We are dedicated to protecting your privacy and safeguarding your personally identifiable information. We adhere strictly to the laws governing data protection in all dealings with your personal data. In the following we tell you how we use your personal data and what it means for you when you access our website at

www.welcome-hotels.com .

WELCOME HOTELS GmbH, Domring 2, 59581 Warstein is data controller for the purposes of the Data Protection Act. 

1. What is personal data?

Personal data refers to individual details concerning personal or factual circumstances about a specific or determinable person such as address, telephone number and email address and usage data such as user name and password. Non personally identifiable information that has no reference to a determinable person refers to anonymous data gathered during user and service processes.  

2. Anonymous use, collecting, processing and using of access data and personal data

You may surf the pages of our website at www.welcome-hotels.com anonymously. Unless you supply us with such data we do not collect or store any personal data while you surf our website at www.welcome-hotels.com. When you visit our website at www.welcome-hotels.com, our web server stores specific technical data (access data) in logfiles such as

- Name of requested file

- Date and time of request

- IP address of the accessing computer

- Browser and version

- Operating system employed by the user 

- URL of the last page called up by the user

- Amount of transferred data.

- Status of request (successful Yes/No)

Our Logfiles are completely anonymous. The data is used in the event of malfunctions in accessing www.welcome-hotels.com to facilitate analysis and enable the correction of the malfunction and for statistical purposes to help us improve and optimize all technical and editorial aspects of www.welcome-hotels.com . For example, information gathered on failed requests helps us find broken links. 

Some services available at www.welcome-hotels.com require extra registration. Any personal data gathered during the registration process will only be used when during the process of registering, booking or in the course of a contractual relationship express permission is given by you. 

To process a reservation request or booking the following data is required:

- Name (company name and representative)

- Address, postal address

- Telephone number,

- Credit card details if applicable

We also require information about your reservation and stay, any special requirements or interests, or technical data relating to our online offer, in so far as this information can be attributed to you directly or indirectly. 

Such data will be stored by the hotel in question as well as by WELCOME HOTELS GmbH and used for the duration of the contract.

During the registration process for some services WELCOME HOTELS GmbH may request further personal data in order to provide the user with the service in question (e.g. email address for the newsletter). We collect and use such data as far as it is required for the establishment, content-related design or change of a contractual relationship i.e. for the processing of your booking or for invoicing purposes.  

Beyond that any additional personal data supplied by the user will only be used with the consent of the user or legal permission for us to do so has been granted. 

The scope of the required consent will be made clear to the user during the registration process for the service in question. Your consent will be recorded. When and how consent was given can be provided on request. If you chose not to give consent then we ask for your understanding that in some individual cases you may not be able to avail yourself of a particular service. 

Your email address will also be used with your consent and to the extent permitted by law, to inform you about offers, products and news from our WELCOME HOTELS (e.g. in our newsletter). You may, at any time, withdraw your consent for your email address to be used in the future. You will also be told in individual emails how you can unsubscribe. 

3. Links to external websites, use of cookies, Google Analytics, social media plug-ins

a) Hyperlinks

www.welcome-hotels.com links to external websites of other providers with whom we are not associated (third party). When you click on such a link www.welcome-hotels.com has no further influence on the data collection and use that may take place on such as site. Further information concerning the data collection and use is to be found in the data privacy statement of the provider concerned. As we have no control over the data collection and use of such third parties we can not be held liable. 

b) Cookies

We use cookies on our website to make it more attractive and to make particular functions available to the user. Cookies are text files which are temporarily or permanently deposited and stored on the computer of the user by the browser. 

Temporary cookies guarantee a uniformity of communication processes. Permanent cookies allow the user to be recognised at a later date. For example a permanent cookie is used when the user selects the function " remain logged in on this computer". This cookie enables the website to recognise the computer at a subsequent visit and log it in automatically.

You can decide whether to allow your browser to use cookies. Every browser allows you to deactivate or delete cookies. Functions requiring recognition of your computer may then not be available or only available in restricted form. The functionality of the website is thus impaired when cookies are deactivated. This may include a restriction of user registration.

c) Google Analytics

We use Google Analytics. 

