Privacy policy

Last updated 16 October 2026

Homlystay (Kollam, Kerala, India) makes websites with direct booking for homestays, resorts and boat operators. This page explains what information we keep, why, and how you can have it removed. Contact: homlystay.maps@gmail.com.

Guests who book on a Homlystay website

When you ask to book, we store your name, phone number, email and country if you give them, the dates, the number of guests and any note you write, so that the stay's owner can see and confirm your booking. Payments go straight from you to the owner's own UPI ID: we never see or store any card, bank or UPI details. We do not sell your details or use them for advertising.

Owners of a stay

We store what you give us for your website (name, address, photos, rooms, prices, WhatsApp number, UPI ID, email) and your bookings. Your owner page is protected by a PIN that we store only in a scrambled (hashed) form. If you turn on booking alerts, we store your phone browser's notification address so we can alert you; you can turn it off on the owner page. If you link calendars from Booking.com, Airbnb or Agoda, we read those calendar links to close booked dates.

Google Business Profile (your Google Maps listing)

If you add Homlystay as a manager of your Google listing, or press "Sign in with Google" on your owner page, Homlystay can manage your Business Profile through Google's API. We use this access for one thing: to read the listings you manage (their name, Google place ID and current website link) so we can find the one that belongs to your stay, and to put your Homlystay website address in its Website field. We do not change anything else, post anything, read your reviews or messages, or use your Google data for advertising, and we do not sell or share it. The Google permission key is stored encrypted. You can remove Homlystay at any time: on your listing (Business Profile settings → People and access) or at myaccount.google.com/permissions.

Homlystay's use and transfer of information received from Google APIs adheres to the Google API Services User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements.

Owners who use the Accounts book

The Accounts book stores what you write in it (amounts, categories, shops and their phone numbers, notes, photos of shop bills, supplies and counts, stays you write) and the bills you make for guests, with the guest details you add to them. Photos of shop bills open only through your signed-in owner page. If you sign up on homlystay.com/accounts, we also store your stay's name, your name, place and mobile number, to run your book and to contact you about it. Your PIN is stored only in a scrambled (hashed) form.

Owners who register on homlystay.com

The register form stores your email and, if you give them, your stay's name, place, type and Google Maps link, so our staff can contact you.

Homlystay staff and the Homlystay Staff app

The Homlystay Staff app (Android) is for people who work for Homlystay. It opens the staff work screens after the staff member logs in with the login and PIN Homlystay gives them. To log calls to owners, the app places calls to the owners on the staff member's work list and records how long the phone line was open for each of those calls, and how long the staff member was outside the app while a task was open. These numbers go to Homlystay with the staff member's login and are used to manage the work: the day's task list, working hours and reports to the Homlystay admin. The Google Play version does not read the phone's call history. The version installed from homlystay.com also reads the call history for those owners' numbers only, after each call, to know whether it was answered and how long it lasted; no other entry is read or sent. Neither version reads contacts, messages or photos, or records call audio; the app shows no ads and shares nothing with advertisers. It keeps a random device code so that each login works only on the phones the admin allows. Recordings that staff choose to make ("say what they said") are stored with the owner's record. A staff member's records are kept while they work for Homlystay and deleted within 12 months after they leave; ask the admin to see or delete them earlier.

Owners and the Homlystay Help app (screen sharing)

The Homlystay Help app (Android) lets an owner show their phone screen to one Homlystay staff member who is helping them, using a 6-digit code that staff member gives them. Sharing starts only when the owner presses Start sharing and then allows it in Android's own question ("Start now" or "Share screen"); a notification with a Stop button shows the whole time, and the owner can stop at any moment. While sharing, the app sends pictures of the screen, through Homlystay's server, to Homlystay staff only: one staff member guides the owner, and other logged-in Homlystay staff may also watch, to learn how owners are helped. The pictures are not recorded or saved anywhere, and staff can only watch: they cannot press anything on the owner's phone. Screens that apps protect (for example bank and UPI apps) show black. If the owner allows the microphone (Android asks once, when sharing starts), the app also sends the owner's voice live, through Homlystay's server, to the same people, and plays the voice of the staff member who is guiding them, so the two can talk inside the app without a phone call. Other logged-in Homlystay staff who watch to learn can listen too, but only the staff member who started the share can talk to the owner. The voice is not recorded or saved either: it exists in memory for a fraction of a second on its way. The microphone is used only while sharing, the owner can switch it off with the app's button at any moment, and the screen share works without it. A code works for one hour. Homlystay keeps only who shared with which staff member and when. The app reads nothing else on the phone and shows no ads.

Cookies

We use only the cookies needed to keep owners and staff signed in. No advertising or tracking cookies.

Where it is kept, and for how long

Data is stored with Cloudflare (our hosting provider). Sample websites made from public Google Maps information are deleted after 30 days unless the owner takes the website. Bookings and owner records are kept while the website is active. Ask us at homlystay.maps@gmail.com to see, correct or delete your information; we answer within 30 days.