Legitimate Interest

Under Regulation 13(11) of the ePrivacy Regulation, an email address can be lawfully obtained and used for marketing in the context of a sale, i.e. on the reservation form of a booking. Explicit consent for email marketing is not required if the following conditions are met:

• You are marketing your own product or services, i.e. you cannot use an email address obtained on a booking form to market your sister properties.
• You are marketing similar products or services to the product or service in the initial sale, i.e. you can market hotel offers and vouchers to a past booker.
• The customer must be given a clear and distinct opportunity to object to the use of their email address for marketing purposes, i.e. the opt-in field cannot be made mandatory in order to complete the sale or booking. Any future email marketing to the customer must also include an option for the customer to unsubscribe.
• The initial marketing communication must be sent to the customer within 12 months of the original sale date on which the email address was obtained.

This consent method does not apply to email addresses of prospective customers, e.g. an email address collected via a cart abandonment feature. Only email addresses associated with a completed booking or sale fall under legitimate interest.

Please note that the information provided relates to the GDPR legislation. The legal basis may vary for businesses not located in the EU. 

This information is for educational purposes and does not constitute legal advice. We recommend engaging qualified legal counsel or privacy specialists if you are unsure about your property's data privacy and protection issues and operations.