about through our website (for example ski hire);
(e) send statements, invoices and payment reminders to you, and collect payments from you for holidays purchased;
(f) send you non-marketing commercial communications;
(g) send you our email newsletter, if you have requested it or purchased a holiday from us (you can inform us at any time if you no longer require the newsletter and we will remove you from our e-newsletter mailing list);
(h) send you marketing communications relating to our group of businesses by post, Email or SMS (you can inform us at any time if you no longer require marketing communications);
(i) provide third parties with statistical information about our users (but those third parties will not be able to identify any individual user from that information);
(j) deal with enquiries and complaints made by or about you relating to our website;
(k) keep our website secure and prevent fraud.
4.3 We will not supply your personal information to any third party for the purpose of their or any other third party's direct marketing.
5. Disclosing personal information
5.1 We may disclose your personal information to any of our employees, officers, insurers, professional advisers, agents, suppliers or subcontractors insofar as reasonably necessary for the purposes set out in this policy.
5.2 We may disclose your personal information to any member of our group of businesses insofar as reasonably necessary for the purposes set out in this policy.
5.3 We may disclose your personal information:
(a) to the extent that we are required to do so by law;
(b) in connection with any ongoing or prospective legal proceedings;
(c) in order to establish, exercise or defend our legal rights (including providing information to others for the purposes of fraud prevention and reducing credit risk);
(d) to the purchaser (or prospective purchaser) of any business or asset that we are (or are contemplating) selling; and
(e) to any person who we reasonably believe may apply to a court or other competent authority for disclosure of that personal information where, in our reasonable opinion, such court or authority would be reasonably likely to order disclosure of that personal information.
5.4 Except as provided in this policy, we will not provide your personal information to third parties.
6. International data transfers
6.1 Information that we collect may be stored and processed in and transferred between any of the countries in which we operate in order to enable us to use the information in accordance with this policy.
6.2 You expressly agree to the transfers of personal information described in this Section 6.
7. Retaining personal information
7.1 This Section 7 sets out our data retention policies and procedure, which are designed to help ensure that we comply with our legal obligations in relation to the retention and deletion of personal information.
7.2 Personal information that we process for any purpose or purposes shall be kept for 5 years for that purpose or those purposes. For example it would be useful for us and you if we retained your name (and the names in your party) and address so that we can more easily help you book other holidays in the future.
7.3 Notwithstanding the other provisions of this Section 7, we will retain documents (including electronic documents) containing personal data:
(a) to the extent that we are required to do so by law;
(b) if we believe that the documents may be relevant to any ongoing or prospective legal proceedings; and
(c) in order to establish, exercise or defend our legal rights (including providing information to others for the purposes of fraud prevention and reducing credit risk).
8. Security of personal information
8.1 We will take reasonable technical and organisational precautions to prevent the loss, misuse or alteration of your personal information.
8.2 We will store all the personal information you provide on our secure servers.
8.3 You acknowledge that the transmission of information over the internet is inherently insecure, and we cannot guarantee the security of data sent over the internet.
9. Amendments
9.1 We may update this policy from time to time by publishing a new version on our website.
9.2 You should check this page occasionally to ensure you are happy with any changes to this policy.
10. Your rights
10.1 You may instruct us to provide you with any personal information we hold about you but please note the following:
(a) We may ask you to supply appropriate evidence of your identity (for this purpose, we will usually accept a photocopy of your passport plus an original copy of a utility bill showing your current address).
(b) requests may take up to 30 days to process but should be a lot quicker than that
10.2 We may withhold personal information that you request to the extent permitted by law.
10.3 You may instruct us at any time not to process your personal information for marketing purposes.
10.4 In practice, you will usually either expressly agree in advance to our use of your personal information for marketing purposes, or we will provide you with an opportunity to opt out of the use of your personal information for marketing purposes.
11. Third party websites
11.1 Our website includes hyperlinks to, and details of, third party websites.
11.2 We have no control over, and are not responsible for, the privacy policies and practices of third parties.
12. Updating information
12.1 Please let us know if the personal information that we hold about you needs to be corrected or updated.
12.2 If you would like us to delete your personal data please let us know. However, please note that the efficiency of our service to you in the future will be negatively affected as a result.
13. Cookies
13.1 Cookies are small text files that a website stores in your browser. Some are essential for our website to work. Others help us understand how our website is used and measure our advertising. We only use those non-essential cookies if you agree.
13.2 When you first visit our website we ask whether you accept non-essential cookies, with a choice of "Accept all" or "Reject non-essential". If you close that message without choosing, we do not set any non-essential cookies, and we will ask again on your next visit.
13.3 You can change your choice at any time using the Cookie settings link at the bottom of every page. If you withdraw your consent, we delete the analytics and advertising cookies we have set and stop using them. We remember your choice for 6 months and then ask again.
13.4 Essential cookies. These are always on, because our website cannot work properly without them:
| Cookie | What it does | How long it lasts |
|---|---|---|
| aa_cookie_consent | Remembers your cookie choice | 6 months |
| _alpineanswers_session | Keeps our website working as you move between pages | Until you close your browser |
| shortList | Remembers the chalets and hotels on your shortlist | 1 year |
| deal-search and other search cookies | Remember the search filters you chose | 1 year |
| last_selected_date | Remembers the week you picked, for your enquiry | Until you close your browser |
| newsletter_popup_promo_seen | Stops the newsletter pop-up showing again | 1 day, or 1 year once you subscribe |
13.5 Analytics and advertising cookies. We only set these if you choose "Accept all":
| Cookie | Set by | What it does | How long it lasts |
|---|---|---|---|
| _ga, _ga_* | Google Analytics | Counts visits and shows us how visitors use our website | Up to 2 years |
| _gcl_au, _gcl_aw | Google Ads | Tells us which of our Google adverts led to a visit or an enquiry | 90 days |
| _hjSessionUser_*, _hjSession_* and other cookies starting _hj | Hotjar | Records how visitors scroll and click, so we can improve our pages | Up to 1 year |
| utm_source | Alpine Answers | Records which campaign brought you to our website | 30 days |
| aa_attribution | Alpine Answers | Records the advert or campaign you arrived from | 90 days |
13.6 If you accept these cookies and then make an enquiry or booking, we store the Google Analytics identifier and the advert or campaign details with it. This lets us see which of our adverts lead to holidays.
13.7 Google and Hotjar process this information for us. You can read how they handle it in Google's privacy policy and Hotjar's privacy policy.
13.8 You can also block or delete cookies in your browser's settings. If you block essential cookies, parts of our website, such as your shortlist, may not work.
14. Our details
14.1 This website is owned and operated by Alpine Answers (a partnership)
14.2 Our principal place of business is at 250 York Road, Battersea, London. SW11 3SJ
14.3 You can contact us:
(a) by post, using the postal address above (address your letter to Mr S Hoskyns)
(b) using our website contact form;
(c) by telephone, on 020 7801 1080, or
(d) by email, using the email address published on our website.
If this privacy policy changes in any way, we will place an updated version on this page. Regularly reviewing this page ensures you are always aware of what information we collect, how we use it and under what circumstances, if any, we will share it with other parties.
If you have a query or complaint about this privacy policy or about the site, please contact us: [email protected]. Information about our financial bonding with links to our booking conditions can be found here and here our terms of business.
