Privacy and Cookies Policy

Last updated: April 24, 2023.

We are Travelzoo META, operated by Travelzoo (Asia) Limited, a Hong Kong private limited company and subsidiary of Travelzoo, a Delaware corporation, and its affiliates (together “Travelzoo META”, “We”, or “Us”) and we are committed to protecting and respecting your privacy.

This Privacy and Cookies Policy (and any other documents referred to herein, collectively, this “Policy”) sets out the basis on which any personal data we collect from you, or that you provide to us, will be processed by us. For the purposes of the applicable data protection legislation (including the General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”) and the applicable national data privacy legislation), Travelzoo (Asia) Limited (“TAL”) is the data controller of personal information we hold about you.

Please read the following carefully to understand our views and practices regarding your personal data or personal information, how we will treat it and the cookies that we use, as well as the rights you have in respect of Travelzoo META’s use of your personal information. By visiting Travelzoo META’s websites (collectively, the “Site”) or using our mobile applications (collectively, the “Mobile App”) you are accepting and consenting to the practices described in this Policy.

What This Policy Covers

This Policy applies to your use of Travelzoo META’s products and services, including the Site, email alerts, newsletters, other commercial messages through the communication channels you have chosen, blog posts, discussions and posts on our social media channels, and the Mobile App (collectively, the "Services").
This Policy does not apply to the practices of people or companies that Travelzoo META does not own, control, employ or manage, except where incorporated by reference within licensing arrangements with third parties.
Our website uses cookies to distinguish you from other users of our website. This helps us to provide you with a good experience when you browse our website and also allows us to improve our site. For detailed information on the cookies we use and the purposes for which we use them, see our Cookies Policy below.
Minors- You must be at least 18 years old to register, subscribe for or otherwise use Travelzoo META’s Services because Travelzoo META is available only to individuals who can form legally binding contracts under applicable law. Travelzoo META does not knowingly collect or use any information relating to individuals under 18 years old.

When we collect your personal information

Travelzoo META collects personal information about you when you:

Visit and use our Site or Mobile App;
Register, subscribe for or sign in/up to our Services;
Send or receive email communications to or from Travelzoo META, send or receive commercial messages through the communication channels you have chosen (such as Whatsapp alerts or text messages) or click on any email communications from Travelzoo META;
Use any Travelzoo META software widgets;
Visit the websites of Travelzoo META’s partners;
Voluntarily provide us personal information by phone, email, live chats, message boards, in letters, online forms and other correspondence;
Contribute feedback, member reviews, questions, comments, media (images, videos, audio), posts or discussions through our Services, our social media channels or through one of our partners; and
Enter promotions or sweepstakes sponsored by or in connection with Travelzoo META.

Personal information that we collect from you

Personal information that we collect through our Services

When you subscribe to or use our Services, we may (depending on the device and Services you are using) collect the following personal information from you:

Contact information such as name, email address, country of residence, and mobile number, user name and password;
Billing information such as credit card information and billing address;
Information concerning your personal preferences, such as preferred metaverse experiences and any other personal interests you share with us;
Information about your transactions with us and our business partners (such as payment providers) through your use of our Services;
Technical information, including the Internet protocol (IP) address used to connect your computer to the Internet, your login information, browser type and version, time zone setting, browser plug-in types and versions, operating system and platform;
Information about your Site visit, including the full Uniform Resource Locators (URL), clickstream to, through and from our Site (including date and time), page response times, download errors, length of visits to certain pages, page interaction information (such as scrolling, clicks, and mouse-overs) and methods used to browse away from the page;
Personal information that you give to us that you give us by filling in forms on our Site, by corresponding with us by phone, e-mail or otherwise;
Information you provide when you register to use our Site, subscribe to any of our Services, and when you report a problem with our Site; and
When you are using the Mobile App, we collect geo-location information. We may request access or permission to and track location-based information from your mobile device, either continuously or while you are using our mobile application, to provide location-based services. If you wish to change our access or permissions, you may do so in your device’s settings.

