This policy explains how we collect, use and protect personal data when you visit mara.exploreans.com, send us an enquiry, subscribe to our letters or stay at Exploreans Mara River Camp. It applies to guests and website visitors wherever they live.
Who we are
Exploreans Mara River Camp is owned and operated by Wilderness Seekers Limited, a company registered in Kenya (company number PVT-PJUY677K, business registration number BN/2010/89258), P.O. Box 43825-00100, Nairobi, Kenya.
The camp carries the Exploreans brand under a franchise agreement with Planhotel SA, Via Cantonale 3, 6900 Lugano, Switzerland (VAT CHE-109.049.266). Planhotel SA runs this website, the camp’s reservations inbox and our letters, and sells stays at the camp through its distribution channels.
Wilderness Seekers Limited and Planhotel SA decide together how personal data collected through this website and our reservations is used, so we are joint controllers. In this policy, “we”, “us” and “our” mean both companies. In broad terms:
- Planhotel SA handles the website, enquiries, reservations made through its channels and our letters.
- Wilderness Seekers Limited operates the camp and uses your details to welcome you and deliver your stay.
You can contact both companies through one address, info.exploreansmara@planhotel.com, and we will make sure your request reaches the right company. You may also exercise your rights with either company directly.
What we collect
When you send an enquiry: your name, email address, phone number and country if you give them, when you would like to travel, who is travelling, the room you are interested in, the experiences you marked in your Passport and your message.
When you subscribe to our letters: your email address.
When you book: bookings are made through our online booking engine, Simplebooking, or with our reservations team. We receive the details needed for your stay, such as names, contact details, dates, room, special requests and payment status. Payment card details are handled by the booking engine and its payment providers.
When you stay with us: the information needed to host you and to meet legal requirements, such as passport or identity details for guest registration, dietary or health information you choose to share (for example allergies), and the experiences you book.
When you browse the site: with your consent, Google Analytics collects information about how you use the site, such as the pages you visit, the device and browser you use and your approximate location. See the cookie policy.
In your own browser: the experiences you mark in your Passport and your cookie choice are stored only in your browser. We do not receive them unless you send an enquiry.
Why we use it, and our legal basis
- To answer your enquiry and arrange your stay: steps you have asked us to take before a contract, and the contract itself.
- To host you at the camp and arrange experiences, transfers and activities: the contract with you.
- To meet legal obligations: such as guest registration, tax and accounting rules.
- To send our letters: your consent, which you can withdraw at any time with the unsubscribe link in every letter.
- To understand how the site is used: your consent to analytics cookies, which you can withdraw at any time through “Cookie settings” at the foot of every page.
- To keep the site and our systems secure and to improve our service: our legitimate interests, balanced against your rights.
Where we rely on consent, withdrawing it does not affect anything done before.
Who we share it with
- Between the two companies, as described above, so that your enquiry, booking and stay are handled.
- Service providers who work on our behalf and only on our instructions: Netlify (website hosting and form handling), Google (Google Analytics, only with your consent), Simplebooking (online booking engine), and our email and office software providers.
- Partners who deliver what you book, such as the balloon operator, transfer drivers, conservancy and park authorities, with only the details they need.
- Authorities, where the law requires it.
We do not sell your personal data.
International transfers
Wilderness Seekers Limited is in Kenya and Planhotel SA is in Switzerland, and some of our service providers are in the European Union and the United States. When personal data is transferred to another country, we use the safeguards the law requires, such as adequacy decisions or standard contractual clauses, so that it stays protected.
How long we keep it
- Enquiries that do not lead to a booking: up to 24 months, so that we can help if you return to plan your stay.
- Booking and guest records: for as long as tax, accounting and guest registration laws require, generally up to seven years.
- Letters: until you unsubscribe.
- Google Analytics data: event data for 2 months, and data linked to a visitor’s browser for up to 14 months.
Your rights
Depending on where you live, including under the EU and UK General Data Protection Regulation, the Swiss Federal Act on Data Protection and the Kenya Data Protection Act 2019, you can ask to:
- see the personal data we hold about you, and receive a copy;
- correct it, or complete it;
- delete it;
- restrict or object to how we use it, including for direct marketing;
- receive it in a portable format;
- withdraw your consent at any time.
Write to info.exploreansmara@planhotel.com. We will reply within one month, and may ask you to confirm your identity first.
You can also complain to a data protection authority: in Kenya, the Office of the Data Protection Commissioner; in Switzerland, the Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner; in the European Union, the authority in the country where you live; in the United Kingdom, the Information Commissioner’s Office. We would welcome the chance to help first.
Children
The site is intended for adults planning travel. Information about children travelling with a family, such as their ages, is given to us by their parents or guardians and used only to arrange the stay.
Security
We protect personal data with appropriate technical and organisational measures, including encrypted connections to this site and access limited to the people who need it.
Changes to this policy
We will update this policy when our practices change. The date at the top shows when it last changed.