Privacy Policy
Last updated: 30/09/2026
Effective from: 30/09/2026
1. Who we are
Beckon is a messaging app that lets hotel guests and hotels talk to each other before, during and after a stay, and lets guests share their stay preferences (for example how they like their bed made up, what they like to eat and drink, and any allergies or accessibility needs) with the hotels they choose.
The app is operated by Beckon Travel Ltd, a company registered in England and Wales under company number 17408004, with its registered office at 128 City Road, London, EC1V 2NX ("Beckon", "we", "us"). We are registered with the UK Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) under registration number C2045950.
If you have any questions about this policy or how we handle your information, contact us at support@beckon.travel or write to us at the address above. Our Data Protection Lead is Marc Wells, Director.
2. Who this policy applies to
This policy applies to:
- Guests: anyone who creates a Beckon account to communicate with hotels and share their preferences.
- Hotel users: staff and other people acting on behalf of a hotel that uses Beckon.
- Visitors to our website at https://beckon.travel/.
Hotels that use Beckon are separately bound by our Terms of Service and the Data Processing Terms in them.
3. Our role: when we are a controller and when we are a processor
Beckon works in two ways, and this affects who is responsible for your information under data protection law.
Beckon as a data processor. When you connect with a hotel and share your preferences, messages or booking details with it, that hotel decides why and how that information is used during your stay. In data protection terms the hotel is the "controller" of that information and we process it on the hotel's behalf as its "processor", under a written contract that restricts what we may do with it. Each hotel has its own privacy notice which explains how it uses your information, and you should read it. If you have a question or a request about how a hotel has used your information, the hotel is the right first point of contact, though we will always help.
Beckon as a data controller. We are the controller for the information we need to run the app itself: your account and login details, the preferences stored in your profile before you share them with a hotel, how you use the app, our communications with you, and the security and error-reporting data that keeps the service working. This policy explains that processing in detail.
4. The information we collect
4.1 Information you give us
Account information. Name, email address, mobile number (which we use to send you one-time sign-in codes), password where you set one (stored in hashed form), profile photo if you add one, preferred language and country.
Stay preferences. Anything you choose to add to your preference profile. Depending on what you enter, this can include room and bed preferences (pillow type, mattress firmness, room temperature, floor level, quiet room), food and drink preferences, dietary requirements, allergies and intolerances, accessibility and mobility needs, special occasions, arrival and departure timings, and free-text notes. You control what you add and which hotels can see it.
Messages. The content of messages you send and receive through Beckon, including any photos, files or voice notes you attach, together with timestamps and read receipts.
Support and feedback. Anything you send us when you contact support, complete a survey or give feedback.
4.2 Information we receive from hotels
When a hotel invites you to Beckon or links your account to a reservation, it may share booking information with us so we can connect you to the right stay. This typically includes your name, booking confirmation number, arrival and departure dates, room type, the number of adults and children in your party, and your email address and phone number where the hotel holds them. Hotels may also add notes to your guest record within the app.
4.3 Information we collect automatically
Device and technical information. Device type and model, operating system version, app version, unique device identifiers, push notification tokens, IP address, time zone and language settings.
Usage and error information. Technical records of how the app is used, for example when you log in, together with crash and error reports. We use this to keep the service secure and working and to fix problems. We do not use third-party analytics or advertising tools to track how you use the app or our website.
4.4 Cookies and similar technologies
Our website does not set any cookies for visitors and does not use analytics, advertising pixels, embedded third-party content or chat widgets. The fonts on our website are served from our own servers, so your browser does not contact any third party to load them.
We use only the following, all of which are strictly necessary or store a choice you have made yourself, so they do not require your consent:
- Sign-in cookies. If you sign in to the Beckon web app, our authentication provider (Supabase) sets cookies that keep you securely signed in for your session.
- Theme preference. If you choose a light or dark display, we remember that choice in your browser's local storage.
Our error-reporting tool (Sentry) does not store anything on your device.
If we introduce any optional cookies in future, we will update this policy and ask for your consent before setting them.
5. Sensitive information: allergies, dietary requirements and accessibility needs
Some of the preferences you can store are treated as "special category data" under UK and EU data protection law because they may reveal information about your health (for example allergies, intolerances, medical dietary requirements or mobility needs) or your religious or philosophical beliefs (for example halal, kosher or vegan dietary requirements).
We only process this information with your explicit consent. You give that consent when you choose to add this information to your profile and, separately, when you choose to share it with a particular hotel. You can withdraw consent at any time by deleting the information from your profile or by disconnecting from a hotel, and we will stop processing it (subject to the retention rules in section 10 and any copy the hotel has already received and holds as controller).
We never use this information for advertising, profiling or any purpose other than storing it securely for you and passing it to the hotels you choose. Access to it within Beckon is restricted to staff who need it to run and support the service.
Important safety point. Beckon is a communication tool. It is not a substitute for telling hotel staff directly about a serious allergy or medical need. Always confirm anything that could affect your health or safety with the hotel in person.
