Privacy policy

Updated: October 2021

Benchmark Luxury & Lifestlye and its affiliated companies (“Benchmark”, "we", "us" and/or "our"), including Benchmark Resorts & Hotels, owns, operates, and/or provides services to various properties throughout the United States and the Caribbean (“Properties”), as listed at https://www.benchmarkresortsandhotels.com (“Site”). Throughout this Privacy Policy, “Sites” refers to the Site and those other websites that Benchmark owns or operates that are accessible from the Site, and which include this Privacy Policy.

While some Properties are owned by Benchmark, other Properties are operated under a management agreement between the hotel's owner ("Property Owner") and Benchmark. Still other Properties are owned and operated by their Property Owners but receive certain limited services from Benchmark. When staying at a Property or visiting a Property website, your Personal Information may be processed by Benchmark and the Property Owner jointly, or separately for their own purposes. Benchmark has no control over and is not responsible for the privacy, data or other practices of any entities outside of Benchmark including Property Owners. This Privacy Policy applies only with respect to, and Benchmark is only responsible for, Benchmark’s own data collection and processing activities.

Purpose

This policy (“Privacy Policy”) describes, among other things:

• The Personal Information (as defined below) we collect about you
• How we use the Personal Information we collect
• The categories of third parties with whom we share Personal Information about you
• Your right to review and correct Personal Information we have collected about you
• What we do to protect Personal Information we have collected about you
• Your right to opt-out of commercial email messages
• How Personal Information about you may be shared through blogs, testimonials and your participation in our promotions
• How we interact with linked sites
• Specific terms applicable to California and Nevada residents
• Our right to change the terms of this Privacy Policy
• How to contact us and exercise your rights

This Privacy Policy also outlines how we handle Personal Information we collect from residents of the European Union, including the purpose and legal basis for collecting that information, how long we retain it, and your right to object to the collection of the information.

This Privacy Policy is a legally binding agreement between you and Benchmark. By accessing or using the Sites or by registering for a user account, purchasing or subscribing to any Benchmark services, or making a reservation at one of the Properties, you consent to the Terms and this Privacy Policy, including our collection, use, and disclosure of your Personal Information as described below.

Please read this Privacy Policy carefully.

Scope

This Privacy Policy applies only to Personal Information. It does not cover data we collect that cannot be used to identify an individual or to pseudonymous data. Nor does it include encoded or anonymized information or aggregated data which we collect or create about a group or category of services, features or users which does not contain personally identifying information. We reserve the right to share aggregate, encoded, or anonymized information with potential partners or other third parties without restriction.

What is Personal Information?

For the purposes of this Privacy Policy, Personal Information is your first and last name, your e-mail address, your home, your IP address, or other physical address, including a street name and name of a city or town, your telephone number, your social security number, any payment or financial information, or any other identifier that permits Benchmark to identify a natural human person or household, like you or your household, and/or any information that we maintain that could be used to identify you or your household in combination with any of the identifying information described above.

Information we collect

We collect Personal Information you provide to us and when you use the Sites and/or our services. We collect Personal Information in order improve our services, to deliver services and perform obligations under contracts we have with you, to comply with our own legal obligations, and for other purposes as described below.

INFORMATION YOU GIVE US

We receive and store any Personal Information you post to the Sites or provide to us when you set up a user account, sign up for our newsletters or promotions, purchase services, or make a reservation at one the Properties. For example, if you make a reservation at one of the Properties, we will ask you for information such as name, address, telephone number, e-mail address, credit card number, and room preference to process your reservation. We may use your e-mail address to send a confirmation and, if necessary, may use the other information to contact you for help to process the reservation. As indicated below, we may also use your e-mail address to notify you about special offers and promotions. You can choose not to provide such Personal Information, in which case you will not be able to access or use portions of the Sites or some of their features.

Credit card information - We will require your credit card information in order process purchases and reservations. Credit card data is transferred over a Secured Sockets Layer (SSL) line if you are using a SSL enabled browser such as Microsoft Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, or Google Chrome. We also use SSL on other select pages where you enter Personal Information. This ensures that your Personal Information is encrypted as it travels over the Internet. This secure mode is enabled before any such information is transmitted from your computer. You will know you are in secure mode when the padlock or key icon in the lower right-hand or left-hand corner of the computer screen appears in the locked position. In addition, when accessing a secure server, the first characters of the site address will change from http to https. After information reaches us it is stored on a secure server that resides behind firewalls designed to block unauthorized access from outside Benchmark.

