Ochrana soukromí

Genius Loci ("we", "us") provides an AI-powered assistant that helps guests during their stay. We built this service with privacy at its core — your conversations are anonymous and we collect only what is strictly necessary to answer your questions.

1. Who we are

Genius Loci is operated by Mgr. David Balas, ID number 09069186, with registered office at CSA 145, Breclav, 691 41, Czech Republic. For any privacy-related inquiries, contact us at info@geniusloci.homes.

2. What we collect — and what we don't

Guest chat (visitors scanning a QR code)

• Conversation content — the messages you send and receive. These are processed in real time to generate AI responses and are stored so you can return to a conversation during your stay.
• Browser language — detected automatically so the assistant can reply in your language.
• Location (optional) — only if you explicitly allow it. Used solely to provide directions and nearby recommendations. Never stored permanently.
• Voice input (optional) — when using voice-to-text, speech recognition runs entirely in your browser. No audio recordings are sent to or stored by Genius Loci. Text-to-speech audio is generated on-demand and not retained.
• Images (optional) — you may upload images within the chat to ask questions about them. Uploaded images are compressed, stored on cloud infrastructure, and sent to the AI model provider for visual analysis. Images are linked only to your anonymous chat session and follow the same retention period as conversation content.
• E-mail address for reservation forwarding (optional) — if you ask the assistant to e-mail a third-party venue (a restaurant, tour, etc.) on your behalf, we will ask for your e-mail address so the venue can reply to you directly. Providing it is entirely voluntary; without it, we will offer you the venue's phone number instead. The address is used solely to forward that specific request (put in the "Reply-To" and "CC" fields of the outgoing e-mail) and is stored as part of the conversation transcript under the same retention rules as any other message. Owners viewing the conversation later see the address masked. We do not use it for marketing and we do not add it to any mailing list.
• Stay verification (optional, only at properties that connect their reservation system) — you may give the assistant your reservation number and surname so it can tailor answers to your booking. We look the booking up in the property's reservation system and read only a short summary: your name, room, arrival and departure dates, number of guests, board, and notes the property marked for guests. We never read payment details, ID documents, your address, or the price of the stay. The summary is kept in a temporary cache linked to your chat until the end of your departure day and is not written to our database. Verification is never required to use the assistant.
• Service orders (optional) — if you ask the assistant to order a service offered by the property (for example a sauna slot or a massage) and confirm the summary, we send the order to the property's reception by e-mail: the service, the requested date and time, quantity, the name you gave, your room or reservation number, any note you added, and your e-mail address if you chose to share it (used only as the "Reply-To" so the reception can answer you; we do not send a copy to that address). The property sees the order in its dashboard. Please do not include more health information in a note than the reception needs (for example an allergy).

Apart from the optional details described above, which you choose to share, we do not collect your name, phone number, IP address, or any device identifiers. Conversations are otherwise anonymous.

Property owners (registered users)

• Account data — email, name, and authentication credentials (or SSO provider ID for Google / Microsoft sign-in).
• Billing data — processed via Stripe. We do not store credit card numbers; Stripe handles payment data under PCI DSS standards.
• Property information — details you provide about your property (name, address, knowledge base documents) to power the AI assistant for your guests.

3. How we use the data

• To generate real-time AI responses for guests.
• To provide property owners with conversation insights (topics, sentiment, message counts). Owners may review individual conversations to improve their service, but all guest conversations remain fully anonymous — no personal identifiers are ever attached.
• To process payments and manage subscriptions.
• To send transactional emails (verification, billing notifications).
• To forward reservation requests to third-party venues on a guest's explicit request — only when the guest has confirmed the request and provided an e-mail address for the venue to reply to. Genius Loci never confirms the booking itself; the venue replies to the guest directly.
• To verify a guest's stay and pass the guest's service orders to the property — only at the guest's request. For this processing the property is the controller and Genius Loci acts as its processor; the property confirms or declines each order with the guest directly.
• To improve the quality and reliability of the service.

4. AI & third-party processing

Guest messages and any uploaded images are sent to OpenAI's API to generate responses (including visual analysis of images). When the AI cannot answer from its knowledge base, it may perform a web search using a third-party search API (Tavily); only the search query is sent — no guest identifiers or conversation context. OpenAI processes this data under a data processing agreement that prohibits using your data to train their models. No personal identifiers are included in these requests.

Text-to-speech functionality uses OpenAI's audio API to convert AI responses into spoken audio on demand. Only the text of the AI response is sent — no guest identifiers or conversation metadata. Generated audio is streamed to the guest's browser and is not stored on our servers.

When a guest explicitly asks the assistant to send a reservation request to a third-party venue, the e-mail is delivered through Resend (our e-mail delivery provider). The message contains only what the guest has approved — the venue's address, the guest's name and reply e-mail, and the reservation details. Before sending, we verify that the recipient e-mail is actually published on the venue's own website; unverified addresses are refused. Resend processes this data on our behalf; the venue you contact acts as an independent recipient.

Service orders are delivered to the property's own reception address through Resend as well. When you verify your stay, the booking summary described in section 2 is passed to OpenAI as part of the conversation so the assistant can answer for your booking. Stay lookups go only to the reservation system the property itself connected.

5. Data retention

• Guest conversations — the content of a conversation (the text of all messages and any uploaded images) is retained for up to 12 months after the last message, then permanently deleted. This lets the property compare guest questions across a full year of seasons. Afterwards we keep only anonymous records without any text (when messages were sent and in which language), used for the property's year-over-year statistics.
• Verified stay summary is kept in a temporary cache until the end of the departure day (at most 60 days) and then expires automatically.
• Service orders: the guest's name, e-mail, note, and room or reservation number are erased 90 days after the order. Only anonymous details (service, date, quantity) are kept for the property's statistics. The copy the reception received by e-mail is governed by the property's own retention policy.
• Owner accounts are retained for the duration of the subscription. Upon account deletion, all associated data (properties, conversations, knowledge base) is permanently removed within 30 days.

6. Data security

All communication is encrypted in transit (TLS/HTTPS). Data at rest is stored on infrastructure hosted within the European Union (Scaleway, Paris). Access to production systems is restricted and monitored.

7. Cookies & local storage

The guest chat uses local storage to remember your conversation history across visits on the same device. This data stays in your browser and is never sent to our servers. You can clear it at any time by clearing your browser data. We do not use tracking cookies, advertising pixels, or any third-party analytics on the guest chat interface.

The owner dashboard uses local storage to keep your authentication session and language preference. No third-party tracking is used.

8. Your rights (GDPR)

If you are located in the European Economic Area, you have the right to:

• Access the personal data we hold about you.
• Rectify inaccurate data.
• Erase your data ("right to be forgotten").
• Restrict or object to processing.
• Data portability — receive your data in a machine-readable format.
• Lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority (ÚOOÚ in the Czech Republic).

For guest chat users: conversations are anonymous, so unless you shared your name, reservation number, or e-mail (for example to verify your stay or place an order), there is typically no personal data we can link to you. If you did, contact the property you stayed at or us, and we will help with access or deletion.

9. Children

The service is not directed at children under 16. We do not knowingly collect data from minors.

10. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy from time to time. Material changes will be communicated to registered users via email. The "Last updated" date at the top reflects the most recent revision.

Questions? Reach us at info@geniusloci.homes