This version is effective as of 20 March 2026 (Last reviewed: 20 March 2026).
1. Introduction
TL;DR: We are Villa Finder. We promise to handle your data openly and only use it to give you a great travel experience.
Welcome to Villa Finder! This Privacy Policy explains how Villa Finder Pte. Ltd. ("Villa Finder", "we", "us", or "our") collects, uses, shares, and protects your personal information when you visit our website (villa-finder.com and its related domains, collectively the "Site"), use our booking services, or otherwise interact with us.
We are committed to protecting your privacy and handling your personal information in an open and transparent manner. This Privacy Policy is designed to help you understand your privacy rights and how you can control your personal information.
By using our Site and services, you agree to the collection and use of information in accordance with this policy.
2. Scope of This Policy
TL;DR: This policy covers our website, your bookings, and our chats. It doesn’t cover what happens once you’re on another website or your direct relationship with a Villa Owner.
This Privacy Policy applies to personal information collected through:
- Our Site.
- Booking inquiries and reservations made via our Site or with our reservation team.
- Communications with us (email, phone, chat, social media).
- Our marketing activities.
This policy does not apply to the privacy practices of third-party websites or services that may be linked to our Site, nor does it govern the direct contractual relationship you have with a Villa Owner once a booking is made (though we do share necessary information with Owners as described below).
3. Information We Collect
TL;DR: We collect what you give us (name, email, payment), what our website sees (IP address, pages visited), and what Owners tell us about your stay.
We collect personal information to provide and improve our services. The types of personal information we may collect include:
a) Information You Provide Directly to Us:
- Booking Information: When you make a booking inquiry or a reservation, we collect information such as your full name, email address, phone number, the names of guests in your party, dates of stay, special requests (e.g., dietary needs, accessibility requirements, if you choose to provide them), and any other information you provide related to your booking.
- Payment Information: When you make a payment, we collect payment details (e.g., credit/debit card number, expiration date, CVC code). This information is typically processed directly by our third-party payment processors, and we do not store full credit card numbers.
- Account Information: If you create an account on our Site, we collect your name, email address, password, and booking history.
- Communications: When you contact us via email, phone, our Site's contact forms, or social media, we collect the information you provide in your communications, including your contact details and the content of your message.
- Reviews and Feedback: If you submit reviews, testimonials, or feedback about Villas or our services.
- Marketing Preferences: Your preferences for receiving marketing communications from us.
b) Information We Collect Automatically When You Use Our Site:
- Log Data and Device Information: When you access our Site, our servers automatically record information ("Log Data"), including your IP address, browser type and settings, device information (e.g., operating system, device identifier), pages visited, dates and times of access, referring/exit pages, and clickstream data.
- Cookies and Similar Tracking Technologies: We use cookies, web beacons, pixels, and similar technologies to collect information about your browsing activities, preferences, and to personalize your experience on our Site. For more details, please see Section 6 ("Cookies and Tracking Technologies").
- Location Information: We may collect approximate location information based on your IP address. With your consent, we may collect more precise location data.
c) Information We Collect from Third Parties:
- Villa Owners: We may receive information about you from Villa Owners, for example, regarding your stay or any issues that arose.
- Payment Processors: Our payment processors may provide us with information related to your payment transactions.
- Social Media Platforms: If you interact with us on social media platforms (e.g., Facebook, Instagram), we may collect information that you have made public on those platforms or that you share with us.
- Analytics Providers: We use Matomo for analytics because it respects your privacy more than traditional big-tech tools, keeping your browsing data within our secure environment.
4. How We Use Your Information
TL;DR: To manage your booking, answer your questions, improve our website (via Matomo), and—only if you say yes—send you travel inspiration.
We use your personal information for the following purposes, relying on the lawful bases indicated:
- To Provide and Manage Our Services:
- To process your booking inquiries and reservations. (Lawful basis: Necessary for the performance of a contract with you).
- To facilitate payments for bookings. (Lawful basis: Necessary for the performance of a contract with you).
- To send booking confirmations, pre-arrival information, and other service-related communications. (Lawful basis: Necessary for the performance of a contract with you; Legitimate interest in providing essential service information).
- To create and manage your user account. (Lawful basis: Necessary for the performance of a contract with you).
- To provide customer support and respond to your inquiries. (Lawful basis: Necessary for the performance of a contract with you; Legitimate interest in providing quality support).
- To Communicate with You:
- To send you information about your bookings. (Lawful basis: Necessary for the performance of a contract with you).
- To respond to your requests, comments, or questions. (Lawful basis: Legitimate interest in engaging with users and addressing inquiries).
- To send you updates, security alerts, and administrative messages. (Lawful basis: Legitimate interest in maintaining service integrity and informing users; Legal obligation in some cases).