Google Analytics is a web analysis service offered by Google Inc., 1600 AmphitheatreParkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, U.S.A. ("Google"). www.welcome-hotels.com only uses Google Analytics with the function "anonymizeIP". This function deletes the last octet of the IP-address. This makes it impossible for your internet connection to be identified. For this reason individual mapping does not come into question. Google Analytics uses cookies (see b) above), that allow an analysis of your use of our website at www.welcome-hotels.com . The cookie gathers information relating to your visit at www.welcome-hotels.com (visiting times, referring sources, details on system configurations and your provider, including the abridged IP address) and transmits it to and stores it on a Google server in den USA.

Google uses said information to analyse your use of our website. Website activity reports are compiled to help us provide future website related and Internet related services. Google will also share this information with a third party, if this is regulated by law, or if this third party is ordered by Google to process this data. In no case, will Google link your IP-address with other data stored by Google

Further information about Google Inc. and Google Analytics is available at: (http://www.google.com). Google’s data privacy policy is available at: www.google.com/intl/de/privacypolicy.html

You can prevent the installation of the cookies in your browser settings (see b above).  You still have the option to decline the data collection and storage by GoogleAnalytics at any time. To decline and deactivate data collection by Google Analytics you will require a browser add-on. The add-on conveys to Google Analytics JavaScript that you no longer wish information relating to your website visit to be transmitted to Google Analytics. You need to download and install the add-on. Further information about deactivating Google Analytics and about downloading the add-ons is available at: tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout. Web analysis remains deactivated until such times as the Google add-on is deactivated or deleted. So, please leave the add-on in place as long as you do not wish to allow web analysis. The add-on is specific to a browser and to an IP address. If you access www.welcome-hotels.com  using a different browser you will need to implement the add-on for this browser.

d) Facebook

Facebook is a social network owned by the American company Facebook, Inc. (1601 S. California Ave, Palo Alto, CA 94304, USA). Facebook buttons are always identifiable by the Facebook logo. Depending on the type of button additional textual information may be related (e.g. "Like" or "Share"). While you are surfing www.welcome-hotels.com if you access a web page that contains a Facebook button a direct link between your server and Facebook will be established and the button will be uploaded from there. Facebook receives information relating to the pages on www.welcome-hotels.com that have been accessed. 

If you are a Facebook user and are logged in, a link is established between the pages you have accessed and your profile. If you click on Facebook buttons on our website and then log in to Facebook (or are simultaneously logged in), the "liked" or "shared" information will appear in abbreviated form in your profile thus enabling Facebook to collect and store further user data if required thus creating Facebook user profiles containing more comprehensive information than the information you supply to Facebook. 

Further information about data collection and use and your legal rights thereto are available in Facebook’s Data Use Policy at: https://www.facebook.com/policy.php.

4. Additional personal data

Personal data will only be passed to a third party as stated in this privacy policy, as is required for contractual purposes, when you have given your express consent and/or it is allowed by law. During payment processing it may be necessary to provide the relevant credit institute with your data. 

5. Data security

We employ both technical and organisational measures to ensure that your personal data is protected from loss, false changes or unauthorized access by others. For our part, only authorized persons ever have access to your personal data and even then only to the extent required for the purposes specified above. 

The transmission of specific sensitive data is coded using "Secure Socket Layer" (SSL). All information transferred using SSL is coded before it is sent to us. The coding of the information means that such personal data as your name or address is encrypted. This ensures that such data cannot be read by unauthorized persons. Most newer browsers support such secure data transmission techniques.

All WELCOME HOTELS GmbH employees and subcontractors who may have access to your personal data are under an obligation to maintain data confidentiality.

6. Deletion and blocking of data

When the contract has been fully performed and has terminated, your data is blocked to prevent further use. Unless you expressly consent to further use of your data, it is deleted on expiry of the periods applying under regulations laid down in tax law and commercial law.

7. Information and correction

WELCOME HOTELS GmbH will immediately tell you free of charge either electronically or in writing if we have any of your personal data stored. Before providing such information WELCOME HOTELS GmbH has the right to request the provision of documentary proof of your identification and the authenticity of the request. 

8. Revoking consent

Insofar as you have given your consent for your personal data to be you may revoke your consent with future effect at any time.

Should you have any questions, wish to request information or should you wish to revoke your consent please contact our Data Protection Commissioner:

WELCOME HOTELS GmbH

Datenschutzbeauftragter

Domring 2

59581 Warstein

Email: info@welcome-hotels.com


Privacy Policy Version 1.0


As of: 3rd September 2012