6. How we use your information and our lawful bases
The table below sets out what we do with your information as a controller and the legal basis we rely on under UK GDPR (and EU GDPR where it applies).
| Purpose | What we use | Lawful basis |
|---|---|---|
| Creating and running your account, logging you in (including sending one-time sign-in codes by SMS), and letting you build a preference profile | Account information, stay preferences | Performance of our contract with you (our Terms of Service) |
| Connecting you with hotels you choose and delivering your messages and preferences to them | Account information, preferences, messages, booking information | Performance of our contract with you; explicit consent for special category data |
| Sending you service notifications (new messages, connection requests, security alerts) by push notification or email | Contact details, device tokens | Performance of our contract with you |
| Sending marketing about Beckon by email or push | Contact details | Consent, which you can withdraw at any time |
| Keeping the service secure, preventing fraud and abuse, and enforcing our Terms | Technical, device and usage information, messages where abuse is reported | Legitimate interests (protecting our service and users) |
| Fixing bugs and keeping the app working reliably | Crash and error reports, technical information | Legitimate interests (running and improving our product) |
| Responding to your questions and complaints | Contact details, support correspondence | Legitimate interests (supporting our users) and, where relevant, legal obligation |
| Complying with legal obligations, court orders and regulator requests | Any relevant information | Legal obligation |
Where we rely on legitimate interests we have considered the impact on you and are satisfied that our interests are not overridden by your rights. You can ask us for more detail on this assessment.
Where we act as a processor for a hotel, the hotel is responsible for identifying its own lawful basis and telling you about it in its privacy notice.
7. Who we share your information with
Hotels you connect with. When you accept a connection with a hotel, or link your account to a booking, that hotel can see your name, contact details, the preferences you have chosen to share with it, and your messages with it. Once you disconnect from a hotel it can no longer see updates to your profile or send you messages, but it may retain a copy of what it already received in accordance with its own retention policy. Hotels are independent controllers of the information they receive.
Service providers. We use trusted third-party companies to help us run Beckon. They only process information on our instructions and under contracts that protect it. Our current service providers are:
| Provider | What they do for us | Where the information is processed |
|---|---|---|
| Supabase | Database, file storage and user authentication | United Kingdom |
| Google Cloud (Google) | Hosting for our web app and background services (Cloud Run), secure storage of system credentials (Secret Manager) and Firebase | United Kingdom (London) |
| Expo (650 Industries, Inc.) | Sending push notifications to your device, and delivering app updates. Expo sees your device push token and identifiers, and the title and text of notifications (which can include the sender's name and message text) | United States |
| Apple (Apple Push Notification service) and Google (Firebase Cloud Messaging) | Delivering push notifications to iPhone and Android devices | United States and other locations |
| Postmark (ActiveCampaign, LLC) | Sending account and service emails, such as message alerts and security notices. Postmark receives your email address and the content of the email | United States |
| Twilio | Sending one-time sign-in codes to your mobile number by SMS. Twilio receives your phone number and the code, and nothing else | United States |
| Sentry (Functional Software, Inc.) | Crash and error reporting for our web and mobile apps. Sentry receives technical error details and device and operating system information. It does not receive or store your IP address | European Union (Frankfurt) |
We will update this list before we start using a new service provider that handles personal information.
Professional advisers, insurers and authorities. We may share information with our lawyers, accountants, auditors and insurers, and with courts, regulators, law enforcement or other authorities where the law requires or permits it.
Business transfers. If Beckon is involved in a merger, acquisition, financing or sale of assets, your information may be transferred as part of that transaction. We will make sure any recipient is bound by this policy or gives you notice of any changes.
We do not sell your personal information and we do not share it with third parties for their own advertising.
8. Notifications and marketing
We send service notifications (new message alerts, connection requests, booking updates, security notices) by push notification or email as part of running the app. We also send one-time codes by SMS when you sign in. You can manage push notifications in the app settings or your device settings, though turning them off may mean you miss messages from your hotel.
We will only send you marketing about Beckon if you have opted in, and every message will include a way to opt out. We will not send marketing on behalf of hotels. Hotels may message you through the app about your stay; anything that amounts to marketing from a hotel is the hotel's responsibility under its own privacy notice and the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations.
9. Where your information is stored and international transfers
Beckon Travel Ltd is based in the United Kingdom, and our database and hosting are in the United Kingdom.
Some of our service providers process information outside the UK, as set out in section 7. In particular, Expo, Postmark, Twilio, Apple and Google are based in the United States, and Sentry processes error reports in the European Union.
We plan to host information for hotels located in the United States, and the guests who connect with them, in the United States in future. We will update this policy before that happens.
