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Who we are
Watamu Safaris Tours and Travel Ltd, referred to in this policy as “Watamu Safaris”, operates this website and determines how information submitted through its public booking and service request forms is used.
General privacy questions may be sent to info@watamusafaris.com. Booking and service enquiries are handled through bookings@watamusafaris.com.
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Information we collect
Contact and traveller information
Depending on the form and service selected, we may collect your name, email address, telephone or WhatsApp number, country, number of adults and children, and children’s ages.
Trip and service information
We may collect details such as your chosen safari package or Day Trip, preferred dates, flexible-date preference, pickup and drop-off locations, accommodation preference, flight or transport details, number of passengers, luggage, vehicle preference, destination, preferred hotel, room and meal-plan preferences, approximate budget, excursion preference and number of participants.
Special requirements
Optional free-text fields may contain dietary, accessibility, mobility or other special requirements. Please provide only information relevant to planning the requested service.
Request administration information
The website also records an internal reference, request category, selected service or experience, source URL, submission date, consent confirmation and whether the notification email was sent.
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How we use your information
Information submitted through the website is used to:
- review and respond to your enquiry;
- check availability and prepare an itinerary, service proposal or quotation;
- plan transfers, accommodation, excursions, safaris and related travel arrangements;
- communicate with you about the request;
- maintain an administrative record of the enquiry and any resulting booking;
- prevent spam, repeated submissions and misuse of public forms; and
- meet applicable business, accounting, safety and legal obligations.
Depending on the circumstances, processing may be based on your consent, steps taken at your request before entering into a service arrangement, performance of an agreed service, our legitimate operational and security interests, or a legal obligation.
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Storage and temporary processing
Private request records
Successful submissions are stored as private Booking Request records within WordPress. These records are not publicly searchable, do not have a public archive and are not exposed through the website’s REST interface.
Email notifications
A plain-text notification is sent to Watamu Safaris’ booking mailbox. Where a valid email address is provided, the notification uses the traveller’s name and email address as the reply address so the reservations team can respond.
Temporary form recovery
When validation fails, entered values and error messages may be stored in a temporary WordPress record for up to ten minutes. This allows the form to be repopulated after redirection. The temporary record is deleted when it is retrieved.
Rate limiting and IP addresses
The requester’s IP address is used temporarily for spam prevention, submission throttling and reCAPTCHA verification. After a successful submission, an IP-derived rate-limit key may be retained for approximately one minute. The custom request workflow does not save the raw IP address in the submitted Booking Request metadata.
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How long we retain information
Temporary form-recovery information is kept for up to ten minutes, unless it is retrieved and deleted earlier. Successful submission rate-limit keys normally expire after approximately one minute.
Submitted request records and their email notifications do not currently have a single automatic deletion period. They are retained for as long as reasonably needed to respond to the enquiry, administer any resulting booking, maintain appropriate business and legal records, resolve disputes and protect legitimate interests.
Records should be reviewed and securely deleted or anonymised when they are no longer required, subject to any continuing legal, accounting or dispute-resolution need.
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Security and website technologies
Watamu Safaris uses administrative access controls, input validation, form nonces, spam traps, rate limiting and Google reCAPTCHA to protect public request forms. Access to stored request records is restricted to the WordPress administration area.
No internet transmission or electronic storage system can be guaranteed to be completely secure. Please avoid placing unnecessary confidential information in free-text fields.
Cookies and similar technologies
The custom Booking Engine and Service Request workflows do not set their own browser cookies, local storage or session storage. WordPress, Google reCAPTCHA, Trustindex or other connected services may use technical cookies or similar technologies according to their configuration and policies.
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Children’s information
The public forms are intended for adults arranging travel or services. They may ask for the number and ages of children so that suitable accommodation, transport, child seats or activities can be considered.
A person submitting information about a child should be authorised to do so and should provide only the details needed for the requested service.
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Your data-protection rights
Subject to applicable law and any valid exception, you may ask Watamu Safaris to:
- explain whether and how your personal information is being used;
- provide access to personal information held about you;
- correct inaccurate or misleading information;
- consider an objection to particular processing;
- delete information where there is no continuing lawful reason to retain it; or
- record the withdrawal of consent where processing depends on consent.
Watamu Safaris may need to verify your identity before acting on a request. Some information may need to be retained where required by law or where necessary to establish, exercise or defend a legal claim.
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Contact and complaints
Send a privacy question or rights request to info@watamusafaris.com. Include enough information for the request to be identified, but do not send passwords, payment-card details or unnecessary identity documents by ordinary email.
Booking-specific correspondence may be sent to bookings@watamusafaris.com.
You may also contact or submit a complaint to Kenya’s Office of the Data Protection Commissioner where you believe your personal data has been handled contrary to applicable data-protection law.
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Changes to this policy
This policy may be updated when the website, public forms, plugins, service providers or information-handling practices change. The date shown near the top identifies the current published version.