My guests are precious to me, and that extends to how I handle the information you trust me with. This policy explains, in plain language, what we collect, why, who it's shared with, and the rights you have over it. If anything here is unclear or you'd like a copy of the data we hold about you, please get in touch — I'll come back to you personally.
1. Who we are
Lucky Crane Villas is operated by Friedshelf 1265 (Pty) Ltd t/a Lucky Crane Villas, a company registered in South Africa.
Registered address: 2 Van Reenen Street, McGregor 6708, South Africa
VAT: 4420259022
Telephone: +27 76 151 4526
Email: welcome@luckycranevillas.co.za
Website: www.luckycranevillas.co.za
For POPIA purposes, the Information Officer is Monika Schmalzl, reachable at the address and email above. Full company details are on our Impressum page.
2. The information we collect
Information you give us
When you book a stay, enquire about availability, subscribe to our newsletter, or contact us, you may share:
- Name and surname
- Email address and phone number
- Physical or billing address (for invoices)
- Travel dates, number of guests, special requests (dietary, celebrations, accessibility)
- Payment information — processed directly by our booking platform (Nightsbridge) or the OTA you booked through; we do not store full card numbers on our own servers
- Anything else you choose to tell us — messages, feedback, notes on arrival
Information collected automatically
When you visit our website, we (and our chosen tools) may collect:
- IP address (truncated where possible)
- Device type, browser and operating system
- Pages viewed, time on page, referring site
- Approximate location (city level, derived from IP)
Information from third parties
If you book through Booking.com, Airbnb, or another online travel agency, we receive the booking details that platform shares with us — typically your name, contact details, travel dates, and any messages you sent.
3. Why we use it, and on what legal basis
We only use your information for the purposes below. For guests in the European Economic Area and the United Kingdom, the GDPR requires us to name a lawful basis for each purpose — you'll find it in brackets.
| Purpose | Lawful basis |
|---|---|
| Managing your booking, arrival and stay | Performance of a contract with you |
| Issuing invoices and keeping tax records | Legal obligation (SARS / tax legislation) |
| Replying to enquiries and messages | Legitimate interest (responding to a request you made) |
| Sending occasional emails about Lucky Crane Villas — late-availability offers, a seasonal note, a local event — only if you have asked to hear from us | Your consent (you can unsubscribe at any time) |
| Understanding how our website is used so we can improve it | Your consent via the cookie banner (GDPR) / legitimate interest (POPIA) |
| Showing relevant content to people who have visited our site (re-marketing via Meta/Facebook) | Your consent via the cookie banner |
| Meeting legal, accounting or regulatory obligations, resolving disputes | Legal obligation / legitimate interest |
4. Who we share it with
We do not sell your information. We share it only with trusted service providers we need to run the business, and only to the extent required. Each provider is bound by its own privacy obligations.
| Provider | What they do for us |
|---|---|
| Nightsbridge | Our property management and booking engine — stores your booking record and processes payments |
| Booking.com, Airbnb and other OTAs | Receive and pass on the bookings you make through them |
| Google (Analytics, Fonts) | Website analytics and web font hosting |
| Meta Platforms (Facebook / Instagram) | Advertising and re-marketing pixel (only if you consent) |
| Our email and hosting providers | Run the inbox and host the website |
| Our accountant and SARS | Tax and accounting compliance |
| Trusted local partners (massage therapists, caterers, private chefs) | Only the details they need — e.g. your first name and arrival time — when you've asked us to arrange a service |
We may also disclose information if we are legally required to do so (a court order, for example), or to protect our legal rights, the safety of guests, or the public.
5. International transfers
Lucky Crane Villas is based in South Africa. Some of our providers (Google, Meta, Nightsbridge's data centres, our email host) process data outside South Africa — typically in the European Union or the United States. Where data leaves South Africa, we rely on the safeguards described in section 72 of POPIA (adequate protection by the recipient or your consent) and, for transfers of EU/UK data, on the European Commission's Standard Contractual Clauses or an adequacy decision.
6. How long we keep it
- Booking and invoicing records — 5 years after the stay, to meet South African tax and record-keeping rules.
- Email correspondence — up to 3 years, then reviewed and deleted unless needed for an ongoing matter.
- Newsletter subscribers — until you unsubscribe, and for a short period afterwards to honour the unsubscribe.
- Website analytics — Google Analytics data is retained for 14 months, then automatically deleted. The Meta Pixel retains interactions for up to 180 days.
- Cookies — see section 9 and the cookie settings below.
7. How we protect it
We use reasonable technical and organisational measures to protect your information — encrypted connections (HTTPS), restricted access, strong passwords, and reputable providers. No system can be guaranteed perfectly secure, but we take this seriously and will tell you promptly if a breach affecting your data occurs, as POPIA and GDPR require.
8. Your rights
Under POPIA (South Africa) and GDPR (EU/UK), you have the right to:
- Access — ask what personal information we hold about you and receive a copy.
- Correct — ask us to fix information that is inaccurate or incomplete.
- Delete — ask us to erase your information, subject to our legal obligations (for example, we must keep invoices for tax purposes).
- Object or restrict — ask us to stop a particular use, such as marketing.
- Withdraw consent — at any time, without affecting anything done before the withdrawal.
- Portability — receive your data in a structured, machine-readable format (GDPR).
- Complain — to a supervisory authority (see below).
To exercise any of these rights, email welcome@luckycranevillas.co.za. We'll reply within 30 days.
Supervisory authorities
South Africa — Information Regulator (SA): inforegulator.org.za
European Union — your national data protection authority (list at edpb.europa.eu)
United Kingdom — Information Commissioner's Office: ico.org.uk
9. Cookies & similar technologies
A cookie is a small file a website places on your device to remember things — whether you've seen a pop-up, what language you prefer, how you arrived at the site. We use four categories:
Strictly necessary
Needed for the site to work — remembering your cookie choice, keeping the booking form functional. These are always on; they don't track you.
Functional
Remember small preferences you set. Off by default unless you accept.
Analytics — Google Analytics
Helps us understand which villas and pages interest people, where they come from, and what doesn't work. IP addresses are truncated. Data is anonymised and aggregated — we cannot identify you from it. Off by default unless you accept.
Marketing — Meta (Facebook) Pixel
Allows us to show Lucky Crane Villas adverts to people who've visited our site. Off by default unless you accept.
You can change your choice at any time:
You can also refuse cookies in your browser settings — here's how for Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Edge. Blocking all cookies may affect how parts of the site work.
10. Children
Our site is intended for adults planning a stay. We don't knowingly collect information from children under 18. If you believe a child has given us personal information, please contact us and we'll delete it promptly.
11. Links to other sites
We occasionally link to places we love — restaurants, walking trails, local initiatives. Those sites have their own privacy policies and we can't vouch for how they handle data. Please have a look at their terms when you visit.
12. Changes to this policy
We may update this policy — usually because we've added a new tool or a law has changed. The "last updated" date at the top always reflects the current version. If the change is material (new categories of data, new processors), we'll let subscribers know by email and place a notice on this page.
Questions, requests, or something that doesn't feel right?
Write to Monika Schmalzl (Information Officer) at welcome@luckycranevillas.co.za or +27 76 151 4526.
Lucky Crane Villas · 2 Van Reenen Street, McGregor 6708, South Africa.