How we use your personal data?

The controller of your personal data is POSADA TURÍSTICA ESTRELLA DE AGUA, tax ID (NIT) 41915212, owner of Hostal Estrella de Agua, located at Cra. 5 #6-24, Salento, Quindío, Colombia.

Contact channel for anything to do with personal data: salentohostalestrelladeagua@gmail.com, or WhatsApp at +57 310 5053160.

This policy is issued in compliance with Colombian Law 1581 of 2012, Decree 1074 of 2015 (which consolidated Decree 1377 of 2013) and the other Colombian rules on personal data protection.

It applies to the data we collect through estrelladeagua.com, the booking engine, WhatsApp, email, telephone and in person at the hostel.

Identification data: type and number of your ID document or passport, first name, first surname, date of birth, gender and nationality.

Contact and residence data: phone number, email address, country and city of residence, and occupation.

Journey data: country and city you are arriving from, country and city of your next destination, and the purpose of your trip.

Booking and stay data: arrival and departure dates, type of accommodation, number of companions, amount paid and payment method.

Browsing data: when you visit the website we collect technical and statistical usage data, as explained in clause 11.

We do not ask for your home address or your second surname. The email address is optional and we use it to send you the confirmation and the payment receipt.

We do not ask for sensitive data. If for any reason you share information about your health, beliefs or private life, you are not obliged to, and we will use it only to handle what you asked us for.

Colombian law requires every accommodation provider registered in the National Tourism Registry to keep a register of its guests and to report it to the State through the Accommodation Registration Card (Tarjeta de Registro de Alojamiento, TRA) of the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Tourism. This duty stems from Law 300 of 1996 and Law 2068 of 2020, and is beyond the discretion of either the hostel or the guest.

The identification, contact, residence and journey data described in clause 3 are the fields that register requires. In particular, the purpose of the trip, the country and city you are arriving from and the country and city of your next destination are essential fields of the report: the State uses them for official tourism statistics and for immigration control. They are not data the hostel asks for out of commercial interest or curiosity.

The legal basis for processing this data is compliance with a legal duty, not your consent. For that reason we cannot do without it, we cannot delete it while the duty to retain it stands, and providing it is essential in order to register your stay. If a guest refuses to provide it, the hostel cannot accommodate them.

Where the guest is a foreign national, in addition to the TRA report we also report to Migración Colombia through the channels that authority provides, in accordance with the immigration rules in force.

This data is reported only to the competent authorities. It is not used for advertising, is not shared with commercial third parties and is not combined with any other purpose.

Our practice is to type your details straight from your document and hand it back immediately, without taking any image of it.

Exceptionally, at busy times or when several guests arrive at once, we may take a photograph of your document to speed up check-in and enter the details later. In that case the photograph is used solely to complete the guest register and for nothing else.

Taking that photograph is optional and requires your express permission at the time. You may refuse without it affecting your stay: if you refuse, we take the details by typing them in front of you.

Photographs of documents are deleted within thirty (30) calendar days of being taken, and in any case once the details have been entered into the register. They are not stored alongside payment information, are not sent to third parties, and are never used for biometric identification or facial recognition of any kind.

If at any point you want to know whether we hold an image of your document, or ask us to delete it before that deadline, write to us and we will do it.

Managing the booking, the payment, check-in, the stay and check-out.

Issuing the invoice and keeping accounting and tax records.

Complying with the guest register and the reporting of foreign nationals to Migración Colombia, as well as reports to the National Tourism Registry and to any authority that requires them by law.

Answering your questions, complaints and requests before, during and after your stay.

Sending you news, discounts, offers or satisfaction surveys by email, only if you give us permission and under the terms of clause 8. You can withdraw that permission whenever you want and carry on staying with us with no effect at all.

Protecting the safety of people and property at the hostel.

By confirming a booking, registering at the hostel or writing to us through our channels, you authorise the processing of your data for the purposes in clause 6.

Purposes that are not necessary to provide the accommodation, such as sending commercial communications, require a separate and optional authorisation.

Processing the data the law requires for the guest register does not rest on your consent but on compliance with a legal duty, as explained in clause 4. It is not optional: without that data we cannot accommodate you.

