Privacy Policy
What we collect, why we collect it, and the control you keep over your personal information.
We only collect what we need to help you find a homestay, book it, and stay in touch — and we protect it carefully.
This policy explains how Stay in Home Stays (“we”, “us”) handles the personal information of everyone who uses our website and apps. By using Stay in Home Stays you agree to the practices described here.
What we collect
The information below is collected only when you choose to use the related feature.
Account & profile
When you sign up we store your name, email, phone number and a securely hashed password. Hosts and admins have accounts too, provisioned by our team.
Bookings & stays
To confirm a reservation we keep your booking dates, the rooms and homestay chosen, guest details you provide, and the booking history tied to your account.
Payments
Payments are processed by our payment partner (Razorpay). We never see or store your full card, UPI PIN or bank credentials — only a payment reference and status for each booking.
Messages & support
Chats you exchange with a host through the app, and any email or WhatsApp you send our support team, are retained so we can help you and resolve disputes.
How we use it
- Create and secure your account and sign you in.
- Confirm, manage and refund your bookings, and send booking-related updates.
- Process payments and detect fraudulent or abusive activity.
- Connect you with your homestay host and provide customer support.
- Send service messages, and — only if you opt in — our newsletter, which you can leave at any time.
- Meet legal, tax and accounting obligations, and enforce our Terms of Service.
Who we share it with
We do not sell your personal data. We share it only where it is needed to run the service: with the homestay host for a booking you make (so they can prepare for your stay), with our payment processor to take payment, and with trusted providers who host our systems and send our email or messaging on our behalf.
We may also disclose information where the law requires it, or to protect the rights, safety and property of our guests, hosts and Stay in Home Stays.
Cookies
We use a small number of essential cookies to keep you signed in and remember your booking cart and preferences. These are required for the site to work. We do not use them to build advertising profiles. You can clear or block cookies in your browser, but some features — signing in and booking — will not work without them.
Your rights & our safeguards
You can view and update most of your details from your account, and you can ask us to correct or delete your personal data, or to send you a copy of it. We keep booking and payment records for as long as the law requires, and remove what we no longer need.
Passwords are stored hashed, access tokens are short-lived, and traffic to the site is encrypted in transit. No system is perfectly secure, but we take reasonable technical and organisational measures to protect your information.
To exercise any of these rights, or if you have a question about your privacy, email us at stayinhomestays@gmail.com.
We may update this policy from time to time; the version published on this page is the one that applies. Significant changes will be highlighted on the site.