GAIA

Privacy Policy

Last updated: 25 May 2026. We respect your privacy and collect only what we need to host you, run the Fit Lab, and meet Indian hospitality regulations. This policy explains exactly what, why, and for how long.

1. Who we are

This site, gaiahostels.com, is operated by Home of Gaia (proprietor: Sharo Philip), Survey no 107/2K, near Vidya Prasarak High School, Morjim, Bardez, North Goa 403512, India. For privacy queries email gaiahostelsgoa@gmail.com.

2. What we collect and why

Data	Purpose
Name, email, phone, country	To confirm a booking, send your invoice and reach you about your stay.
Stay dates, room type, number of guests	To allocate inventory and run check-in.
Government photo ID (Aadhaar / Passport / DL / Voter ID)	Mandatory under Indian hotel regulations. For foreign nationals, we file Form C with the Bureau of Immigration as required by the Foreigners Act.
Payment information	We never see or store your card or bank details. Cashfree handles the entire payment flow; we only receive a payment ID and the amount.
Fit Lab fitness questionnaire (optional)	To brief your trainer on injuries, goals, allergies — only used inside the gym.
Cookies	First-party cookies are required for the booking flow (session, member email rate). We also run two advertising measurement tags, Google Ads and the Meta Pixel, which set their own cookies and report to Google and Meta which pages you viewed and whether you completed a booking, together with the amount. See section 5.
Analytics	Aggregated, IP-anonymised page-view statistics via a self-hosted analytics tool. We do not build visitor profiles ourselves; the advertising tags named above are operated by Google and Meta under their own policies.

3. How long we keep it

• Booking records (name, email, phone, stay dates, invoice): retained for 7 years to meet Indian tax and hospitality record-keeping requirements.
• Government photo ID images: retained for 30 days after your check-out, then permanently deleted. We need a short window to handle any post-stay regulatory query.
• Member email list: retained until you unsubscribe (one-click in any email).
• Cancelled bookings: we keep the cancellation record (not the ID photo) for 3 years for accounting.

4. Who we share data with

Recipient	What they get and why
Cashfree Payments India Pvt. Ltd.	Name, email, phone and amount — required to process the payment. Cashfree's privacy policy: cashfree.com/privacy-policy ↗
eZee Technosys (our property-management system)	Name, email, phone, stay dates and room type — required to block the room and run front-desk operations.
Resend (transactional email)	The email body and recipient address. Resend acts as a processor only.
Bureau of Immigration (Government of India)	Form C details for foreign nationals — passport number, nationality, arrival/departure dates. This is a statutory obligation, not a marketing choice.
Local tax authorities (when requested)	Booking records as part of a lawful tax audit.

We do not sell your data. We do not share data with advertising networks, data brokers, or social platforms for re-targeting.

5. Cookies

First-party, strictly-necessary cookies and sessionStorage remember your dates and member-rate unlock during a booking session.

The site also loads two third-party advertising measurement tags so we can tell which adverts actually produce bookings rather than only clicks:

• Google Ads (tag AW-17813780019) and Google Analytics (G-WJ8LMEV6SF).
• Meta Pixel (id 1511711394103248). It records page views, the point at which you open the payment page, and a completed booking with the amount paid. It does not receive your name, email, phone number or any identity document.

Both set their own cookies and are controlled by Google and Meta respectively, under Google's privacy policy and Meta's privacy policy. You can block them with any browser tracking protection or ad blocker, or by using your browser's “do not track” and third-party-cookie controls; the booking flow works normally with them blocked.

To object to this processing or ask us to stop, email gaiahostelsgoa@gmail.com and we will exclude you.

6. Your rights (DPDPA 2023)

You have the right to:

• Ask what data we hold about you and request a copy.
• Correct any inaccurate or out-of-date data.
• Request deletion of data we no longer need (subject to legal retention obligations above).
• Withdraw consent for marketing communications.
• Lodge a complaint with the Data Protection Board of India if you believe we've mishandled your data.

To exercise any of these, email gaiahostelsgoa@gmail.com with the subject "Privacy request". We respond within 30 days.

7. Security

Data is stored on a private server in Mumbai (Railway / AWS Mumbai region) with TLS in transit, OS-level access controls and rate-limited APIs. Payment data never touches our infrastructure — it is processed end-to-end by Cashfree (PCI-DSS Level 1). Government ID images are stored on a private disk volume that is not publicly accessible.

8. Children

We do not knowingly collect data from anyone under 18 except as part of a booking made by a parent or guardian who has agreed to these terms on their behalf.

9. International transfers

Email delivery (Resend) is processed in the US; the email's content (your name + booking details) is therefore briefly transferred outside India under standard contractual clauses. All other processing happens in India.

10. Changes to this policy

We post the current policy at gaiahostels.com/privacy with a "Last updated" date at the top. Material changes that affect existing customers will also be emailed to the booker's address on file.

Privacy questions or requests? Email gaiahostelsgoa@gmail.com · WhatsApp +91 86693 69813.