Last updated: 8 September 2026
This policy explains the cookies and similar technologies (local storage, pixels, software development kits) used on www.saffronstays.com and in the SaffronStays app, and how you control them. It sits alongside our Privacy Policy, which explains everything else we do with personal data.
Your choice comes first
Nothing but strictly necessary technologies runs before you make a choice. Analytics and marketing technologies stay off until you switch them on, and you can change or withdraw that choice at any time — withdrawal is exactly as easy as consent, as the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 requires. Our support chat is the one exception: it is our own software on our own servers rather than a third party receiving your data, and it is how you reach us about a live booking, so it loads without waiting for a choice.
Turning off marketing here does more than stop the scripts: it also switches off the email, SMS, WhatsApp and push opt-ins on your account, so the campaigns themselves stop. If you are signed out when you do it, sign in on this browser shortly afterwards and we apply it to your account as well — we do not hold it indefinitely, because a browser cannot tell one person from the next. If you would rather not sign in, write to us and we will apply it for you.
Switching marketing back on here restores advertising and marketing cookies in this browser. It does not put you back on our mailing lists: an opt-out we have applied to your account stays applied until you ask us to lift it, because starting to message someone again is not something a cookie choice should decide.
Categories we use
Strictly necessary
Sign-in, security, fraud prevention, your booking cart and this consent choice itself. These cannot be switched off — without them the site cannot work.
Functional
Our own support chat, served from our infrastructure rather than a third party's. It is how you reach us about a booking, so it stays on.
Analytics
Google Analytics and Microsoft Clarity, used to count page views and see where people get stuck. Includes session replay of your interactions with the page.
Marketing & personalisation
Meta Pixel, Google Ads, Microsoft Advertising and WebEngage. Used to measure campaigns and show you relevant offers here and on other sites.
What each category loads
| Technology | Category | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| Substack | marketing | Sending the SaffronStays newsletter. Your details are enrolled by our own servers, not by a script in your browser, and only when you ask for the newsletter. |
| Razorpay | necessary | Payment processing and refunds. Card and UPI credentials are entered on Razorpay's own PCI-DSS certified surface — SaffronStays never receives them. |
| ImageKit | necessary | Serving and resizing property images. |
| Cloudinary (legacy media only) | necessary | Serving guest photographs and videos uploaded before we moved to ImageKit. Those rows still hold Cloudinary URLs; nothing new is uploaded there. |
| Elfsight CDN (legacy images only) | necessary | Hosting for the team photographs on our About Us page, left over from a widget we no longer use. No Elfsight script runs on the site. Listed as necessary because these are page images, loaded with the page and not gated on a consent category — re-hosting them removes the vendor entirely. |
| Google Sign-In | necessary | Optional social login, only if you choose to sign in with Google. |
| Facebook Login | necessary | Optional social login, only if you choose to sign in with Facebook. |
| SaffronStays support chat | functional | Live support chat and enquiry handling. |
| Google Analytics 4 & Google Tag Manager | analytics | Traffic measurement and understanding how pages are used. |
| Microsoft Clarity | analytics | Session replay and heatmaps, used to find broken or confusing screens. Clarity also synchronises its identifier with Microsoft's advertising domains (c.bing.com) as part of its own operation. |
| Meta Pixel | marketing | Measuring and targeting advertising on Facebook and Instagram. |
| Google Ads | marketing | Measuring and targeting advertising on Google properties. |
| Microsoft Advertising (Bing UET) | marketing | Measuring and targeting advertising on Bing and the Microsoft Audience Network. Fires from our tag manager container. |
| WebEngage | marketing | Marketing campaigns, on-site personalisation and transactional notifications. |
A fuller description of each recipient, the data it receives and where it is processed is on the third-party disclosure page.
How long cookies last
Session cookies are deleted when you close the browser. Persistent cookies last between 24 hours and 24 months depending on the vendor; the exact lifetime for each is published in the vendor policies linked above. Your consent record itself is stored in your browser's local storage and is re-asked for whenever this policy changes materially.
Because the record lives in the browser, it belongs to that browser rather than to your account: a different browser, device or private window asks again, and anyone else using this one sees the choice made here. Turning marketing off does reach your account, so the emails and messages stop everywhere — but the cookie choice itself does not follow you between devices.
Children
We do not run analytics, behavioural tracking or targeted advertising on an account whose date of birth shows the holder is under 18. See our Child Safety Policy.
Browser-level controls
You can also block or delete cookies in your browser settings, and use your device's "limit ad tracking" control. Blocking strictly necessary cookies will break sign-in and booking.
Questions
Write to our Grievance Officer & Data Protection Contact at privacy@saffronstays.com.