Privacy notice

What we collect

When you send an enquiry through this website, we collect:

• your name and email address;
• if you choose to give them, your phone number and home country;
• your trip preferences: destinations, travel month, trip length, number of adults and children, children's ages, budget, private or shared travel, accommodation type and interests;
• any message you write, and your confirmation that we may contact you about the enquiry;
• the safari or destination page you enquired from, and when you sent the enquiry.

We ask only for children's ages, never their names. The enquiry form does not ask for passport, payment or health details.

If you contact us by WhatsApp, email or phone, we receive whatever you choose to send us, such as your name, number, email address and messages.

If your enquiry becomes a booking, we may also ask for:

• passport or identity details, only where a flight, permit or other service requires them;
• dietary requirements, where we need them to arrange your meals and accommodation;
• health or medical information, only where it is genuinely needed to deliver your trip safely, and only as much as is needed.

This website does not collect or store payment-card details. Please pay only through the payment, banking or payment-provider channels we confirm with you, and never send card details through the enquiry form, WhatsApp or email.

How we use it

We use your information to:

• respond to your enquiry;
• prepare safari proposals and quotations;
• communicate with you about the services you have asked for;
• arrange and manage confirmed bookings;
• coordinate the accommodation, transport and other travel suppliers involved in your trip;
• keep the business and accounting records we need;
• protect this website and prevent misuse;
• comply with our legal obligations.

We do not sell your personal information.

We use your information because you asked us to respond to you or arrange a trip, because we need it to carry out a booking with you, because the law requires it, or because we have a legitimate interest in running and protecting our business.

Who we share it with

We use a small number of service providers to run this website and handle enquiries:

• Google: enquiries sent through this website are stored in a Google Sheet (Google Sheets).
• Vercel: hosts this website, keeps standard technical request logs, and provides our analytics (see Cookies and analytics).
• Our email service providers, for emails you send us.

If you choose to contact us on WhatsApp, WhatsApp (Meta) also processes your information under its own terms and privacy policy. WhatsApp opens only when you tap a WhatsApp button.

When an enquiry becomes a booking, or when it is needed to arrange a service you have asked for, we share information with the providers involved in delivering your itinerary. Depending on your trip, these can include lodges and camps, hotels, safari drivers and guides, airlines and other transport providers, park and conservation authorities, and permit providers.

Each supplier receives only the information it reasonably needs for its part of your trip, not every traveller's details. We also disclose information where the law requires it.

Some of the service providers we use may process personal information outside Kenya. Where personal information is transferred outside Kenya, Budget Holiday Safaris will only make the transfer where it is permitted under applicable Kenyan data-protection law and where the required safeguards or another lawful transfer condition applies. Where sensitive personal information is involved, we will apply the additional requirements required by law.

How long we keep it

• Enquiries that do not become a booking, including related WhatsApp messages and emails: up to 24 months after our last meaningful contact with you, and then deleted, unless we have a legitimate reason or a legal obligation to keep them longer.
• Booking records: generally up to 5 years after the end of the booking or travel period, where we need them for tax, accounting, contractual or legal purposes. Information we no longer need to deliver your safari, especially sensitive details, is removed earlier where practical.

We review stored enquiries by hand at least every three months and delete those whose retention period has ended.

Who can see it

Only authorised Budget Holiday Safaris staff who need the information to respond to enquiries, prepare quotations or manage bookings can see enquiries. WhatsApp conversations are likewise accessible only to authorised staff who manage customer enquiries and bookings.

This website is served over an encrypted (HTTPS) connection.

Your rights

Under Kenya's Data Protection Act, 2019, you can ask to see the information we hold about you, have it corrected, have it deleted, receive a copy to take elsewhere, or object to how we use it. Email your request to the address below. We respond within these periods:

• access to your information: within 7 days;
• correction, where a correction is needed: within 14 days;
• deletion, where the request applies: within 14 days;
• a copy of your information to take elsewhere (portability): within 30 days.

We may decline or limit a request where the law allows us to keep information, for example to meet a legal obligation or to deal with a legal claim. If you are unhappy with how we have handled your information, you can complain to Kenya's Office of the Data Protection Commissioner.

Cookies and analytics

This website does not set cookies and has no advertising or third-party tracking.

We use Vercel Web Analytics and Speed Insights, which Vercel describes as cookieless, to understand how pages are used and how fast they load. The events we record contain no names, email addresses, phone numbers or messages.

To stop repeated or automated enquiries, a scrambled (hashed) version of your IP address is kept in the server's memory for 10 minutes. It is never written to storage.

While you fill in the enquiry form, your trip preferences (never your contact details) are kept in your browser's session storage so they are not lost between steps. They are removed when you send the enquiry or close the tab.

Changes to this notice

Budget Holiday Safaris management keeps this notice up to date. When it changes, we update the date shown on this page.