Personal information we collect when you enter a promotion, sweepstakes or contest

When you enter a promotion, sweepstakes, or contest hosted by Travelzoo META or sponsored by Travelzoo META and/or our partners, we may ask for your name, address, and email address. You may also be asked to provide additional information (such as member reviews, photos or videos) or to answer certain questions, some of which may be optional, in order to participate;
We may use the personal information you provide to contact you in connection with a particular promotion, such as a sweepstakes or contest – for example, to update you of your status, administer the promotion, let you know that a promotion has ended, and for other purposes;
When you participate in a Travelzoo META -sponsored or hosted promotion, sweepstakes, or contest, you are subject to the Official Rules of that promotion, sweepstakes, or contest;

Personal information that we obtain from Third Party Sources;

We may collect information through the use of third party web analytics services (such as Google Analytics) to provide information such as the number of visits to a particular page or the amount of time spent on a website;
We may collect geo-location information from third party service providers;
We may use information from you and third party sites to show you relevant advertising on third party sites (e.g. Facebook, Google, Instagram, Snapchat, LinkedIn, and Twitter). This could involve showing you an advertising message on social media. If you don’t want to be shown targeted advertising messages from Travelzoo META, third party sites may allow you to request not to see messages from specific advertisers on that site in the future. In addition, social media providers, such as Facebook, may send us information about you in line with their policies. If you wish to prevent that sharing, you can do so by editing your Facebook privacy settings or the relevant settings/preferences for other social media providers; and
Our payment providers (including Stripe, Apple, PayPal) may provide account information to us related to your transaction e.g. name, address, geo location based on your payment method.
We may obtain information about you from other sources. For example, we may hire a third party data aggregator to provide us additional information about our existing consumers, such as purchase history and demographic information, to provide more effective personalization.

How and on which legal basis we use your personal information

If you are a visitor from the European Economic Area or from the United Kingdom, our legal basis for collecting and using your personal data will depend on the personal data concerned and the specific context in which we collect it.

When we fulfil a contract or to take steps linked to a contract

To carry out our obligations arising from any contracts entered into between you and us and to provide you with the products or services you have requested from us or through our Services and with information about these products and services.
If you are entering a promotion, sweepstakes or contest, the personal information you are providing will be used only for the purpose of administering this promotion, sweepstakes or contest, unless if we inform you otherwise.

Under certain circumstances, when you give us your consent

When this is in accordance with your marketing communications preferences or alert settings, we may send you push notifications, emails and text messages from Travelzoo META relating to our Services. To opt-out of receiving push notifications, you can disable push notifications on your mobile device system settings. You can opt-out of our marketing communications at any time (see "Your data protection rights" below);
To allow you to participate in interactive features of our Services when you choose to do so and to customize the content and provide targeted advertising for our Services, as well as to improve our Services; and
When using our Site and Mobile App, if you tell Travelzoo META where you are located (e.g., by allowing your mobile device to send Travelzoo META your precise location), Travelzoo META may use that information to provide you with location-based information, tailored offers and advertising. If you wish to deactivate this feature, you can disable location services on your mobile device.

When we pursue our legitimate interests

To provide you with information about goods or services we feel may interest you. If you are an existing customer, we will only contact you with information about goods and services similar to those which were the subject of a previous sale or negotiations of a sale to you. Where we permit selected third parties to use your data, we (or they) will contact you by electronic means only if you have consented to this;
To measure or understand the effectiveness of advertising we serve to you;
To notify you about changes to our Services;
To administer our Site and Mobile App and for internal operations, including troubleshooting, data analysis, testing, research, statistical and survey purposes;
To improve our Site to ensure that content is presented in the most effective manner for you and for your computer and as part of our efforts to keep our Site safe and secure;
Furthermore, when you use our Services, we receive and record information from your computer and browser, including your IP address, Travelzoo META cookie information, the type of software and hardware you are using and the web page(s) you visit.
To provide you with Travelzoo META’s services and to improve and promote our Services;
We use IP addresses for various purposes, including to:
- Send the most appropriate advertising based on geographic area or information derived from your IP address. Many IP addresses are commonly associated with Internet service providers, universities, or major corporations in specific regions or localities. Aggregate information derived from IP addresses may also be reported to advertisers or other third parties;
- Assist third party advertisers to track the effectiveness of the promotions they run on our Site, such as to track visits to and business on the advertised websites; and
- Enhance information about you with appropriate and legal data that may be obtained to serve you better, and present you with more relevant information, for example by using Geo-IP maps.

For purposes which are required by law

In case of requests by governments or law enforcement authorities conducting an investigation; and
In order to fulfill any other legal obligations under the applicable law.

