Privacy Policy

1. Who is responsible

HOST WHALE COM PRIVATE LIMITED, No. 8/23, Jayalakshmi Colony, 2nd Main Road, Shenoy Nagar, Chennai 600030, Tamil Nadu, India, India ("we") decides how your personal data is used. We follow India's Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 and the Information Technology Act, 2000, and for visitors from Europe and the UK, the GDPR where it applies.

Grievance Officer / privacy contact: Ganesh Badrinath, grievance@roomrateiq.com.

2. What we collect

(a) Account: name, email, phone number, username, password (stored encrypted, we cannot read it), confirmation that you are 18 or older.

(b) Profile (optional, visible to other users): first name, one photo, short bio, languages, interests.

(c) Trips: city and dates you add.

(d) Meetup: connection requests, chat messages, group meetups you create or join, ratings, blocks and reports.

(e) Safety records: blocked messages, warnings, reports and bans.

(f) Technical: IP address, device and browser type, pages visited, approximate location (from IP, or exact location only if you tap "Near me" and allow it), cookies (see Cookie Notice).

(g) Searches: cities, dates and filters you search.

(h) Location: the country we infer from your IP address, or from your browser language and time zone, so Price IQ can show local holidays. We store a precise map pin only if you type it or paste a map link for your own listing.

(i) Public calendars: holiday names and dates from open public holiday feeds, used to explain demand. Those feeds do not receive your account.

(j) Reputation desk: review text, reply drafts and profile posts you save on the Marketing tab. They stay on RoomRateIQ until you connect a Google Business Profile. We do not send them to Google unless that connection is switched on.

3. Why we use it

- To create and run your account and log you in (including email codes).

- To show you prices, places, events and other travellers in the same city and dates.

- To deliver your messages and send you email notifications.

- To keep users safe: screen messages, detect abuse, act on reports, and ban offenders.

- To follow the law and answer lawful requests from courts, police or government.

- To fix problems, prevent fraud and improve the service.

We do NOT sell your personal data.

4. What other users can see

Other users can see only: first name, profile photo, bio, languages, interests, verified badge, ratings, and the CITY and dates of your trips.

They can NEVER see your email, surname, hotel or address. Your phone number is shown to another user ONLY if you both agree to the "WhatsApp swap".

5. Your consent

By creating an account and ticking the boxes, you consent to the uses above. You can withdraw consent at any time by deleting your account; this does not affect what was done before.

6. Who we share with

- Service providers who run parts of the service for us, only for that purpose: Vercel (website hosting), Supabase (database and login), Resend (emails), Cloudflare (security and speed), Open-Meteo (weather), OpenStreetMap and Photon (places and maps), OSRM (route times), Frankfurter (exchange rates) and Razorpay (payments, only when keys are added). No analytics service is loaded. Message screening runs on RoomRateIQ's own server, not an outside AI moderation provider.

- Police, courts or government when the law requires it, or to protect someone's safety.

- A buyer or successor if the business is sold or transferred, under this same policy.

- Open public holiday calendars, used only to read holiday dates.

- Google Business Profile, only if you connect it, and only to read or publish the reviews and posts you approve.

Some providers store data outside India. We use providers that protect data to recognised standards.

7. How long we keep it

- Account and profile: until you delete your account.

- Chats: until the account is deleted; group chats close 48 hours after the meetup.

- Trips: removed after the trip ends.

- Safety records (blocked messages, reports, bans) and records of deleted accounts: 180 days, or longer if a court or authority requires it.

- Banned email and phone: kept only to stop re-registration.

8. Your rights

You can: see what data we hold about you; correct or update it; delete your account and data (Settings > Delete my account); withdraw consent; name someone to act for you if you die or cannot act; and complain to our Grievance Officer. If you are not satisfied, you may complain to the Data Protection Board of India (or your local data protection authority if you are in Europe or the UK).

9. Security

We use encryption, access controls and trusted providers. No online service is 100% secure. If a breach affects you, we will inform you and the authorities as the law requires.

10. Children

RoomRateIQ is only for people aged 18 and over. We do not knowingly collect data from children. If we learn a user is under 18, we delete the account.

11. Changes

We may update this policy. The "Last updated" date will change and we will tell logged-in users about important changes.