Privacy policy

This English text is a translation for your information. Only the German version (Deutsche Fassung) is legally binding.

In short: this website sets no cookies, uses no analytics, tracking or advertising services, has no contact form and embeds no content from other providers. Fonts, images and the map are hosted on this website itself.

1. Controller

Katharina Urbaniak, Haus OLIFANT, Obere Harzstraße 33, 37520 Osterode am Harz, Germany, phone: 0179 127 40 83, email: Olifant-Osterode [at] gmx.de

2. Hosting by Cloudflare

The website, including the availability calendar, weather and review scores, runs on Cloudflare, Inc., 101 Townsend St., San Francisco, CA 94107, USA. With every visit Cloudflare processes your IP address, date and time, the requested address, the previously visited page and details of your browser and device in order to deliver the site and protect it against attacks. If a connection fails, your browser may also send a technical error report to Cloudflare. The legal basis is Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR; my legitimate interest is a secure and fast website. Cloudflare acts on my behalf as a processor (Art. 28 GDPR). Data may be transferred to the USA; according to Cloudflare, it is certified under the EU-US Data Privacy Framework, which is covered by an adequacy decision of the European Commission (Art. 45 GDPR). I do not analyse any access data myself.

3. Visiting without “www” (temporary)

If you open olifant-osterode.de without “www”, you are currently redirected to www.olifant-osterode.de by the free forwarding service forwarddomain.net. Its server is hosted by DigitalOcean in Singapore and receives your IP address and the requested address; the service states that it does not store any visits. There is no adequacy decision of the European Commission for Singapore, and there is no contract with the service. The legal basis is Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR (reachability under the short address). Typing “www” avoids this route; all links on this website already use it. The redirect will end with the upcoming transfer of the domain.

4. Storage in your browser

Instead of cookies, the site uses your browser’s storage for three entries. They stay on your device and are never sent to me or anyone else:

• olifant-sprache: the language you chose with the language switch. Kept until you delete the site data.
• olifant-sprache-auto: that your browser has already been sent to the English page once in this session, so that it does not happen again. Only created for browsers without a German language setting; deleted when you close the tab.
• olifant-buchung: your entries in the booking dialog (accommodation, dates, guests, name), so nothing is lost before you send your request. Deleted when you close the tab.

These entries are strictly necessary for the functions you use and do not require consent (§ 25(2) no. 2 TDDDG, German Telecommunications Digital Services Data Protection Act). You can delete them at any time in your browser settings.

5. Availability calendar, reviews and weather

Booked dates, the review scores from Booking.com and Airbnb and the weather forecast (Deutscher Wetterdienst via the Bright Sky service) are fetched by the website on its own server. No data about you is sent to Booking.com, Airbnb or the weather service, and the calendar shows no data about other guests. Your selection in the calendar stays in your browser (section 4).

6. Enquiries by email, phone or WhatsApp

The enquiry buttons open your own email program or WhatsApp with a prepared text; nothing is sent until you tap send yourself. I process your details (e.g. name, contact details, travel dates, number of guests) to answer your enquiry and handle the booking (Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR). Without contact details I cannot reply. My mailbox is hosted by GMX (1&1 Mail & Media GmbH, Montabaur, Germany). For WhatsApp, the terms of WhatsApp Ireland Ltd. also apply; if you prefer not to use it, please email or call. Enquiries that do not lead to a booking are deleted once they are no longer needed. Booking records are kept as long as German tax law requires: six, eight or ten years depending on the document (§ 147(3) AO, Art. 6(1)(c) GDPR).

7. After your stay

If you booked directly with me, I use your email address to ask for a review after your stay and occasionally to let you know about available dates at Haus OLIFANT (Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR, § 7(3) UWG; my interest: honest reviews and repeat bookings). You can object at any time, e.g. by email to Olifant-Osterode [at] gmx.de, without any costs other than the basic transmission costs. Guests who booked via Booking.com or Airbnb do not receive such emails from me.

8. Links to other providers

The site links to Booking.com, Airbnb, WhatsApp, Google Maps, Apple Maps and OpenStreetMap. These services are only loaded when you tap a link; from then on, the privacy policy of the respective provider applies.

9. Your rights

You have the right of access, rectification, erasure, restriction of processing and data portability (Art. 15 to 18 and 20 GDPR). There is no automated decision-making or profiling. You can lodge a complaint with a data protection supervisory authority (Art. 77 GDPR), for example the State Commissioner for Data Protection of Lower Saxony (lfd.niedersachsen.de).

Last updated: November 2026