When we share and disclose information

Travelzoo META does not rent or sell personal information about you to third parties, however, we reserve the right to share the personal information we collect about you with third parties when we have your permission or under the following circumstances:
- If you are making a purchase through our Services, we often work with third parties and trusted business partners, such as Stripe, Paypal and Apple, to securely collect your credit card, billing address and other verifying information. Our third party partners are required to follow generally accepted industry standards to protect the personal information they receive and/or process on our behalf. While we strive to use commercially acceptable means to protect your personal information, no method of transmission over the Internet, or method of electronic storage, is 100% secure and thus we cannot guarantee its absolute security;
- We may provide data to trusted partners who work on our behalf to communicate with you about offers from Travelzoo META, including to select and serve relevant adverts to you. Note, these companies do not have any right to use or share your personal data for any other purposes and we do not typically disclose information about identifiable individuals, however they may use aggregate data for statistical purposes;
- We may also provide data to our third party analytics partners, such as Google Analytics and Facebook Pixel, for the purposes of tracking usage information and site traffic. We will share your personal information only as necessary for the third party to provide that service. To opt-out of Google Analytics use of your information, please visit: tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout;
- Promotions that are hosted on Travelzoo META may be sponsored by Travelzoo META, may be co-sponsored by Travelzoo META and another company, or may be sponsored by companies other than Travelzoo META. Some or all of the data collected during a promotion may be shared with the sponsor(s) or companies indicated on the entry form so that we may administer the promotion, for prize fulfillment, and as otherwise specified in the official rules for the promotion. Promotions that are hosted by a third party may collect and use information alone or in conjunction with Travelzoo META. The nature of this information sharing policy will be indicated on the entry form. If information is collected and used by a third party, you will need to read their Privacy Policy to understand how that information may be used;
- We may invite you to write a member review on your personal experience and display the information that you provide us. When submitting a review you should not provide any personal information that you do not wish to make publicly available. If you wish to update or delete your testimonial, you can contact us via the email address at the end of this policy. You may also wish to leave a comment on one of our posts by means of a third party, such as Facebook or Instagram. Please be aware that you may be sharing personal information with these other networks; and
- If you purchase certain services for others, we will collect the personal information of the recipients of these services. You must make sure that you have the right to provide such personal information. When you provide any personal information about another person, you must make sure that they agree to the provision of their information to us for us to collect, use and disclose such personal information as set forth in this Privacy Policy. If an individual whose personal information you have provided us wishes to request the removal of their personal information, they can contact us via the details at the end of this Policy.
In addition, we may share your personal information with law enforcement, regulatory authorities, courts with competent jurisdictions, emergency services or other necessary third parties for legal, protection, security, and safety purposes, including:
- to comply with legal requirements, orders, or proceedings;
- to comply with laws or regulatory requirements and to respond to lawful requests and legal process;
- to perform fraud or credit checks, report or collect debts owed;
- to protect the rights and property of Travelzoo META, our agents, customers, and others, including enforcing our agreements, policies, and terms of use and protecting our network and physical assets; and/or
- to protect the safety of our employees and agents, our customers, or any person.
Furthermore, if we have a legal basis to do so (such as legitimate interests or for purposes required by law), we may share your data with any member of our group, which means our subsidiaries, parent company and its subsidiaries and affiliate companies in which Travelzoo META has control through either direct or indirect ownership.
Finally, we may transfer, share, or disclose your personal information to third parties as part of any corporate reorganization process such as a merger, acquisition, and/or a sale of all, substantially all, or part of our assets, and/or a licensing agreement with third parties. Travelzoo META will provide you with notice before your personal information becomes subject to a different privacy policy unless the privacy policy remains tied to Travelzoo META's own practices.

Tracking technologies

As is true of most web sites, we gather certain information automatically and store it in log files. This information may include internet protocol (IP) addresses, browser type, internet service provider (ISP), referring/exit pages, operating system, date/time stamp, and/or clickstream data. We may combine this automatically collected log information with other information we collect about you in order to improve the services we offer you, improve our marketing efforts, perform analytics, or improve site functionality.
Travelzoo META and our partners, affiliates, and service providers, such as our marketing partners, use cookies, web beacons, tags, and scripts to personalize our Services to your preferences and to provide an automatic log-in process. If you prefer, you may set your computer preferences to decline cookies. Note, if you choose to decline cookies, you may not be able to fully experience all the features of our Online Services. For more information about our use of cookies, see our Cookies policy below.
A web beacon is activated as part of a web page or email and allows us to count visitors to our websites and to recognize users by accessing Travelzoo META cookies which help us personalize your experience when you use our Services.
Travelzoo META also uses web beacons to conduct research on behalf of our partners and for auditing purposes. No personally identifiable information about you is shared with partners from this research.
We may partner with third party ad networks to either display advertising on our Site or to manage our advertising on other sites. In addition, we may partner with an ad network, which may use cookies and web beacons to collect information on your activities on this and other websites, to provide you targeted advertisements based on your interests. We do not disclose information about identifiable individuals to our advertisers, but we will provide them with aggregate information about our users. We may also use such aggregate information to help advertisers reach the kind of audience they want to target. If you wish to not have this information used for the purpose of serving you targeted ads, you may opt-out by clicking here. If you are in the European Union and would like to opt-out, please click here. Please note that you will continue to receive generic contextualized ads, but these will not be targeted based on information about you or your device.
Some promotions, sweepstakes or contests may use cookies in order to track your progress and number of entries in some of our promotions, sweepstakes, and contests.

