Sojourn's Privacy Policy

Use of your data?

Sojourn LLC (“Sojourn”, “we” or “us”) has compiled this Privacy Policy (the “Policy”) to better serve our clients and visitors to our site who are concerned with how we use their Personally Identifiable Information (PII). More specifically, the purpose of the Policy is to inform you of our policies and procedures regarding the collection, use and disclosure of PII we receive from users of www.sojourndc.com (the “Site”), our mobile applications (the “Apps”) and other products and services (collectively, the “Services”). This Policy also tells you about your rights and choices with respect to your PII, and how you can contact us if you have any questions or concerns regarding the same.

For the purpose of this Policy, PII means any information relating to an identified or identifiable individual. Please read the Policy carefully to get a clear understanding of how we collect, use, protect or otherwise handle your PII in accordance with our website.

What personal information do we collect?

Where it is not self-evident, we will try and indicate to you whether and why you must provide us with your PII, as well as the consequences for failing to do so. If you do not provide your PII when requested, you may not be able to enjoy the full benefit of the Services. Sometimes it is necessary to collect your PII. We may collect your PII directly from you, from third parties, or simply by your use of the Site or our Services.

Below we have provided a list of PII that may be collected when you use the Services: Your first name or initial and last name in combination with any of the following: birth date;

• social security number or other government-issued identification number;
• mother’s maiden name;
• unique electronic identification number or routing code;
• telecommunication access devices including debit or credit card information; or
• financial institution account or information;
• email address.

Possible PII Collected; When and How?

When you register with us, be it to reserve a room, become a tenant, or register for our membership services (“Sojourner”), we will ask for certain PII. This may include identity verification, such as providing a copy of your driver’s license. If your reservation requires tenant screening, we may collect the information required by the 3rd party provider, such as reporting agencies or through the lease application. In addition, if you are a property owner, we will collect personal information required to facilitate our contractual relationship.

While we will obtain PII from you to facilitate the provision of the Services, you may voluntarily provide us with additional PII in order to enhance the Services. As we get to know you and personalize the Services to your unique you, we will necessarily collect more PII. Of course if you contact us directly, we will collect your name, contact details, the content, date and time of your message and any attachments thereto.

Information We Collect Automatically.

We may automatically collect the following information about your use of our Services through cookies, web beacons, and similar technologies: your domain name; your browser type; operating system type, name, and version; page views; links you click; your IP address; location information; the length of time you visit or use our Services; referring URL; access date and time; mobile device ID; language information; device name and model; and other information about your activities within the Services and communications that we send you. Please see the section “Cookies and Other Tracking Mechanisms” below for more information. Where required under applicable law, we will only perform such data collection with your consent.

We automatically collect your stay history (e.g., to identify a return guest). We may also automatically collect information regarding the use of a unit (e.g., when a door was unlocked) as well as via a noise detection system (which only registers decibel levels, not conversations). Where required under applicable law, we will only collect property usage data with your consent.

We may receive your booking information via our partners (e.g., Air BnB, Booking.com and CHBO), such as your name, email address, phone number, information available in your user account with a third party travel service as well as your reservation information. If you are booking a reservation that requires a lease and/or tenant screening, we may engage with a vendor to undertake a credit check and/or verify your criminal history. We may receive your name, date of birth, address and whether or not you passed the check. Sojourn Services are not appropriate for use by individuals under 18 therefore, we do not knowingly collect PII from children under 18. If a parent or guardian becomes aware that his or her child has provided us with PII without their consent, he or she should contact us. If we become aware that a child under 13 has provided us with PII we will delete such information from our files.

How does Sojourn use your information?

It is necessary for Sojourn to collect your PII in order to operate, provide, and maintain our Services, to communicate with you about our Services, to respond to your inquiries, to fulfill our contract with you, to complete your transactions, and for other customer service purposes. For longer term tenants, your PII is primarily used to obtain credit and/or background checks and rental history searches. We may also use you PII to tailor the content and information that we may send or display to you, and to otherwise personalize your experiences while using our Services, including personalizing your Sojourn profile and identifying you as a return guest to provide products or services to you according to your preferences or restrictions. We may also tailor our Services and communications on the basis of your Site browsing history. Where required under applicable law, we will only use your PII for such purposes with your consent.

We may use your PII to solicit a review from you or to better understand how users access and use our Services, both on an aggregated and individualized basis, in order to improve the quality and value of our Services, provide you with a better experience, and develop new Services, and for other research and analytical purposes.

When Sojourn is acting as your hospitality and property manager, we will use your PII to deliver the required management services including filing any required reports with governmental agencies (for example, the IRS); establishing ACH deposits and/or for other purposes that you may authorize, such as paying for utilities.

If you are located in the European Union (“EU”), we only process your PII based on a valid legal ground, including when;

1. You have consented to the use of your PII;
2. You have provided your PII to facilitate the provision of our Services;
3. Sojourn has a legal obligation to use your PII; and
4. Sojourn or a third party has a legitimate interest in using your PII for such things as product development and internal analytics purposes, and otherwise to improve the safety, security, and performance of our Services. Of course, we only use your PII in this manner when doing so would not override your rights and interests.