Personal profiles - We collect and maintain Personal Information about you to create a personal profile containing hotel stay preference and other information that you voluntarily provide to us when you create an account with us. This profile may also include information we have obtained from other sources. Examples of the types of information we may collect for this purpose include (i) high vs. low floor, smoking vs. non-smoking room, beverage and pillow type preferences; (ii) whether you participate in travel rewards programs; (iii) email communications with you; and (iv) responses to customer service surveys. Creating and completing a member profile allows you to make reservations more easily and also allows us to enhance your hotel stay experiences. We will share your preference profile with the Property when you book a stay.

AUTOMATED COLLECTION

We automatically receive and store certain types of information when you visit the Sites, such as the name of the domain and host from which you access the Internet; the IP address of the computer you are using and the browser and operating system you are using; the date and time you access the Sites; the Internet address of the website from which you linked to the Sites; any search terms you used to find the Sites; the device identifiers and mobile and network information, and your actions on the Sites.

Log data - Our web servers may collect “log data.” Log data provides aggregate information about the number of visits to different pages on the Sites. We use log data for troubleshooting purposes and to track which pages people visit in order to improve the Sites. Third-party vendors may also collect aggregate log data independently from us.

Cookies - We automatically receive and store certain types of information when you visit the Sites through the use of cookies, web beacons, or similar programs to collect the information described above. Cookies are strings of text that a website may store on your computer. Cookies enable the Sites to keep track of your preferences and activities when you use or visit the Sites. The Sites create session cookies for each visit in order to facilitate your visit. The session cookie expires at the end of the session. We may also use “persistent” cookies, which remain on your device for much longer. Cookies do not corrupt or damage your computer or computer files. We use cookies for authentication, to remember your settings, to keep track of your activity during a visit to the Site, to conduct usability tests, to improve Site performance, and to implement certain features of the Site. You can control the use of cookies at the individual browser level. If you reject cookies, you may still use our Sites, but your ability to use some features or areas of our Sites may be limited. If you do not wish to receive these cookies, you may set your browser to reject the cookies (consult the instructions for your particular browser on how to do this), although doing so may affect your ability to perform certain transactions on the Sites.

Web beacons - Some of the pages on the Sites may contain electronic images known as web beacons that allow use to count the number of users who have visited those pages. These collect only limited information such as a cookie number, time and date of a page view, and a description of the page on which the web beacon resides. These web beacons do not carry any personal Information and you cannot opt-out or refuse them. However, where they operate with cookies, you can render them ineffective by opting out of cookies or changing the cookie setting in your browser.

Marketing emails - We use a third party service providers to send our marketing e-mails. There are no cookies in the e-mail. However, they contain e-tags which permits you to share the mail via social sites to which you subscribe. In addition, when you click on a link to the Sites included in the e-mail, a persistent cookie is placed on your computer. This cookie is used to measure the effectiveness of our e-mail marketing efforts, better understand how our users navigate through the Sites, and enhance user experience. To that end, we collect a variety of information about how you interact with our marking efforts, including how many times the email is opened and/or clicked, the browser type used, operating system, user email program, etc. The cookie set by our service providers will remain on your hard drive 30 days after the last time you clicked on the coded link in the e-mail, or until you delete it.

In addition, the third parties that assist with our marketing e-mails may use pixel tags that help us send the e-mail in a format you can read, to allow us to know which e-mails you act upon and to better target the content of future e-mails. We also use these tags to track the aggregate number of e-mails read and whether any of the links in the e-mail were accessed.

Advertisements - We use third party service providers to serve and host our advertisements. These third parties use persistent cookies to track the number of times our site is accessed and whether the site was accessed from the advertisement. The cookies may remain on your hard drive three or more years unless you delete them. If you do not want Personal Information about you used for this purpose, you may opt-out by following the procedure described below. Note, however, that where we use a third party to provide advertising, email marketing or similar services, each such third party will have its own opt-out process, which it will manage and control. You will need to follow those procedures to opt-out of the services they provide.

Use of Personal Information

We may use the Personal Information provided or obtained through the Sites to:

• Process reservations;
• Perform research and analysis about your use of, or interest in, our products, services, or content;
• Communicate with you by email, regular mail, telephone, or mobile devices, about products or services that may be of interest to you either from us or from other third parties;
• Develop and deliver our newsletter;
• Tailor your user experience;
• Develop and display third-party content and advertising tailored to your interests on the Sites;
• Enforce our Terms;
• Manage our business;
• Notify you of changes to our services;
• Send you information you have requested;
• Process entries to a competition or promotion;
• Carry out obligations under any contract we have with you;
• Perform functions as otherwise described to you at the time of collection;
• In connection with the creation and maintenance of your user account; and
• In connection with the processing, fulfillment, and shipment of any products or services you purchase.