- To Improve and Personalize Our Services:
- To understand how you use our Site and services. (Lawful basis: Legitimate interest in improving our services; Consent for non-essential cookies).
- To personalize your experience on our Site, such as by showing you relevant Villa listings or offers. (Lawful basis: Legitimate interest in enhancing user experience; Consent for personalization cookies).
- To conduct research and analysis to improve our Site, services, and offerings. (Lawful basis: Legitimate interest in developing our business).
- To develop new features and services. (Lawful basis: Legitimate interest in developing our business).
- For Marketing and Advertising:
- With your consent (where required by applicable law), to send you newsletters, promotional offers, and other marketing communications about Villas, destinations, or services we think may interest you. (Lawful basis: Consent).
- To measure the effectiveness of our marketing campaigns. (Lawful basis: Legitimate interest in understanding marketing ROI; Consent for related cookies).
- You can opt-out of receiving marketing communications at any time (see Section 8).
- For Security and Legal Compliance:
- To protect the security and integrity of our Site and services. (Lawful basis: Legitimate interest in protecting our platform; Legal obligation).
- To prevent fraud, unauthorized access, and other illegal activities. (Lawful basis: Legitimate interest in preventing illicit activities; Legal obligation).
- To comply with our legal obligations, resolve disputes, and enforce our agreements (including our Terms of Use). (Lawful basis: Legal obligation; Legitimate interest in enforcing our rights).
5. How We Share Your Information
TL;DR: We never sell your data. We only share it with the Villa Owner (so they can welcome you) and our trusted tech partners (like payment processors).
We do not sell your personal information. We may share your personal information in the following circumstances:
- With Villa Owners: We share necessary booking information (such as your name, contact details, number of guests, dates of stay, and any specific requests you provided for your booking) with the relevant Villa Owner (or their authorized representative) to facilitate your reservation and stay. Owners are responsible for their own use of your information.
- With Service Providers and Business Partners: We share information with third-party service providers who perform services on our behalf, such as:
- In-destination activity providers.
- Payment processors to facilitate payments.
- IT and system administration providers.
- Cloud hosting providers.
- Marketing and advertising partners (e.g., email marketing services, analytics providers).
- Customer support tool providers. These service providers are contractually obligated to protect your information and are only permitted to use it for the specific services they provide to us.
- For Legal Reasons: We may disclose your information if required to do so by law or in the good faith belief that such action is necessary to:
- Comply with a legal obligation or a request from public and government authorities.
- Protect and defend the rights or property of Villa Finder.
- Prevent or investigate possible wrongdoing in connection with the Site or services.
- Protect the personal safety of users of the Site or the public.
- Protect against legal liability.
- In Connection with a Business Transfer: If Villa Finder is involved in a merger, acquisition, financing, reorganization, bankruptcy, or sale of all or a portion of our assets, your information may be shared, sold, or transferred as part of that transaction. We will notify you of any such deal and outline your choices in that event.
- With Your Consent: We may share your information with other third parties with your explicit consent.
6. Cookies and Tracking Technologies
TL;DR: We use small digital "bookmarks" to remember your language, currency, and villas you marked as favourite. You can turn them off in your browser anytime.
We use cookies and similar tracking technologies (like web beacons and pixels) to collect and use personal information about you, including to serve interest-based advertising.
- What are Cookies? Cookies are small text files that are stored on your device (computer, tablet, or mobile phone) when you visit a website.
- How We Use Cookies: We use cookies to:
- Enable essential Site functionality (e.g., remembering your login details, items in your booking process).
- Analyze Site traffic and usage to improve our Site and services.
- Personalize your experience (e.g., remembering your preferences like language or currency).
- Deliver relevant advertising and measure the effectiveness of ad campaigns.
- Types of Cookies We Use:
- Strictly Necessary Cookies: Essential for you to browse the Site and use its features.
- Performance/Analytics Cookies: Collect information about how you use our Site (e.g., which pages you visit most).
- Functionality Cookies: Allow our Site to remember choices you make and provide enhanced, more personal features.
- Targeting/Advertising Cookies: Used to deliver advertisements more relevant to you and your interests.
- Your Choices: Most web browsers allow you to control cookies through their settings preferences. You can usually set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the Site may not then work. We also provide a cookie consent management tool on our Site where you can manage your preferences for non-essential cookies.
7. Data Retention
TL;DR: We don’t keep your data forever. We hold it as long as you have an account or as long as tax laws require us to (usually 7 years).
We will retain your personal information only for as long as is necessary for the purposes set out in this Privacy Policy, unless a longer retention period is required or permitted by law (such as for tax, legal, or accounting purposes).
The criteria used to determine our retention periods include:
- The length of time we have an ongoing relationship with you and provide services to you (e.g., for as long as you have an account with us or keep using our services).