Whenever your information leaves the UK or the EEA we make sure it is protected by one of the following safeguards:
- an adequacy decision or "data bridge" recognised by the UK government or the European Commission (including the UK Extension to the EU-US Data Privacy Framework, where the recipient is certified);
- the UK International Data Transfer Agreement or the UK Addendum to the EU Standard Contractual Clauses, together with a transfer risk assessment; or
- for transfers from the EEA, the EU Standard Contractual Clauses.
You can ask us for a copy of the relevant safeguard using the contact details in section 1.
10. How long we keep your information
We keep information only for as long as we need it for the purposes set out in this policy. Our standard retention periods are:
| Information | How long we keep it |
|---|---|
| Account information | For as long as your account is open, then deleted within 30 days of you closing it. Accounts that have not been used for 24 months are treated as closed after we have emailed you a warning. |
| Stay preferences held in your profile | Until you delete them or close your account |
| Messages and preferences shared with a hotel | Held on the hotel's behalf for 12 months after your check-out date, or until the hotel instructs us to delete them, whichever is sooner. The hotel may keep its own copy as controller. |
| Booking information received from hotels | 12 months after the departure date, unless the hotel instructs otherwise |
| Technical, security and usage logs | 12 months |
| Marketing preferences and consents | For as long as we rely on them, plus a record of any withdrawal for 3 years |
| Support correspondence | 3 years from the date the matter is closed |
| Backups | Deleted information may persist in encrypted backups for up to 35 days before being overwritten |
We may keep information for longer where we need to in order to comply with a legal obligation, resolve disputes or enforce our agreements.
11. How we keep your information secure
We take security seriously. Information is encrypted in transit (TLS) and at rest, access to production systems is limited to staff who need it and protected by multi-factor authentication, and we log and monitor access. Sensitive preference data is subject to additional access controls. We review our security measures regularly and require our service providers to meet equivalent standards.
No system is completely secure. If we become aware of a breach that is likely to put your rights at risk we will notify you and the relevant regulator as the law requires, and where we are acting as a processor we will notify the hotel concerned without undue delay so it can meet its own obligations.
Please keep your login details confidential and let us know immediately at support@beckon.travel if you think your account has been compromised.
12. Your rights
Under UK GDPR (and EU GDPR where it applies) you have the following rights in relation to information we hold about you as a controller:
- Access: to be told what information we hold and receive a copy of it.
- Rectification: to have inaccurate information corrected. You can update most of your details directly in the app.
- Erasure: to have your information deleted in certain circumstances. You can delete individual preferences or your whole account at any time in the app settings.
- Restriction: to ask us to limit how we use your information in certain circumstances.
- Portability: to receive the information you gave us in a machine-readable format and have it transferred to another provider where technically feasible.
- Objection: to object to processing based on our legitimate interests, and to object at any time to direct marketing.
- Withdraw consent: where we rely on consent (including for sensitive preference data and marketing), to withdraw it at any time without affecting processing that has already taken place.
- Automated decisions: we do not make decisions about you based solely on automated processing that have legal or similarly significant effects.
To exercise any of these rights, use the in-app tools or contact us at support@beckon.travel. We will respond within one month, though we may extend this by up to two further months for complex requests and will tell you if so. We may need to verify your identity first. There is normally no charge.
If your request relates to information a hotel holds about you as controller, we will pass it to the hotel and help it respond, but the hotel is responsible for the answer.
13. Complaints
If you are unhappy with how we have handled your information, please contact us first so we can try to put it right. You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner's Office at ico.org.uk, by phone on 0303 123 1113, or by post to Information Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF. If you live in the EEA you may complain to your local supervisory authority instead.
14. Children
Beckon is intended for adults. You must be at least 18 to create a guest account. Hotels may record the number of children in a travelling party and, if a guest chooses to add them, preferences relating to children in the party (for example a child's dietary requirements). That information is provided by the adult guest and held on the hotel's behalf. We do not knowingly allow children to create accounts, and if we learn that we have collected information directly from a child we will delete it.
15. Information for United States residents
If you are a resident of California or another US state with a comprehensive privacy law, you may have additional rights, including the right to know what personal information we collect, to delete it, to correct it, and to opt out of the "sale" or "sharing" of personal information or targeted advertising. We do not sell personal information and we do not share it for cross-context behavioural advertising. We will not discriminate against you for exercising your rights. You can exercise these rights using the contact details in section 1. Where we act as a "service provider" or "processor" to a US hotel, please direct your request to that hotel and we will support it.
16. Third-party links and services
The app and our website may contain links to hotel websites and other third-party services. We are not responsible for their privacy practices. Please read their privacy notices before providing information to them.
17. Changes to this policy
We may update this policy from time to time. If we make a significant change we will tell you through the app or by email before it takes effect. The "last updated" date at the top of this page shows when it was most recently revised. Continuing to use Beckon after a change takes effect means the updated policy applies to you.
18. Contact us
Beckon Travel Ltd
128 City Road, London, EC1V 2NX
Email: support@beckon.travel
Company number: 17408004 (England and Wales)
ICO registration: C2045950