Privacy notice
Last updated 2026-05-10.
Galjoen Gat stores enquiry details (name, email, phone, dates, and message) only as long as needed to reply. This page documents what is collected, why, how long it is kept, and your rights under POPIA.
What we collect
When you use the enquiry form, we collect your name, email address, phone number, and the message you send. Preferred dates and guest count are optional. The arrival check-in form collects your mobile number, your free-text note about anything that needs attention, an optional photo, an optional name, and an optional booking reference. We use Google Analytics 4 via Google Tag Manager, default-denied via Consent Mode v2: no analytics or marketing cookies are set until you accept the consent banner. The full list of cookies and trackers is in the "Cookies and trackers" section below. The check-in form does not save a draft to your browser; if you navigate away mid-form your entries are lost.
Why we collect it
We use your details only to reply to your enquiry. We do not add you to a mailing list, and we do not share your details with any third party.
How long we keep it
Enquiry emails are kept for up to 5 years so that we can respond to follow-up questions and meet standard South African record-keeping practice for transactional communications, in line with POPIA Section 14. After that, they are deleted unless you have made a booking that needs longer-term records.
Your rights under POPIA
Under the Protection of Personal Information Act, you have the right to ask what information we hold about you, to correct it, and to ask us to delete it. Email info@pearlybeachaccommodation.co.za: Mia receives your request, logs it, and escalates to Tertius (property owner and data controller) within 24 hours. We reply within 7 working days. If you are not satisfied with how we handle your request, you may lodge a complaint with the Information Regulator of South Africa at inforegulator.org.za.
Where your data lives
Enquiry and check-in submissions are stored on a managed database hosted in the European Union. Guest-uploaded photos from the arrival check-in form transit US-based image storage; this is the ONLY guest-data flow that crosses the US. The marketing photos you see in our gallery are hosted on the same South African server as the rest of the site. Alert emails are sent from a South African mail server. Check-in photos travel over a signed channel and are kept in a private folder scoped to your stay; image metadata is stripped on upload. See "Cross-border data flows" below for the POPIA Section 72 disclosure and your rights.
Guest check-in form
The arrival check-in form is private to you, the booking manager (Mia), and the owner (Tertius). It is not a public review and will never appear on any public page. We use it to notice and fix problems during your stay. If you raise an urgent issue (safety, no power, broken access), an alert email goes to Mia and Tertius within minutes. For everything else, the alert goes to Mia. Photos you attach are kept in a private folder scoped to your stay; image metadata is stripped on upload. Submissions are kept for 730 days (24 months) and then automatically deleted. An internal audit log tracks how we responded, for dispute resolution only, and is never shared.
Legal basis for each field (POPIA section 11)
We rely on legitimate interest for: your mobile number and the text note you leave, because we need both to call you back as soon as possible if something is wrong. We rely on your consent (the POPIA tick-box on the form) for: your optional name, your optional photo upload, and your optional booking reference. You can withdraw consent at any time by emailing info@pearlybeachaccommodation.co.za; we delete the relevant fields when we process your request and reply to confirm, normally within 7 working days.
Bookings through LekkeSlaap
Bookings are handled by LekkeSlaap. Their own privacy policy covers any information you share while booking. When you click "Book on LekkeSlaap", you leave our site.
Cookies and trackers
We use as few cookies as we can. The complete list: (1) gg_consent in your browser localStorage to remember your cookie-banner choice, set by us, kept for 12 months, no consent gate (essential). (2) _ga and _ga_<id> from Google Analytics 4, set only after you accept the consent banner, kept for 24 months, used to count visits and pages. (3) __cf_bm from a bot-management layer on our hosting provider, set without consent under legitimate-interest because it protects the site from abusive bots, kept for 30 minutes. (4) A short-lived sessionStorage entry that lets the site remember which JavaScript chunks have already loaded. There are no Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn, Pinterest, or other marketing pixels at all. There are no third-party iframes (no Google Maps embed, no LekkeSlaap booking widget, no review widgets). If you decline analytics on the consent banner, only items (1) and (3) and (4) are set.
Maps on Contact and Area
We serve static map images from our own server, not interactive third-party embeds, so no external cookies are set when you view a map. The "Open in Maps" or "Get directions" links open Google Maps in a new tab only if you click them.
Cross-border data flows
Enquiry and check-in submissions are stored on a managed database in the European Union. Guest-uploaded photos from the arrival check-in form transit US-based image storage. Marketing photos in our gallery are hosted in South Africa, not the US. Alert emails are sent from a South African mail server. Under POPIA Section 72, transferring personal information outside South Africa requires either your explicit consent or a finding that the destination country has comparable data-protection law. The European Union is covered by GDPR; the United States operates under CCPA. We rely on your consent plus binding processor terms with our infrastructure partners. If you object to cross-border processing, email info@pearlybeachaccommodation.co.za and we will delete the relevant data.
Publication of address
We publish the property street address (6 Galjoen St, Pearly Beach, 7220) on this website, in our structured-data markup, and in our sitemap. This is a deliberate choice to enable accurate local search results and accurate Google Maps + Bing Places + Apple Maps listings. If you receive marketing email or unsolicited contact referencing this address, it is not from us. Our enquiry channel is the form on this site or a direct WhatsApp to Mia on 083 720 2287.
Photographs of the property
Photographs of the property and surroundings on this website are taken by the website operator (Martin Carstens) with full permission from the property owner. Copyright is retained by the operator. EXIF metadata is stripped from all uploaded photographs to remove camera-derived GPS coordinates and other technical telemetry; the published photos cannot be used to triangulate the cottage location more precisely than the address we already publish.
Contact
Galjoen Gat, 6 Galjoen St, Pearly Beach, 7220. Email: info@pearlybeachaccommodation.co.za. WhatsApp Mia on 083 720 2287.
Privacy notice version 1.1.0, last updated 2026-05-10.