Privacy Policy

01Who we are

This website, hcgukeuropedmc.com, is run by HCG UK EU DMC LIMITED, a company registered in England & Wales. We are a trade-only destination management company (DMC): we plan and deliver ground services in Europe for travel agents, tour operators, wholesalers, OTAs and MICE agencies.

For the information described in this policy, we are the data controller. This means we decide how and why it is used, and we are responsible for looking after it.

02What we collect

When you send an enquiry or ask for a quote (the quote button, the contact form or any "Get a Quote" button), we collect:

• your name, agency or company name, work email address and phone number;
• your country, the destinations or services you are interested in, the type of request and the group size;
• the requirements you write in the message box;
• the page of our website you sent the form from, so we know which service you are asking about.

When you apply for a job through our Careers page, we collect your name, email address, phone number, location, languages, experience, area of interest, LinkedIn profile if you give it, what you tell us about yourself, and your CV.

When you email, call or message us (including on WhatsApp), we keep the messages and the contact details that come with them.

When we handle a booking, your agency may send us details of the travellers, such as names, nationalities, passport details where a supplier needs them, room preferences, and dietary or mobility needs. Dietary and health-related needs are sensitive information, so we use them only to arrange the services the travellers need, and we share them only with the suppliers who must know.

Technical information. Like every website, our hosting server keeps standard logs, such as IP addresses and browser types, for security and to fix problems. We do not use this information to identify or track visitors.

Please only send us personal information about other people, such as your clients, when you have the right to share it with us.

03How we use it, and our legal basis

UK data protection law requires a legal reason for each use of personal information. Ours are:

We do not use your information for automated decision-making or profiling, and we do not add you to marketing mailing lists unless you ask us to.

04Who we share it with

We never sell personal information. We share it only when needed, with:

• Travel suppliers who deliver the services in a booking, such as hotels, railway and ferry companies, coach and transfer companies, guides, restaurants and venues;
• Service providers who help us run our business, such as our email provider (Microsoft 365) and our website hosting company, under contracts that require them to protect it;
• Professional advisers, such as accountants and lawyers, when they need it to advise us;
• Authorities, such as the police or tax authorities, only when the law requires it.

05International transfers

We deliver services across 24 European nations, so booking information is sent to suppliers in the countries your clients visit. The UK recognises the European Economic Area and Switzerland as giving adequate protection to personal information. Where information goes to any other country, including through our service providers, we make sure appropriate safeguards are in place, such as the UK's approved data transfer agreements.

06How long we keep it

• Website enquiries and quote requests: up to 24 months, then deleted, unless they lead to a booking.
• Job applications and CVs: up to 24 months, then deleted. You can ask us to delete yours sooner at any time.
• Booking and financial records: as long as the law requires, usually six years for financial records.
• Emails and messages: as long as needed for the business relationship, and then deleted.

07How we protect it

Our website uses an encrypted connection (HTTPS). Enquiries and applications are stored in a private, password-protected area that only our team can open, and access to booking information is limited to the people who need it. No system is completely secure, but we take reasonable steps to protect your information and we will act quickly if anything goes wrong.

08Cookies

Our public website does not use analytics, advertising or tracking cookies, so there is no cookie banner. Our private staff area uses one essential cookie to keep our team logged in. It is not used on the public pages.

To display the site, your browser loads fonts from Google Fonts, icons from Cloudflare's cdnjs service and flag images from flagcdn. When it does, these providers receive your IP address, as any website you visit does. Links to WhatsApp, LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram take you to those services, and their own privacy policies apply there.

09Your rights

Under UK data protection law you have the right to:

• access the personal information we hold about you;
• ask us to correct information that is wrong or incomplete;
• ask us to delete your information;
• ask us to limit how we use it, or object to how we use it;
• ask for a copy in a format you can move to another organisation;
• withdraw consent at any time, where we rely on consent.

To use any of these rights, email info@hcgukeuropedmc.com. There is normally no charge, and we will reply within one month.

10Complaints

If you are unhappy with how we have handled your information, please contact us first and we will try to put it right. You also have the right to complain to the UK's data protection regulator, the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), at ico.org.uk or on 0303 123 1113.

11Changes to this policy

We may update this policy when our services or the law change. The date at the top of this page shows when it was last updated. Our website is for travel trade professionals and is not intended for children.

See also our Terms & Conditions.