We generally store Personal Information in the United States as long as reasonably necessary to fulfill the purposes described in this Privacy Policy, as we determine is necessary for business records, and as required under applicable law. However, we may transfer your Personal Information from the United States to other countries or regions in connection with storage and processing of data, fulfilling your requests, and operating our business. By providing any information to Benchmark, you consent to such transfer, storage, and processing.

Disclosure of Personal Information to third parties

GENERAL

We do not share the Personal Information provided or obtained through the Sites with third parties, except as described below and as otherwise specified in this Policy. We may share Personal Information as follows:

• With the third parties that perform(s) maintenance and operation of the Sites on our behalf. These parties are bound by a confidentiality agreement prohibiting the unauthorized disclosure and/or use of your Personal Information.
• With other third parties that perform services or functions on our behalf. We do not authorize such third parties to use your Personal Information for any other purposes.
• With third parties, such as social sites (including Facebook and Instagram), to which you subscribe in order for you to link to them through our site and view our content through those sites.
• As we believe is necessary to comply with applicable laws, statutes, or regulations, and/or to enforce this Privacy Policy and the Terms and to protect our rights and the rights of others.
• As required by a court or government agency or to respond to a claim by you or a third party
• As part of a transfer of our assets, for example in the event of a merger, acquisition, corporate change or, in the unlikely event of a bankruptcy, involving Benchmark.
• As you may otherwise request or agree.

RESERVATIONS

Reservations for the Properties are handled by us directly or our booking partner (“TravelClick" and "Sabre-SynXis Central Reservations”). You can also make reservations through third party services, as described in the terms and below. If you make a reservation directly with us or use the Booking Company we will collect and process Personal Information about you in order to process and manage your reservation. This information will be provided to the Property to meet your reservation request. If you cancel your reservation, the information is stored for recordkeeping purposes only and is not accessed again. After making a reservation or completing your stay at a Property, unless you opt out of marketing communications as permitted elsewhere in this Privacy Policy, and if permitted under applicable law, the information you provide may be used by us for direct marketing of one or more of the Properties, other of our products, or the products of select, reputable third parties with whom we have a strategic marketing relationship because they offer products or services that we believe would of interest to you. We may use the services of a third party mail house for the sole purpose of mailing materials.

AFFILIATES

We share much of our data, including Personal Information about you, with our affiliated entities and joint ventures when it is reasonably necessary for the purposes otherwise permitted in this Privacy Policy. This includes the owners of the Properties we manage or operate.

SERVICE PROVIDERS

We use third party service providers to provide specific business support services to us which may involve limited access to Personal Information. We require these companies to use the information only to provide the contracted services and prohibit them from transferring the information to another party except as needed to provide the contracted services. Examples of such services include sending emails, conducting and administering promotions, executing surveys, providing customer service, performing business analysis, and processing payments. When we employ another company to perform a function for us, we only provide them with the information that they need to perform their specific function. We are not responsible for the actions of service providers or other third parties, nor are we responsible for any additional information you provide directly to any third parties.

BUSINESS TRANSACTIONS

We may disclose your Personal Information as part of any merger, sale of company assets or acquisition, as well as in the event of an insolvency, bankruptcy or receivership. The recipient of Personal Information following such actions may have privacy policies that differ from those in this Policy. You will be notified via email and/or a prominent notice on the website, and you may opt-out of the use of your existing information in a new manner.

SPECIAL EVENTS

If you choose to participate in a special event (for example, a promotion, contest, or sweepstakes), we may share your Personal Information with those organizations participating in the applicable event.

OTHER PURPOSES

We may use and share Personal Information for other purposes with your consent.

OTHER PRIVACY POLICIES

Any third parties to whom we may disclose Personal Information may have their own privacy policies that describe how they use and disclose Personal Information. Those policies will govern use, handling, and disclosure of Personal Information once we have shared it with those third parties as described in this Policy. If you want to learn more about their privacy practices, we encourage you to visit the websites of those third parties.

Children

The Sites are not directed at children, and we do not knowingly collect Personal Information directly from users under the age of 13 or from other web sites or services directed at children. Consistent with the Federal Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998 (COPPA), we will not knowingly request or collect Personal Information from any child under age 13 without obtaining the required parental consent.

Corrections and updates

If you want to view your Personal Information, or delete or modify such information that is inaccurate, you may do so by sending an email to bhi@benchmark-hospitality.com. In making modifications you must provide only truthful, complete, and accurate information. We may limit your right to make changes to Personal Information where the burden or expense of providing access would be disproportionate to the risks to your privacy or where the legitimate interests of other persons may be violated.