- Whether there is a legal obligation to which we are subject (e.g., certain laws require us to keep records of your transactions for a certain period of time before we can delete them).
- Whether retention is advisable in light of our legal position (such as in regard to applicable statutes of limitations, litigation, or regulatory investigations).
When we no longer need to retain your personal information, we will securely delete or anonymize it.
8. Your Data Protection Rights
TL;DR: You are the boss of your data. You can ask to see it, fix it, or delete it whenever you want. Just email us.
Depending on your location and applicable data protection laws (such as the GDPR in Europe or similar regulations), you may have certain rights regarding your personal information. These may include the right to:
- Access: Request access to the personal information we hold about you.
- Rectification: Request correction of inaccurate or incomplete personal information.
- Erasure (Right to be Forgotten): Request deletion of your personal information under certain conditions.
- Restrict Processing: Request that we restrict the processing of your personal information under certain conditions.
- Data Portability: Request to receive your personal information in a structured, commonly used, and machine-readable format, and to have it transmitted to another controller where technically feasible.
- Object to Processing: Object to the processing of your personal information under certain conditions (e.g., for direct marketing purposes).
- Withdraw Consent: If we are processing your personal information based on your consent, you have the right to withdraw your consent at any time. Withdrawing consent will not affect the lawfulness of processing before the withdrawal.
- Lodge a Complaint: You have the right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority if you believe our processing of your personal information infringes applicable data protection law.
To exercise any of these rights, please contact us using the details in Section 14 ("Contact Us"). We may need to verify your identity before responding to your request. We will respond to your request within the timeframes required by applicable law.
Opting-Out of Marketing Communications: You can opt-out of receiving promotional emails from us by following the "unsubscribe" link provided in those emails or by contacting us directly. Even if you opt-out, we may still send you non-promotional communications, such as those about your bookings or our ongoing business relations.
9. Data Security
TL;DR: We use professional-grade encryption to guard your info. If there’s ever a security slip-up, we’ll be honest and tell you and the authorities.
We implement appropriate technical and organizational security measures to protect your personal information against accidental or unlawful destruction, loss, alteration, unauthorized disclosure, or access. These measures include encryption, access controls, secure software development practices, and regular security assessments.
However, please note that no method of transmission over the Internet or method of electronic storage is 100% secure. While we strive to use commercially acceptable means to protect your personal information, we cannot guarantee its absolute security.
In the event of a data breach involving your personal information that is likely to result in a risk to your rights and freedoms, we will take appropriate steps to notify you and relevant authorities as required by applicable law.
10. International Data Transfers
TL;DR: Since our villas are all over the World and we are in Singapore, your data travels across borders. We use strict legal "safeguards" to keep it safe during the trip.
Your personal information may be transferred to, stored, and processed in countries other than your own, including Singapore (where Villa Finder is headquartered) and other countries where our service providers or Villa Owners are located. These countries may have data protection laws that are different from the laws of your country.
When we transfer your personal information to other countries, we will take appropriate safeguards to ensure that your information is protected in accordance with this Privacy Policy and applicable data protection laws. This may include using Standard Contractual Clauses approved by relevant authorities or relying on other legally permitted transfer mechanisms.
11. Children's Privacy
TL;DR: Our service is for adults (18+). If we find a minor has shared data with us, we delete it immediately.
Our Site and services are not directed to individuals under the age of 18 ("Children"). We do not knowingly collect personal information from Children. If you are a parent or guardian and you are aware that your Child has provided us with personal information, please contact us. If we become aware that we have collected personal information from Children without verification of parental consent, we will take steps to remove that information from our servers.
12. Links to Other Websites
TL;DR: If you click a link to another site, their rules apply, not ours. Be careful out there.
Our Site may contain links to other websites that are not operated by us. If you click on a third-party link, you will be directed to that third party's site. We strongly advise you to review the Privacy Policy of every site you visit. We have no control over and assume no responsibility for the content, privacy policies, or practices of any third-party sites or services.
13. Changes to This Privacy Policy
TL;DR: If we change how we handle data, we’ll update this page. If the change is a big deal, we’ll send you an email.
We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices, legal requirements, or service offerings. We will notify you of any material changes by posting the new Privacy Policy on this page and updating the "Last Updated" date at the top. We encourage you to review this Privacy Policy periodically for any changes. Changes to this Privacy Policy are effective when they are posted on this page.
14. Contact Us
TL;DR: Have a privacy question? Contact us. We actually read these.
If you have any questions or concerns about this Privacy Policy, our data protection practices, or if you wish to exercise your data protection rights, please contact us or email us at contact@villa-finder.com.
These contact details can also be used to reach our designated Data Protection Officer (DPO): Daniel Rouquette.
Please clearly state "Privacy Policy Inquiry" or "Data Protection Inquiry" in the subject line of your email.
