Privacy Policy

Hermitage Privacy Policy

Aoraki Mount Cook Alpine Village Limited and its subsidiaries (“us”, “we” or “our”), takes its obligations in relation to privacy seriously. In this Privacy Policy (Policy), “you” and “your” means the individual providing Personal Information to us or the individual whose Personal Information is provided to us as the case may be.

This Policy provides information in relation to the basis upon which we collect, hold, use and disclose your Personal Information.  Personal Information has the same meaning as in the Privacy Act 1993 (Act).  In essence, it is information relating to an individual which can be used to identify that individual or which is linked to an identified individual. 

This Policy applies to your use of the Hermitage website and services. It also applies to the websites and services of our subsidiary accommodation and activity providers, including Mt Cook Lodge and Motels, Glacier Explorers, Tasman Valley 4WD Tours, Big Sky Stargazing and Sir Edmund Hillary Centre. By accessing our websites, and by using our services, you agree to the terms of this Policy.

Updates to this Policy

We will review this Policy from time to time to make sure it takes into account new laws and technology, and any changes to how we operate.

Should we decide to change our Policy we will post all changes on our website so that you are always kept up to date.

Use and disclosure of Personal Information collected from you is subject to the Policy in effect at the time such Personal Information is collected, unless otherwise agreed.

Collection of Personal Information

In general, the Personal Information we may collect and hold includes (but is not limited to): your name, date of birth, phone number, email address and physical address, purchasing information, dietary requirements/allergies, payment information, the content of all communications and any other information which assists us to provide you our services. 

In limited circumstances we may also collect information relating to any medical conditions where it may be relevant to the activity you are booking.

We collect your Personal Information when you provide it to us, when you contact us, or when you make a booking (whether online or over the phone, including through third party service providers such as Expedia.com and Booking.com). We also collect your Personal Information when you interact with the marketing communications we send you and through your use of our services, including when you stay with us or when you participate in any activities.

Our websites may automatically collect log information about your access to our services, including time of access, IP address, browser type, location and device identifiers. This information may be collected through third party tools. For further information, please see our Cookies and Tracking Technologies Policy.

Your Personal Information may also be collected from our subsidiaries (where you have booked an accommodation or activity package), third parties you authorise us to contact, or by agents who are authorised by you to provide such information, or as otherwise permitted by the Act.

Our website may also state other ways in which we collect information from you.

If you access our website from outside of New Zealand, you agree that any Personal Information you provide us is subject to this Policy and the Act.

If you do not provide the Personal Information that the website asks you to provide, or the information is incorrect, we may not be able to confirm your booking, correctly provide the requested services or in some cases provide the requested services at all, appropriately identify you in the case of any incident, provide refunds, respond to an enquiry, or contact you. There is also a risk that you may be double booked and be liable for cancellation of the second booking.

Personal Information of Others

If you provide us with Personal Information relating to a third party you warrant you are authorised to do so and that you have ensured the individual is aware of the information in this Policy. If you provide us Personal Information about others, or if others give us your information, in relation to any booking then it will be used as set out in this Policy.  If it is provided in a different context, we will only use that information for the specific reason for which it was provided to us, or as otherwise permitted by the Act.

If you provide information about any child or any other person who is not able to understand and/or agree to this Policy, then you acknowledge that you are agreeing to this Policy on their behalf.

We may disclose a child’s Personal Information to their parent or legal guardian if requested by their parent or guardian.

We may also disclose any of your Personal Information relevant to any booking to the individual who made that booking.

Social Media and third party websites

We use social media services like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Reddit, TikTok and YouTube.

Information posted publicly on these and other social media platforms and third party websites such as tripadvisor.com are all available for others to see. We may collect, hold and make use of any information that you make public when you use any such third party services for the purposes of our business.

Where the functionality of our website allows you to login to your account using your login information from a social media platform such as Facebook, you authorise us to disclose your login information, such as your name, email address and encrypted access information to the social media platform to enable the platform to verify your details. You authorise us to collect and use such verification information to provide you access to your account and as otherwise set out in this Policy. The information available to us from a social media platform is affected by the privacy settings you establish with that platform.

All third party services are governed by the privacy policies and/or practices of the relevant third party, for which we are not responsible. If you do not want to provide Personal Information to any of those third parties, or make information publicly available, you should not use their particular service.

Purposes for which we collect and use your Personal Information

We may collect, hold, use and disclose your Personal Information for the following purposes:

• to provide you with the products and services you have requested, including checking age requirements are met, to book and provide accommodation, activities and other travel and event services, to facilitate payment of such products and services, to confirm relevant details in relation to your booking (such as arrival details) and to identify you when we provide those products and services;
• to manage health and safety in relation to your stay with us or your participation in any activities you have booked;
• to optimise your experience as either a customer of our products and services or as a user of our websites;
• to conduct our business, which may include reviewing, analysing and improving our own processes;
• to send you surveys so we can get your feedback on our products and services;
• to send you our newsletters, and to keep you updated with our products and services, and the products and services of our subsidiary accommodation and activity providers, and to provide marketing material to you, including letting you know about special offers and promotions by email or SMS (where you have signed up to receive these marketing communications);
• to communicate with you, which includes responding to any message or enquiry you send us and identifying you when you want to communicate with us;
• to take any action in any case of dispute, or legal proceeding of any kind between you and us, or between you and any other person with respect to our business;
• to comply with our legal obligations, including requirements we have with our insurance or payment providers;
• any purpose set out in our Cookies and Tracking Technologies Policy (in relation to the information collected by cookies and other similar technologies); and
• any other purpose made known to you when collecting the Personal Information.

