Summer Accommodation privacy notice
What is the purpose of this document?
Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine (the “University”, “Imperial”, “we”, “our” or “us”) is committed to protecting the privacy and security of your personal data.
This privacy notice describes how we collect and use personal data about you during and after your relationship with us, in accordance with the applicable data protection legislation
For the purposes of any applicable data protection legislation in England and Wales, including the Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA) and the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR), Imperial is the data controller of your personal data.
This notice applies to anyone who enquires about or books our summer accommodation bedrooms, event spaces or any other product or service we provide; attends a networking event or trade show and provides contact details; or engages with us in any way.
It is important that you read this notice, together with any other privacy notice we may provide on specific occasions when we are collecting or processing personal data about you, so that you are aware of how and why we are using such personal data. Other Privacy notices of note include.
- Events Privacy Notice / Events Privacy Notice URL [URL]
How is your personal data collected?
Imperial collects your personal data from the following sources:
Directly:
- when you enquire or book any of our;
a) accommodation bedrooms;
b) event spaces; or
c) services.
- attend events;
- sign up for our communications; or
- request other services.
- Via a booking lead or visit planner where they are organising your visit on your behalf
Indirectly:
- When you make an accommodation booking through a travel agent (including online booking engines), group organiser or agent, we will receive information about you.
- When you submit an enquiry or book an event through an online listings website or event planning agency, your details will be shared with us.
- Through professional social media network, LinkedIn, unless you opt-out.
- From external data sources where you have opted in.
What categories of personal data do we collect?
We may collect, store, and use the following categories of personal data about you:
- Personal contact details:
- First name, last name, title, billing address, postal address, telephone numbers, personal email addresses, location of employment of workplace and photographs where you have attended an event on campus.
- Transaction data:
- Records of payments made to us in relation to your booking.
- Booking details:
- Information relating to your accommodation booking including the length of stay, arrival and departure dates; information relating to your event booking including dates, catering requirements, delegate information, dietary requirements; records of communications and interactions we have had with you.
- Technical website data:
- includes your Internet Protocol (IP) address, browser type and version, location, operating system and platform.
- Communication details:
- Your email address and communication preferences.
We may also collect, store and use the following "special categories" of more sensitive personal data:
- Dietary requirements, including allergies.
- Health and medical information where special assistance is required or requested during your booking.
How we will use personal data about you and the legal basis for processing your personal data under the GDPR
Most commonly, we will use your personal data in the following circumstances:
- Where we need to perform the contract, we have entered into with you or in order to take steps at your request prior to the entry into a contract.
- Where we need to comply with a legal obligation.
- Where it is necessary for our legitimate interests (or those of a third party) and your interests and fundamental rights do not override those interests.
- Where it is necessary in order to protect your vital interests or someone else’s vital interests.
- Where you have consented to the processing.
Situations in which we will use your personal data
Enable us to perform our contract with you:
- To provide you with the information and services that you request from us.
- To contact you in relation to your enquiry and/or booking, including for the purposes of feedback.
- To notify you about changes to our service.
- To administer and fulfil requirements as agreed in the contract and any related terms and conditions.
To comply with legal obligations:
- To ensure we meet any and all legal obligations with regards to the service we provide to you for the duration of your contract.
- Complying with health and safety obligations.
- Business management and planning, including accounting and auditing.
- To prevent fraud.
- For the detection and prevention of crime.
For legitimate interest purposes, provided your fundamental rights do not override these:
- To ensure the information we hold about you is up to date and accurate.
- To inform you of any changes to our website, services or goods and products.
- To provide you with relevant news and special offers by email, text message, phone or post.
- To improve our interaction with you through tracking methods, for example which would allow us to see when you have interacted with one of our emails or adverts.
- To undertake the administration and collection of surveys and feedback relating to your engagement with the team and our services
- To take photographs, audio and video footage at events held on campus for use in digital and printed promotional materials, communications, publications and social media sites.
- For monitoring and evaluation purposes
- We may share some of your data with marketing service and ad technology providers for the purpose of focused digital marketing exercises. These would include social media platforms and or companies that undertake online marketing activities.
As part of yours or someone else’s vital interest
- In the case of a life or death situation such as a medical emergency and consent is not possible to be obtained.