Confidentiality and security of your personal information

Travelzoo META takes industry-standard technical and organizational security measures to protect your user information under our company's control against loss, misuse, or alteration. When you enter a credit card number on our website, we encrypt the transmission of that information using secure socket layer technology (SSL).
However, the transmission of information via the internet is not completely secure. Although we will put in place appropriate security measures to protect your personal data, we cannot guarantee the security of your data transmitted to our site; any transmission is at your own risk. Once we have received your information, we will use strict procedures and security features to try to prevent unauthorized access.
Where we have given you (or where you have chosen) a password which enables you to access certain parts of our site, you are responsible for keeping this password confidential. We ask you not to share a password with anyone.
Travelzoo META websites include links to other websites owned or operated by third parties whose privacy practices may differ from those of Travelzoo META and are also likely to use cookies. For example, our website can contain links to and from third party websites of advertisers, hotels, tour operators and partner merchants. If you follow a link to any of these websites, please note that these websites have their own privacy policies and the information you submit is governed by their privacy policy. We do not accept any responsibility or liability for the privacy practices of such third party websites and your use of such websites is at your own risk. We encourage you to carefully read the privacy policy of any website you visit.

Data transfer and storage outside of the EEA

The personal information we collect from you may be transferred to and stored at, destinations inside and outside the European Economic Area (“EEA”). It may also be processed by staff operating outside of the EEA who work for us or one of our suppliers. This includes staff engaged in, among other things, the fulfillment of your order, the processing of your payment details and the provision of support services.

Some of the jurisdictions outside of the EEA offer differing levels of protection in respect of personal information and may, in certain instances, be less protective than the jurisdiction you are typically resident in.

However, we have taken appropriate safeguards to require that your personal information will remain protected in accordance with this Privacy Policy and have implemented the European Commission’s Standard Contractual Clauses or make sure your data is protected by a vendor’s Processor Binding Corporate Rules.

By submitting your personal data, you agree to this transfer, storing or processing.

Third Party widgets

Our Site and Mobile App include social media features, such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter buttons and widgets, or interactive mini-programs such as live chat support. These features may collect your IP address, which page you are visiting on our Site, and may set a cookie to enable the feature to function properly. Social media features and widgets are either hosted by a third party or hosted directly on our Site.
We cannot guarantee the safety and privacy of data you provide to any third parties. Any data collected by third parties is not covered by this Policy. We are not responsible for the content or privacy and security practices and policies of any third parties, including other websites, services or applications that may be linked to or from the Site or our Services. You should review the policies of such third parties and contact them directly to respond to your questions.

Single sign on

Our Services may offer you the ability to register and login using your third party social media account details (like your Facebook logins). Where you choose to do this, we will receive certain profile information about you from your social media provider. The profile information we receive may vary depending on the social media provider concerned, but will often include your name, email address, friends list, profile picture as well as other information you choose to make public. If you login using Facebook, we may also request access to other permissions related to your account, such as friends, check-ins, and likes, and you may choose to grant or deny us access to each individual permission.
We will use the information we receive only for the purposes that are described in this privacy policy or that are otherwise made clear to you through our Services. Please note that we do not control, and are not responsible for, other uses of your personal information by your third party social media provider. We recommend that you review their privacy policy to understand how they collect, use and share your personal information, and how you can set your privacy preferences on their sites and apps.

Data retention

We will hold your personal information on our systems for as long as is necessary for the relevant activity or as long as is set out in any relevant contract you hold with Travelzoo META.
Where we process personal data for marketing purposes or with your consent, we process the data until you ask us to stop and for a short period after this (to allow us to implement your requests). We also keep a record of the fact that you have asked us not to send you direct marketing or to process your data so that we can respect your request in future. This record will be kept for as long as we retain your personal data in accordance with this section.
We may retain certain information associated with your account in our archives, including for analytical purposes as well as for recordkeeping integrity. The periods for which we retain your information depend on the purpose for which we collected it and we use it.
We retain personal information we collect from you where we have an ongoing legitimate business need to do so (for example, to provide you with a service you have requested or to comply with applicable legal, tax or accounting requirements).
When we have no ongoing legitimate business need to process your personal information, we will either delete or anonymize it or, if this is not possible (for example, because your personal information has been stored in backup archives), then we will securely store your personal information and isolate it from any further processing until deletion is possible. If you request termination of your Travelzoo META account, it is our practice to deactivate your account and block further email deliveries to you within ten business days.