Please note that notwithstanding your request to change or delete Personal Information, we may be required to keep this information and not modify or delete it, or to keep this information for a certain time, in which case we will comply with your deletion request only after we have fulfilled such requirements. When we delete any information, it will be deleted from the active database, but may remain in our archives. In some instances, however, Personal Information that you requested to be removed may be retained in certain files for a period of time in order to troubleshoot problems.

In addition, some types of Personal Information may be stored indefinitely on back-up systems or within log files due to technical constraints or financial or legal requirements. Therefore, you should not always expect that all of your Personal Information will be completely removed from our databases in response to your request.
In addition to deleting Personal Information, you may choose to opt-out of receiving future newsletter, promotions or any other email communications from us by following the unsubscribe instructions included in the communications, or by contacting us via email as provided above. All promotional emails from us include an opt-out link which can be processed within 24-hours. You may also opt-out of promotions by sending us an email in response with “unsubscribe” or “opt-out” in the subject line of the email. Opting out of promotional communications does not affect our communications with you via telephone or email related to any business we may have with you or other transactional emails.

We reserve the right to verify the identity of any person making a request to opt-out or to delete or modify incorrect Personal Information, to charge you a fee before providing access and to deny such requests, except as prohibited by law; provided, however, that we will have no liability of any kind resulting from false or erroneous requests or any change or deletion we make for any reason.

Blogs

The Site offers publicly accessible blogs and social forums where you may post photos, videos and information about yourself and your experience at the Properties. You should be aware that any information you provide in these areas may be read, collected, and used by others who access them. To request removal of your Personal Information from our blog or social pages, contact us at bhi@benchmark-hospitality.com. In some cases, we may not be able to remove your Personal Information, in which case we will let you know if we are unable to do so and why. Alternatively, if you used a third party application to post such information, you can remove it by logging into that application and removing the information, or by contacting the appropriate party for such third party application.

Testimonials

We display personal testimonials of satisfied customers on our site in addition to other endorsements. With your consent we may post your testimonial along with your name. If you wish to update or delete your testimonial, you can contact us at bhi@benchmarkresortsandhotels.com

Storing your Personal Information

We will retain the Personal Information you give us or we collect for as long as you maintain your user account or subscription to our newsletters or other content, participate in any of the social features on the Sites, enter any promotions, use any of our other services and for a reasonable time thereafter. We will retain and use Personal Information as necessary to comply with our legal obligations, resolve disputes, and enforce our agreements. Otherwise we will retain Personal Information for up to twenty-four (24) months and thereafter may store it in aggregate. If you would like us to delete the Personal Information you have provided to us, please contact us at bhi@benchmark-hospitality.com and we will respond in a reasonable time. Please note that some or all of this information may be required in order for you to make use of services and features available via the Sites. If you remove this information, you may no longer be able to use these features.

Social media

The Sites may include social media features, such as the Facebook Like button and widgets, such as the “Share This” button or interactive mini-programs that run on the Sites. These features may collect your IP address, which page you are visiting on the Sites, and may set a cookie to enable the feature to function properly. Social media features and widgets are either hosted by a third party or hosted directly on the Sites. Your interactions with these features are governed by the privacy policy of the company providing it.

Security

We have reasonable security measures in place to protect against loss, misuse and alteration of Personal Information under our control. When you enter Personal Information to book a reservation or set up an account, we encrypt that information using secure socket layer technology (SSL). In addition, electronically stored Personal Information is stored on a secure network with firewall protection and access to our electronic information systems requires user authentication via password or similar means. We also employ access restrictions, limiting the scope of employees who have access to Personal Information. While we strive to safeguard Personal Information, we cannot guarantee or warrant the security of any information you disclose or transmit to us and you do so at your own risk.

Third party website

The Sites may contain links to other websites. We do not control, and make no representations whatsoever regarding, such other websites or the products and services offered by or through websites accessed through links on the Sites, even those with which we may have an affiliation. If you decide to access third party websites linked through the Sites you do so at your own risk. You should carefully review the privacy policy and terms of these websites.

Reservations through third parties

In addition to making reservations for Properties directly through us and/or our Booking Company, you may make reservations for the Properties through aggregators like Booking.com, Expedia, Orbitz, or Kayak (“Aggregators”). If you use an Aggregator to book reservations at the Properties, they may have additional or different privacy policies and you are responsible for reviewing them before you make a reservation. If you use another online booking website to reserve lodging at a Property, you do so at your own risk and you should carefully review the privacy policy and terms of any such websites.