With your consent:
To provide you with information about our accommodation and event services that we feel will be relevant to you. We will only send you electronic marketing messages in the following situations:
- You have submitted an enquiry or made a booking, either directly or via an online provider, and asked us to do something such as answer a question, provided information or do some other action on your behalf;
- You have signed up to our online mailing list.
If you do not want us to use your data in this way you can opt out of these at the point that we collect your data or use the unsubscribe link in our email communications at any time after our initial contact.
Please note that in order to ensure that the content of our electronic communications is relevant to you, we may send some of these based on specific information you have provided.
Some of the above grounds for processing will overlap and there may be several grounds which justify our use of your personal data.
How we use particularly sensitive, special category, personal data
In addition to the above, Imperial may process types of personal data that legislation defines as special category (such as race, religion, health, sexual life) or criminal records information. This will be in accordance with our Special Category and Criminal Offence Appropriate Policy, accessed via the following URL / https://www.imperial.ac.uk/media/imperial-college/administration-and-support-services/legal-services-office/public/data-protection/Special-Category-and-Criminal-Offence-Data.pdf and requires an additional legal basis.
We may process special categories of personal data in the following circumstances:
- In limited circumstances, with your explicit written consent.
- Where the processing is necessary to protect your vital interests (or those of another person) where you are incapable of giving consent.
- Where the processing relates to personal data which have been manifestly made public by you.
- Where the processing is necessary for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims, or for courts acting in their judicial capacity.
- Where the processing is necessary for reasons of substantial public interest and occurs on the basis of a law that is, inter alia, proportionate to the aim pursued and protects your rights as a data subject.
Situations in which we will use your special category data
We will use your special category personal data in the following ways:
- Where disclosed, we will use information about your physical or mental health, or disability status, to ensure your health and safety during your accommodation or event booking, and to provide appropriate adjustments.
- Where it is required in cases of emergencies and disclosure of personal data is required to emergency services
- In order to provide support and investigate any complaints / issues / concerns you may have regarding our products or services
- Where based upon your consent / explicit consent, we will use your data for the specific purpose as explained and agreed at the time
- In connection with legal claims, complaints, regulatory and investigative purposes as necessary
Change of purpose
We will only use your personal data for the purposes for which we collected it, unless we reasonably consider that we need to use it for another reason and that reason is compatible with the original purpose. If we need to use your personal data for an unrelated purpose, we will notify you and we will explain the legal basis which allows us to do so.
Please note that we may process your personal data without your knowledge or consent, in compliance with the above rules, where this is required or permitted by law.
Automated decision-making
We do not envisage that any decisions will be taken about you using automated means, however, we will notify you in writing if this position changes.
Data sharing
We may have to share your data with third parties, including third-party service providers and other entities in the University group.
We require third parties to respect the security of your data and to treat it in accordance with the law.
We may transfer your personal data outside the UK, though if we do, you can expect a similar degree of protection in respect of your personal data.
Why might you share my personal data with third parties?
We may share your personal data with third parties where required by law, where it is necessary to administer the relationship with you or where we have another legitimate interest in doing so.
Which third-party service providers process my personal data?
"Third parties" includes third-party service providers (including contractors and designated agents) and other entities within the University group.
The following third-party service providers process personal information:
- HotelRez: Our online booking engine, when you book accommodation directly via the Imperial website.
- Speedy Booker: Our online booking engine, when you book accommodation directly via the Imperial website.
- Kinetics: Our booking management system, your data is added to allow us to process your booking and fulfil our contract with you.
- Noonan: Our external cleaning contractor, data and special requests will be shared when accessing reservations.
- External event suppliers where you have specifically requested we do so or it is necessary to facilitate your booking.
- Qualtrics: Our online form provider, your data is shared when you submit an enquiry or complete a feedback form.
- Mailchimp (The Rocket Science Group LLC): Our third-party email marketing provider.
- Studio Noel: External branding agency, where we have permission to share data for the purposes of market research.
- The Digital Maze: Website development agency, where we have permission to share data for the purposes of market research.
- LinkedIn: Professional social networking site, for the purposes of providing targeted advertising, where you have not opted out of receiving marketing from us.
Some, non-identifiable, personal data may also be shared with our contractors and service providers who process data on behalf of Imperial Summer Accommodation to perform certain business-related functions. These include:
- External marketing agency, Accord – Access to website analytics including location, browser and language, via the use of website cookies
- External branding agency, Studio Noel
- External Search Engine Optimisation agency, Hatch Internet Marketing
- External website agency, The Digital Maze
What about other third parties?