Other sections of this Policy also set out other specific situations in which your information is collected, used and disclosed.

We may use and disclose your Personal Information for any of these purposes, in any circumstances authorised by the Privacy Act, or in any other manner with your consent.

Surveys and Marketing Communications

We may disclose your Personal Information to third party providers we use to assist us to send you surveys and marketing communications. We provide those third parties with your name and email.  Some countries where such third party service providers are based may not have privacy laws as comprehensive as in your country of residence. 

Where surveys and marketing communications we initiate are sent by electronic means that third party will collect information about your interaction with the communication. The information collected includes whether you opened the email, your responses to the survey, the links you clicked on, the webpages viewed and the dates and times of such access and activity. Information about the device used to access the survey or marketing communication may also be collected. The third party provides or makes available this information to us for the various purposes outlined in this Policy. They may also hold this information on our behalf.

While these third parties are primarily collecting this information on our behalf, some of these third parties also use the information that we provide them and which is collected from your interaction with our survey or marketing communications for their legitimate business interests, such as to provide, support and improve the services they provide and to undertake data analytics projects. However, we do not permit them to use your Personal Information to market their or any other person’s services to you.

We currently use MailChimp to assist us in sending marketing communications. MailChimp is located in the United States.  Please read their privacy policy, available here, to understand the ways in which they collect, hold, use and disclose such Personal Information.  If you do not agree with how they will handle your Personal Information then you will need to unsubscribe from receiving marketing communications from us.  We may change our provider at any time.

You may unsubscribe from receiving marketing communications from us in accordance with the unsubscribe facility in any email sending you marketing communications or by contacting us in accordance with the Contact Us section below.

We will not be able to provide marketing communications to you if you unsubscribe or do not agree to our use of third parties to assist us with our marketing communications.

Where you sign up to receive marketing communications from us, you agree that we may disclose your Personal Information to those third parties as set out above.

Other Disclosures of Personal Information

We may disclose your Personal Information to our subsidiaries so they can provide you the accommodation or activity services you have requested. Their use of such information is governed by this Policy.

Except as stated in this Policy, we do not otherwise share your Personal Information without your consent, except where permitted by the Act, unless we believe it is necessary:

• to enforce our terms and conditions, or where we are legally required to do so;
• for us or other authorised agencies to detect, investigate, prevent or address fraud, security or technical issues;
• to otherwise protect our property, legal rights, or that of others; or
• for the purposes of carrying out the matters noted in the section below on the Management of Personal Information.

Management of Personal Information

We use third-party service providers to facilitate your payment and manage your bookings. In general, these third-party providers used by us will only collect, use and disclose your information to the extent necessary to allow them to perform the services they provide to us.

We currently use Windcave Payment Gateway (Windcave) to process your payments. Windcave collect and hold your payment information to perform payment services in respect of your booking. Windcave will only make available to us the information collected by them as required to enable us to confirm payment and provide the services you have requested. Any credit card details stored for payments are done so on the Windcave system. No credit card information is stored by us and Windcave protects your credit card information – at a minimum – to the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards (PCI-DSS). The payment information collected by Windcave is subject to Windcave’s privacy policy.  For further information, please read Windcave’s privacy policy, available here. If you do not agree with how Windcave will handle your Personal Information then you must not make bookings through our website.  We may change our payment processor at any time.

We may also transfer Personal Information to third parties to perform services on our behalf, for example we transfer your Personal Information to our parent company, Trojan Holdings Limited, to hold on our behalf. Their servers are located in Queenstown, New Zealand.

We may also transfer Personal Information to other third parties (including technology providers, providers of business and marketing services and providers of software tools used by us in our business) to perform services on our behalf and to process the information for us. We do not permit such parties to use the information for their own purposes.

Except as otherwise stated in this Policy, your Personal Information we collect is held by us. Our address is set out below.

Your Rights

You have the right of access to, and to request the correction of, your Personal Information. To access or request a correction of any of your Personal Information, please contact us as follows:

Email:reservations@hermitage.co.nz

Address: The Hermitage Hotel, 89 Terrace Road, Mount Cook National Park, 7999, New Zealand  

We endeavour to ensure that the Personal Information we hold is accurate, complete and up-to-date. If any of the Personal Information that you have provided to us changes we encourage you to contact us to update that Personal Information. 

If a dispute arises between us and we cannot resolve it with you, then you may wish to contact the Office of the Privacy Commissioner on investigations@privacy.org.nz.

Governing Law

This Policy is governed by the laws of New Zealand.