Commercial message and marketing consent

By providing your email address to us through the Sites, you affirmatively and expressly consent to receiving commercial emails and marketing communications, including through social media, from Benchmark and those parties that process email or other marketing communications on our behalf. Marketing communications may be sent to you in order to deliver our newsletters, to provide you with more information about available products you have purchased, and to provide you with updates, special offers, and other information, including but not limited to Site updates. In some jurisdictions, data privacy laws may require us to obtain a separate consent before sending certain communications. You can always choose whether or not to receive marketing emails by contacting us as described below or following the “unsubscribe” instructions contained in the communications.

Sales of Personal Information

Benchmark allows certain companies to place tracking technologies like cookies and pixels on our sites, which allow those companies to receive information about your activity on our Sites that is associated with your browser or device. The companies may use that data to serve you more relevant ads on our sites or others. Under certain state laws, sharing data for online advertising like this may be considered a “sale” of information. Except for this kind of sharing, we do not sell any of your information.

You always have full control over whether these technologies work on your devices. You can disable them entirely using our cookie consent preference tools, or by clicking the “Do Not Sell My Information” link on our Sites.

Your California privacy rights

The following provisions apply to residents of the State of California:

CCPA: The California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 (“CCPA”) provides you with specific rights regarding your Personal Information, including information that could be linked with or used to identify your household. You have the right under the CCPA and certain other privacy as data protection laws, as applicable, to exercise the following rights free of charge:

DISCLOSURE OF PERSONAL INFORMATION WE COLLECT ABOUT YOU

You have the right to know:

• The categories of Personal Information we have collected about you;
• The categories of sources from which the Personal Information is collected;
• Our business or commercial purpose for collecting or selling Personal Information;
• The categories of third parties with whom we share Personal Information, if any; and
• The specific pieces of Personal Information we have collected about you.

Please note that we are not required to:

• Retain any Personal Information about you that was collected for a single one-time transaction if, in the ordinary course of business, that information about you is not retained;
• Reidentify or otherwise link any data that, in the ordinary course of business, is not maintained in a manner that would be considered Personal Information; or
• Provide the Personal Information to you more than twice in a 12-month period.

PERSONAL INFORMATION SOLD OR USED FOR A BUSINESS PURPOSE

In connection with any Personal Information we may sell or disclose to a third party for a business purpose, you have the right to know:

• The categories of Personal Information about you that we sold and the categories of third parties to whom the Personal Information was sold; and
• The categories of Personal Information that we disclosed about you for a business purpose.

You have the right under the CCPA and certain other privacy and data protection laws, as applicable, to opt-out of the sale of your Personal Information. If you exercise your right to opt-out of such sale of your Personal Information, we will refrain from selling your Personal Information unless you subsequently provide express authorization for the sale of your Personal Information. To opt-out of the sale of your Personal Information, visit our homepage and click on the Do Not Sell My Personal Information link in the footer.

RIGHT TO DELETION

Subject to certain exceptions set out below, on receipt of a verifiable request from you, we will:

• Delete your Personal Information from our records; and
• Direct any service providers to delete your Personal Information from their records.

Please note that we may not delete your Personal Information if it is necessary to:

• Complete the transaction for which the Personal Information was collected, fulfill the terms of a written warranty or product recall conducted in accordance with federal law, provide a good or service requested by you, or reasonably anticipated within the context of our ongoing business relationship with you, or otherwise perform a contract between you and us;
• Detect security incidents, protect against malicious, deceptive, fraudulent, or illegal activity; or prosecute those responsible for that activity;
• Debug to identify and repair errors that impair existing intended functionality;
• Exercise free speech, ensure the right of another consumer to exercise his or her right of free speech, or exercise another right provided for by law;
• Comply with the California Electronic Communications Privacy Act;
• Engage in public or peer-reviewed scientific, historical, or statistical research in the public interest that adheres to all other applicable ethics and privacy laws, when our deletion of the information is likely to render impossible or seriously impair the achievement of such research, provided we have obtained your informed consent;
• Enable solely internal uses that are reasonably aligned with your expectations based on your relationship with us;
• Comply with an existing legal obligation; or
• Otherwise use your Personal Information, internally, in a lawful manner that is compatible with the context in which you provided the information.

PROTECTION AGAINST DISCRIMINATION

You have the right to not be discriminated against by us because you exercised any of your rights under the CCPA. This means we cannot, among other things:

• Deny goods or services to you;
• Charge different prices or rates for goods or services, including through the use of discounts or other benefits or imposing penalties;
• Provide a different level or quality of goods or services to you; or
• Suggest that you will receive a different price or rate for goods or services or a different level or quality of goods or services.

Please note that we may charge a different price or rate or provide a different level or quality of goods and/or services to you, if that difference is reasonably related to the value provided to our business by your Personal Information.