How We Share Your Personal Information

We may employ third party companies and individuals to support our Services. We do not sell or otherwise disclose your PII for purpose unrelated to our Services, unless otherwise described in this Policy. We may share your PII with the following third parties:

We may disclose PII we collect about you to third party vendors, service providers, contractors or agents who perform functions on our behalf, or on behalf of our property owners, including to facilitate our Services, to provide the Services on our behalf, to perform Site-related services, including maintenance and fraud protection, to perform background checks, to send marketing communications, to aggregate reviews, or to assist us in analyzing how our Site and Services are used. We require these service providers to safeguard the privacy of PII they access or process on our behalf, or on behalf of our property owners.

When you book with Sojourn via a third party travel service, we may share your PII with such service in order to manage your booking.

We may share reports with property owners regarding the use of their properties, such as cleaning reports. Additionally, we may share guest names and dates of stay at their properties for security purposes (e.g., to keep out individuals who are not guests). For long term rentals, we may share guests’ name, email address, phone number, ID, birthday and address with property owners.

In the event Sojourn sells, transfers or otherwise shares some or all of its assets, including your PII, in connection with a merger, acquisition, reorganization or sale of assets or in the event of bankruptcy.

Sojourn cooperates with government and law enforcement officials and private parties to enforce and comply with the law. We will disclose your PII to government or law enforcement officials or private parties as we, in our sole discretion, believe necessary or appropriate to respond to claims and legal process (including but not limited to subpoenas), to protect the property and rights of Sojourn or a third party, to protect the safety of the public or any person, or to prevent or stop activity we may consider to be, or to pose a risk of being, any illegal, unethical or legally actionable activity. We will disclose any information about you to government or law enforcement officials and to our insurance services providers as we, in our sole discretion, believe necessary or appropriate to protect the property and rights of Sojourn or a third party, to protect the safety of the public or any person, or to prevent or stop activity we may consider to be, or to pose a risk of being, any illegal, unethical or legally actionable activity.

With your consent we may post your testimonial on the Site along with your name. If you would like your testimonial removed please contact us.

Cookies and Other Tracking Mechanisms

We use cookies, web beacons, and log files to collect information about your use of our Website and Apps, as described above. You can instruct your browser, by changing its options, to stop accepting cookies or to prompt you before accepting a cookie from the websites you visit. If you do not accept cookies, however, you may not be able to use all portions of the Site or all functionality of the Service.

Links to Other Websites

Our Site contains links to other websites. The fact that we link to a website or present a banner ad or other type of advertisement is not an endorsement, authorization or representation of our affiliation with that third party, nor is it an endorsement of their privacy or information security policies or practices. Other websites follow different rules regarding the use or disclosure of the PII you submit to them. We encourage you to read the privacy policies or statements of the other websites you visit. Some portions of the Services utilize Google Maps/Earth mapping services, including Google Maps API(s). Your use of Google Maps/Earth is subject to Google’s terms of use, which incorporates Google’s Privacy Policy.

Speaking of Google:

Google's advertising requirements can be summed up by Google's Advertising Principles. They are put in place to provide a positive experience for users. See More

Google, as a third-party vendor, uses cookies to serve ads on our site. Google's use of the DART cookie enables it to serve ads to our users based on their visit to our site and other sites on the Internet. Users may opt-out of the use of the DART cookie by visiting the Google ad and content network privacy policy.

We, along with third-party vendors such as Google, use first-party cookies (such as the Google Analytics cookies) and third-party cookies (such as the DoubleClick cookie) or other third-party identifiers together to compile data regarding user interactions with ad impressions, and other ad service functions as they relate to our website.

Users can set preferences for how Google advertises to you using the Google Ad Settings page. Alternatively, you can opt-out by visiting the Network Advertising Initiative opt-out page or permanently using the Google Analytics Opt-Out Browser add-on.

Keeping Your PII Safe:

At Sojourn, we want to protect your PII. We recognize that sometimes you are providing us with particularly sensitive information (such as a credit card number). This information is encrypted using secure socket layer technology (SSL). We follow generally accepted industry standards to protect the PII submitted to us, both during transmission and once we receive it. No method of transmission over the Internet, or method of electronic storage, is 100% secure. Given the aforesaid, we cannot guarantee its absolute security. If you have any questions about security on our Site and Services, you can contact us at legal@sojourndc.com.

We do not hold your PII longer than necessary. When determining the retention period, we take into account various criteria, such as the type of Services requested by or provided to you, the nature and length of our relationship with you, possible re-use of our Services, the impact on the Services we provide to you if we delete some information from or about you, mandatory retention periods provided by law and the statute of limitations.

Know your Rights:

If you decide at any time that you no longer wish to receive marketing communications from us, please follow the unsubscribe instructions provided in any of the communications.

All Sojourners may review, update, correct or delete the PII in their registration profile by contacting us at legal@sojourndc.com or editing the relevant part of their profile. If you would like us to cancel your Sojourn Account, please contact us and we will attempt to accommodate your request if we do not have any legal obligation or a legitimate business reason to retain the information contained therein.

Most Internet browsers automatically accept cookies, but you may be able to change the settings of your browser to stop accepting cookies or to prompt you before accepting a cookie from the websites you visit. If you set your browser to reject cookies, parts of our website may not work for you.

If you are located in the EU, you are entitled to reach out to us via the contact details in this Policy and ask us for an overview of your PII or ask for a copy. In addition, you may request us to update and correct inaccuracies, delete your PII, restrict processing of your PII, or exercise your right to data portability and to easily transfer your PII to another company. In some cases, you may object to the processing of your PII and where we have asked you for your consent to process your PII, you can withdraw it at any time.