Taking an image of your identity document does require separate express permission, under the terms of clause 5, and you may refuse.

Sending commercial communications also requires separate permission, under the terms of clause 8.

If you give us permission, we may write to you by email with hostel news, discounts, seasonal offers and, occasionally, satisfaction surveys. We only use email: we do not send advertising by WhatsApp, text message or phone call.

The basis for this processing is solely your permission, given in advance, expressly and separately. It does not rest on the guest register or on your acceptance of the check-in conditions.

The commercial mailing list is independent of the guest register described in clause 4. The data we collect under a legal obligation, including the purpose of your trip, where you came from and where you are going, is not used to segment, personalise or send advertising, and does not feed this list.

Permission is optional and conditions nothing: refusing does not affect your booking, your stay, your rate or how you are treated. Nor is it a requirement to stay with us.

You can withdraw your permission at any time, using the unsubscribe link included in every email or by writing to us. Unsubscribing is as easy as opting in, takes effect immediately, and you do not have to explain why. Withdrawing this permission does not affect the data we are legally required to keep.

We keep your contact details on this list for as long as your permission stands. When you withdraw it we stop writing to you immediately and keep only the minimum record that you opted in and unsubscribed, with the dates, so we can demonstrate that we acted lawfully.

To send these emails we use an email tool that acts as a data processor on our instructions and may be located outside Colombia, under the terms of clause 10. We never sell, rent or transfer this list to third parties.

We do not send commercial communications to minors.

Our team, to the extent they need it to look after you.

Providers who deliver services to us and act as data processors following our instructions: the booking engine, payment gateways, email and messaging services, the tool we use to send commercial communications, website hosting and analytics tools.

Booking platforms (Booking.com, Hostelworld, Expedia and similar) when the booking comes through them. In that case each platform is the controller of the data it collects under its own policy.

Authorities entitled to request them, in particular Migración Colombia, the Tourism Police, the tax authority (DIAN) and judicial authorities.

We do not sell, rent or transfer your data to third parties for advertising purposes.

Some of our technology providers are outside Colombia, so your data may be stored or processed in other countries. When that happens we require them to offer an adequate level of protection and to process the data only on our instructions, in line with Law 1581 of 2012.

The site uses first-party cookies that are necessary to remember your language and to make navigation work.

We also use Google Analytics and Vercel's analytics tools to understand, in aggregate, how the site is used so we can improve it. These tools may use their own cookies or identifiers.

You can block or delete cookies from your browser settings. If you do, some parts of the site may stop working as expected.

We keep your data for as long as the relationship with the hostel lasts and, afterwards, for as long as the law requires: ten years for accounting and tax records, and the applicable periods for guest registers and immigration reports.

Images of identity documents, where any exist, are deleted within thirty (30) calendar days of being taken, regardless of the periods above.

Contact details on the commercial mailing list are kept for as long as permission stands, under the terms of clause 8.

Once there is no legal obligation or active purpose, we delete or anonymise the data.

We apply reasonable measures to protect your data against loss, unauthorised access or misuse: access restricted to the staff who need it, passwords, encrypted connections on the website, and providers that meet security standards.

No system is infallible. Should an incident affecting your data occur, we will act immediately and report it to the Superintendency of Industry and Commerce and to the affected data subjects where the law requires it.

As a data subject you may access, update and correct your data; request proof of the authorisation you gave; be informed about how we have used it; withdraw your authorisation or request deletion where there is no legal duty to keep it; and file complaints with the Superintendency of Industry and Commerce.

To exercise them, write to salentohostalestrelladeagua@gmail.com stating your name, your ID document and what you need. Enquiries are answered within a maximum of ten business days and complaints within a maximum of fifteen business days, extendable under the terms of the law, with prior notice to you.

Before releasing or changing any information we verify your identity, to protect your own data.

We only process the data of minors when they travel accompanied by their parents or legal guardian, or with their written authorisation, and always provided the processing respects the child's best interests and fundamental rights.

This policy applies from the date it is published and replaces any previous version. We may update it when our practices or the regulations change; the new version will be published on this same page with its update date.

Substantial changes to the purposes of the processing will be communicated to you before they are applied, so you can decide whether to keep your authorisation.