Privacy Policy

This policy explains how LonCom AI collects, uses and protects personal data through the Cotswold Host service — the website at cotswoldhost.com, the private guest AI assistant guests reach by scanning a QR code at a property, and the dashboard hosts use to manage their properties.

This is a plain-English explanation of our data practices, not a substitute for legal advice. If you have questions about how your data is handled, email us — see Contact us below.

Who we are

Cotswold Host is provided by LonCom AI, a trading name of Rollright Publishing Ltd, a company registered in England and Wales (company number: to be confirmed). We can be reached at support@loncomai.com. We don't currently publish a separate postal address — email is the quickest way to reach us.

Who this policy applies to

Cotswold Host handles personal data from three different groups of people, differently:

• Website visitors — anyone browsing cotswoldhost.com or getting in touch via our contact form.
• Hosts — the property owners and managers who pay for and log into the Cotswold Host dashboard.
• Guests — people staying at a property who scan the property's QR code and chat with the AI assistant. Guests never create an account or give us their name or email to use the chat.

What personal data we collect

Website visitors

If you use the “get in touch” form on our site, we collect your name, email address, and — if you choose to provide them — phone number, property address and any message you write. We use this only to respond to your enquiry.

Hosts

Host accounts are set up by us, not self-registered. Once set up, we hold your email address (via our authentication provider), name, phone number, and an optional profile photo. For each property you manage, we hold the property's address, your guest-facing contact details (the name, phone number and email you want guests to see), check-in/check-out details, and the local information you write for the AI assistant to use when answering guests.

Guests

The guest chat is designed to be used anonymously — you don't need to sign up, and we don't ask for your name or email to use it. When you open a property's chat, an anonymous session is created and stored in your browser; we keep the full text of your conversation with the assistant, linked to that anonymous session, so the assistant has context as you chat and so the host can review how the assistant is performing. If you choose to type personal information into the chat yourself (for example, to explain a problem), that text is stored as part of the conversation.

Some properties use a booking-specific PIN to unlock sensitive information such as a lockbox or alarm code. The PIN is set by the host and tied to a label like “The Smiths” — we don't ask guests for their name or booking reference to use it.

We do not knowingly collect IP addresses, precise location, or device identifiers within the app itself. Our hosting and infrastructure providers may capture standard technical logs (such as IP address) as part of normally operating a website — see Who we share data with below.

How we use personal data, and our legal basis

• Providing the service (necessary to perform our contract with hosts, and in guests' and hosts' legitimate interests where no direct contract with the guest exists) — running the guest AI assistant, giving hosts access to their dashboard, and letting hosts review guest conversations and feedback for their own property.
• Responding to enquiries (legitimate interests, and steps taken at your request before entering into a contract) — replying to messages sent via our contact form.
• Sending service and account emails (necessary to perform our contract, or legitimate interests) — for example monthly summary reports to hosts, or notifying a host that a guest has asked to speak to them directly.
• Improving the service (legitimate interests) — reviewing how the AI assistant performs so we can improve the guidance we give it, using data in a way that doesn't identify individual guests wherever possible.
• Meeting legal obligations (legal obligation) — where we're required to keep or disclose records.

We don't use guest chat data, or any other personal data we hold, for advertising, and we don't sell personal data to third parties.

AI-generated responses

The guest chat is powered by an AI language model that generates its answers automatically from the information the host has provided about their property, plus general local knowledge. It doesn't make any decision that has a legal or similarly significant effect on a guest — it answers questions and, where it can't help or a matter is urgent, tells the guest to contact the host directly. If you'd rather speak to a person, the assistant will always point you to the host's own contact details.

Who we share data with

We use a small number of trusted service providers (“processors”) to run Cotswold Host. They only process personal data on our instructions, to provide their service to us:

• Supabase — hosts our database, file storage and host account authentication, on servers in the EU (Ireland).
• Anthropic (the maker of Claude) — processes guest chat messages and property information in order to generate the assistant's answers. Anthropic is based in the United States; where this involves a transfer of personal data outside the UK, we rely on appropriate safeguards such as Standard Contractual Clauses.
• Resend — delivers transactional emails on our behalf, such as replies to enquiries and host account emails.
• Vercel — hosts the cotswoldhost.com website and application.

We don't share personal data with any other third party, except where we're required to by law (for example, in response to a valid request from a law enforcement or regulatory body), or as part of a merger, acquisition or sale of the business, in which case we'd take reasonable steps to keep your data protected and inform you where required.

How long we keep data

Guest sessions and chat messages are kept for a retention period set by the host for their property (typically a matter of weeks after the stay ends), after which they're no longer shown or used by the assistant. Enquiry form submissions and host account data are kept for as long as needed to run the service and meet our legal and accounting obligations, and are deleted or anonymised when no longer needed.

Security

We rely on our infrastructure providers' security controls, including encryption of data in transit, and database access rules (row-level security) that restrict guest conversation data to the host it belongs to. No method of transmission or storage is completely secure, but we take reasonable steps to protect the personal data we hold.

Cookies and local storage

We don't use advertising or analytics cookies, and we don't track visitors across other websites. The only cookies we set are strictly necessary ones used to keep hosts signed in to the dashboard. The guest chat stores a random session identifier in your browser's local storage (not a cookie) so it can remember your conversation while you use it — this is required for the chat to function and isn't used for tracking.

Your rights

Under UK data protection law, you have the right to:

• ask us what personal data we hold about you, and get a copy of it (access);
• ask us to correct inaccurate data (rectification);
• ask us to delete your data, where there's no good reason for us to keep it (erasure);
• ask us to restrict or object to how we use your data in certain circumstances;
• ask for data you've given us to be provided in a portable format, where relevant; and
• withdraw consent at any point, where we're relying on consent.

Because the guest chat is designed to be anonymous, we may not be able to identify which conversation belongs to you if you ask us to act on a right in relation to it — the more detail you can give us (property, approximate date and time), the more we can help.

To exercise any of these rights, email support@loncomai.com.

Children

The guest chat may be used by anyone staying at a property, including children accompanied by a parent or guardian. We don't knowingly collect personal data directly from children beyond what may appear in chat messages, and we don't use guest chat data for any purpose other than delivering and improving the assistant itself.

Complaints

If you're unhappy with how we've handled your personal data, please tell us first at support@loncomai.com — we'll acknowledge your complaint within 30 days, look into it, keep you updated, and let you know the outcome.

You also have the right to complain directly to the UK's data protection regulator, the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), at ico.org.uk or by calling 0303 123 1113. We'd appreciate the chance to resolve things directly first, but you're not required to contact us before contacting the ICO.

Changes to this policy

We may update this policy from time to time — for example, as the service changes or as data protection law changes. We'll update the “last updated” date at the top of this page when we do. Significant changes affecting hosts will be communicated directly.

Contact us

Questions about this policy or how your data is handled? Email support@loncomai.com.