Our policies
Our Franchisees
Each Brand hotel is owned and operated by an independent franchisee that is neither owned nor controlled by Cendant, a Franchisor or any other Cendant subsidiary. Each franchisee collects customer Information and uses the Information for its own purposes. Cendant does not control the use of this Information or access to the Information by the franchisee and its associates. The franchisee is the merchant who collects and processes credit card information and receives payment for the hotel services. The franchisee is subject to the merchant rules of the credit card processors it selects, which establish its card security rules and procedures. This policy does not apply to a franchisee's web site. Franchisees may also use email campaigns and other methods of telephone, electronic, and direct mail solicitation without our consent or knowledge and are solely responsible for their content and methods of identifying and contacting addressees.
Other Disclosures. We may be obligated to disclose Information about you to a law enforcement agency or by a court order, or under the discovery process in litigation, investigations, and prosecutions. We may provide Information to assist a Franchisee to enforce a contact you may have breached. We may ask certain questions in the reservation booking process to comply with certain laws if you reside outside the United States or meet certain other criteria established by law or executive order. Unless otherwise prohibited by law or our contractual obligations, we may disclose personal information if required to do so by law, court order, or as requested by a governmental or law enforcement authority, or in good faith belief that disclosure is otherwise necessary or advisable. Situations may include: to perform, maintain or enforce contracts with our customers, to protect the rights or properties of our Franchisees, affiliates and business partners, our customers or others, or when we have reason to believe that disclosing the information is necessary to identify, contact or bring legal action against someone who may be causing or who may be threatening to cause interference with or damage to our rights properties, or the hotels in our Brands, whether intentionally or otherwise, or when anyone else could be harmed by such activities.
What is Individual Specific Information
Individual-specific or personally identifiable information is any information or data about a customer that in itself, or as part of a unique combination of information, specifically recognizes the customer by a unique identifier or descriptor. Examples of individual-specific include name, address, telephone number, email address, employment status, credit card type and number, and other financial information.
What We Won't Do With customer Information
The Cendant Hotel Group and the Franchisors will not:
Sell or rent Information to parties outside the Cendant family of companies (not including businesses that entered into long term contracts with the hotel chains to obtain customer Information while a part of the Cendant family and which later leave the family), our franchisees and affiliates, or allow Cendant affiliates to sell or rent the Information to parties outside the Cendant family of companies, franchisees and affiliates.
Use the customer Information we collect and store to make decisions about granting or extending consumer credit unless the customer submits a separate credit application and authorizes us to use or disclose this information.
Act as a consumer reporting agency, or furnish information about any customer's credit worthiness, credit standing, credit capacity, character, general reputation, personal characteristics or mode of living to any consumer reporting agency.
Maintain in our Enterprise Data Warehouse any Information about any customer on billing, collection or payment disputes with any franchisee, creditor or Cendant affiliate.
What We Will Do With customer Information
The Cendant Hotel Group and each Franchisor will:
Use customer Information to solicit additional hotel stays at the same hotel and other locations of the Brand, participation in the affinity programs of the Brand, and to offer goods and services we believe may be of interest to customers on behalf of ourselves or under joint marketing arrangements with other non-hotel Cendant businesses, affiliates, former affiliates, franchisees or the Franchisor.
Include information about customers gathered from other sources we believe to be reliable to identify our customers more thoroughly and update Information we store and provide to third parties when the information changes, such as changes of address or new credit card expiration dates.
Provide the name, address, telephone number and transaction Information, including payment method, about customers to the Franchisor's designated affinity credit card issuer(s) and loyalty club providers for use in the preselection process for the Franchisor's affinity credit card and loyalty club.
Create and use aggregate customer data that is not personally identifiable to understand more about the common traits and interests of our customers.
Use customer Information to enforce a contract with us or a franchisee or any Terms of Use of our web sites, or provide access or disclosures that we believe in good faith are required to comply with applicable law (See Compliance with Law in this Policy).
Provide information on corporate credit card usage to the corporate card holder customer directly or through third parties.
transfer customer Information to the party that acquires the business or assets to which the information relates.