Your data protection rights

Under certain conditions, you have the right to require us to:
1. Inform you about how your personal information is being used;
2. Access and receive a copy of the personal information we hold about you;
3. Request the correction of inaccurate personal data we hold about you;
4. Require us to delete any information about you for which we do not longer have a lawful ground to use;
5. Restrict our use of your personal information;
6. Provide you with your personal information in a usable electronic format and transmit it to a third party (right to data portability); and
7. Cease carrying out certain processing activities based on the legitimate interests ground unless our reasons for undertaking that processing outweigh any prejudice to your data protection rights.
If you wish to make use of one of the above rights, you can do so at any time by contacting us using the contact details provided under the “How to contact us” heading below. (We may require you to prove your identity with approved forms of identification).
You have the right to opt-out of marketing communications we send you at any time. You can exercise this right by clicking on the “unsubscribe” or “opt-out” link in the marketing emails we send you. To opt-out of other forms of marketing (such as postal marketing, text or Whatsapp messages or telemarketing), then please contact us using the contact details provided under the “How to contact us” heading below or follow the instructions in the marketing communication.
Similarly, if we have collected and processed your personal information with your consent, then you can withdraw your consent at any time. Withdrawing your consent will not affect the lawfulness of any processing we conducted prior to your withdrawal, nor will it affect processing of your personal information conducted in reliance on lawful processing grounds other than consent.
You have the right to complain to a data protection authority about our collection and use of your personal information. For more information, please contact your local data protection authority. Contact details for data protection authorities in the European Economic Area, Switzerland and other countries are available here.
We respond to all requests we receive from individuals wishing to exercise their data protection rights in accordance with applicable data protection laws.

Changes to our Privacy Policy

Travelzoo META may update this Policy from time to time so you may wish to check it each time you use our Services or submit personal information to Travelzoo META. We will post any update(s) to this Policy on our Site. All update(s) will be effective immediately on posting. The date on which this Policy was last updated is shown at the top of the Policy. If you do not agree to these changes, please do not continue to use Travelzoo META’s Site or Services to submit personal information to Travelzoo META.
If we make any material changes in the way we treat personal information, we will notify you by including a notice in an email sent to the primary email address in your Travelzoo META account or by placing a prominent notice on our Policy web pages and/or our home page.

Cookies Policy

Our website uses cookies to distinguish you from other users of our website. This helps us to provide you with a good experience when you browse our website and also allows us to improve our site. You can change your cookie settings by clicking here. By continuing to browse the site, you are agreeing to our use of cookies.

A cookie is a small file of letters and numbers that we store on your browser or the hard drive of your computer if you agree. Cookies contain information that is transferred to your computer’s hard drive.

We use the following cookies:

Strictly necessary cookies: These are cookies that are required for the operation of our website. They include, for example, cookies that enable you to log into secure areas of our website, use our payment services or make use of e-billing services.
Analytical/performance cookies: They allow us to recognise and count the number of visitors and to see how visitors move around our website when they are using it. This helps us to improve the way our website works, for example, by ensuring that users are finding what they are looking for easily.
Functionality cookies: These are used to recognise you when you return to our website. This enables us to personalise our content for you, greet you by name and remember your preferences (for example, your choice of language or region).
Targeting cookies: These cookies record your visit to our website, the pages you have visited and the links you have followed. We will use this information to make our website and the advertising displayed on it more relevant to your interests. We may also share this information with third parties for this purpose.
Affiliate tracking cookies: These cookies record your visit to our website and any subsequent purchases, they do not identify any individual. This information will be shared with our affiliate platform providers.
Third party cookies: These are cookies dropped by services we use to provide features on our site such as live chat and support or social network features like sharing. Some third party cookies may be strictly necessary because they are required for essential site operations like payment processing.

How to opt-out of Cookies

You can change your cookie settings by clicking here. You can also block cookies by activating the setting on your browser that allows you to refuse the setting of all or some cookies. However, if you use your browser settings to block all cookies (including essential cookies) you may not be able to access all or parts of our site.

How to contact us

If you have questions about this Policy, regarding disclosure of personal information to third parties should it ever occur, or about data we may hold about you, please email us at meta@travelzoo.com.

Important note: The data controller of EEA residents’ personal information is Travelzoo (Asia) Limited with registered office at 19/F., No. 3 Lockhart Road, Wanchai, Hong Kong. The representative in the EEA of Travelzoo (Asia) Limited is Travelzoo (Europe) Limited (Germany Branch) with registered office at Leopoldstr. 23, 80802 Munich, Germany.