We may share your personal data with other third parties, for example in the context of the possible sale or restructuring of the business and operations of the University. We may also need to share your personal data with a regulator or to otherwise comply with the law.
International transfers of data
The university will, where necessary and legally compliant, disclose personal data to third parties, or allow personal data to be stored or handled, in countries outside the UK in order to process your data and/or perform our contract with you. For example, we will transfer data to:
- partner institutions or organisations.
- IT providers based overseas; and
- service providers, see listed organisations above, acting as a data processor for the university.
In these circumstances, your personal data will only be transferred on one of the following bases:
- where the transfer is subject to one or more of the "appropriate safeguards" for international transfers prescribed by applicable law (e.g. data transfer assessments and standard data protection contract clauses adopted by the European Commission and UK Government respectively).
- a UK adequacy decision has been awarded for that country or territory which has determined the destination country has adequate levels of protection in place; or
- there exists another situation where the transfer is permitted under applicable law (for example, where we have your explicit consent or an exception applies).
Data security
We have put in place appropriate security measures to prevent your personal data from being accidentally lost, used or accessed in an unauthorised way, altered or disclosed. In addition, we limit access to your personal data to those employees, agents, contractors and other third parties who have a business need to know. They will only process your personal data on our instructions, and they are subject to a duty of confidentiality.
We have put in place procedures to deal with any suspected data security breach and will notify you and any applicable regulator of a suspected breach where necessary.
“How secure is my data with third-party service providers and other entities in our group?”
All our third-party service providers and other entities in the Imperial group are required to take appropriate security measures to protect your personal data in line with our policies. We do not allow our third-party service providers to use your personal data for their own purposes. We only permit them to process your personal data for specified purposes and in accordance with our instructions.
Data retention
How long will you use and retain your data for?
We will only retain your personal data for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes we collected it for, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, accounting, or reporting requirements. Details of retention periods for different records Imperial holds are available in our retention policy which is available via the following URL.
To determine the appropriate retention period for personal data, we consider the amount, nature, and sensitivity of the personal data, the potential risk of harm from unauthorised use or disclosure of your personal data, the purposes for which we process your personal data and whether we can achieve those purposes through other means, and the applicable legal requirements.
Details of area specific retention periods are as follows:
- Contact details for marketing purposes will be kept indefinitely unless you withdraw your consent.
- Contracts will be kept for at least 10 years from the date of expiry of such contract.
In some circumstances we may anonymise your personal data so that it can no longer be associated with you, in which case we may use such data without further notice to you.
Your rights under the Data Protection Legislation
Under data protection legislation you have the following rights:
- to obtain access to, and copies of, the personal data we hold about you.
- to require that we cease processing your personal data if the processing is causing you damage or distress.
- to require us not to send you marketing communications.
- to request that we erase your personal data.
- to request that we restrict our data processing activities in relation to your personal data.
- to receive from us the personal data we hold about you, which you have provided to us, in a reasonable format specified by you, including for the purpose of transmitting that personal data to another data controller; and
- to require us to correct the personal data we hold about you if incorrect.
For more information about the above rights please view the following URL.
https://www.imperial.ac.uk/admin-services/governance/policies-and-guidance/guidance/guide-10/
Please note that the above rights are not absolute, and requests may be refused where exceptions apply.
If you have any questions about these rights or how your personal data is used by us, you can contact the Data Protection Officer using the following details:
- Post – Data Protection Officer Address - Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine, The MediaWorks, 191 Wood Lane, W127FP.
- Email – DPO@imperial.ac.uk.
If you are not satisfied with how your personal data is used by Imperial, you can make a complaint to the Information Commissioner (www.ico.org.uk).
Changes to this privacy notice
We reserve the right to update this privacy notice at any time, and we will provide you with a new privacy notice when we make any substantial updates. We may also notify you in other ways from time to time about the processing of your personal data.
Need some help or can’t find what you are looking for?
Contact our reservation team via:
- vacenquiries@imperial.ac.uk or (+44) 020 7594 9507.
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Document last updated in (August // 2026)
Version (2.0)
Need some help or can’t find what you are looking for?
Contact our reservation team on vacenquiries@imperial.ac.uk or (+44) 020 7594 9507.