New website review

Get some feedback on your site or ad from other rental owners and techies. Also a library of online resources so you can make DIY improvements to your web presence.
zebedee
Posts: 1270
Joined: Fri Sep 12, 2014 2:57 pm
Location: yorkshire dales

Post by zebedee »

Given that graphologists are in business and handwriting is unique, I would have said that handwriting might fall in this category.
DNA is unique as well. Does this mean I have to sack my cleaner and travel to do changeovers?? :D :D :D
e-richard
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Location: Algarve, Portugal
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Post by e-richard »

COYS wrote:... I think the photographic element of the guest book entries is far more effective than just plain text.
+1

And I agree with everything else in Coys' post above.
** Richard
PIMS: Holiday Rental Management system
They say we learn from our mistakes. That makes me a genius !
newtimber
Posts: 1945
Joined: Sat Nov 24, 2012 5:57 pm
Location: Brighton
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Post by newtimber »

COYS wrote:
Second apology for thread creep & for what it's worth to the OP I think the photographic element of the guest book entries is far more effective than just plain text.
OK speaking personally as a guest, I would not want or expect my hand-written comments to be published online. What I write in a guestbook I expect to be seen by a very restricted audience not available for all the world to see. Regardless of GDPR, I think it is only polite you should ask before you do this.
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greenbarn
Posts: 6146
Joined: Sat May 30, 2009 6:41 pm
Location: The Westmorland Dales, Cumbria

Post by greenbarn »

Yes, it’s a mountain in many cases and we can choose to ignore the legislation in the knowledge that it’s highly unlikely that the GDPR police will send the SWAT team on a random visit.
More important perhaps is the spirit of the legislation to respect our guests' right to their privacy (whilst also being aware of the actions they can take if we don’t).

I agree that an image of the guests’ comments is more valuable than typed up text, and there is nothing to stop anyone using an image of the comments (handwriting - certainly in isolation - is not regarded as PII; a full read of the ICO documentation on PII will reveal all manner of possible identifiers that may contribute to identification in certain circumstances if anyone is remotely interested.)
Whilst being wary of taking one statement in isolation, this is a reasonable guideline:
If it is possible to identify an individual directly from the information you are processing, then that information may be personal data.
You have to decide if a combination of name, where the guest is from, when they stayed and where would be enough (directly) to identify that person; displaying comments anonymously is a simple safeguard and will generally remove the issue.

It is also perhaps a simple courtesy to anonymize information that you are choosing to put into the public domain, regardless of what the individuals choose to put out themselves. If I saw a public reproduction of a comment I’d left alongside my name, and I hadn’t given explicit permission for it to be used, I would not be happy about it.
newtimber
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Location: Brighton
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Post by newtimber »

greenbarn wrote:If I saw a public reproduction of a comment I’d left alongside my name, and I hadn’t given explicit permission for it to be used, I would not be happy about it.
+1

I have stayed in places that I would not recommend and would not want to come back to and would not want my comments in a guestbook to be used "as a review" to encourage others to stay. That is not why I wrote them.

I always try to find something positive to say in the guestbook and write any negative comments and suggestions separately. I think that is what all of us would want and expect from our guests and that should not be abused.
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