Privacy Policy

Who we are

TRIP operates an online platform for discovering and booking guided travel experiences in Saudi Arabia. We act as an intermediary between travelers and independent local guides: we run the platform and the booking process, and the guide delivers the experience. For the personal data described below, TRIP acts as the data controller. You can reach us about any privacy matter at [email protected].

Personal data we collect

We collect only what the platform actually needs to operate. Specifically:

• Account details you provide when registering: your full name, email address, mobile number, and a password (stored only in an irreversibly hashed form — we never store your password in readable form).
• Verification records: the dates on which your email address and mobile number were verified. Mobile verification is performed by sending a one-time code via SMS.
• Booking information: the experience booked, travel date, number of travelers, total price, and any special requests you choose to write in the booking form.
• Custom trip requests: the destination, dates, group size, budget range, preferred guide language, and the details you describe.
• Payment records: a payment reference (invoice identifier) issued by our payment provider and the resulting payment status. Your card number, CVV, and cardholder details are entered on the payment provider's own hosted page and are never received or stored by TRIP.
• Language preference: whether you use TRIP in Arabic or English, so the platform opens in your language next time.
• Guide accounts additionally include professional details the guide provides: city and region, biography in English and Arabic, spoken languages, years of experience, availability dates, and the package photos they upload (which are published with the package).
• Tourism-license verification (guides): the tourist-guide license number you submit and the result of each check of that number against the Ministry of Tourism's public licensed-activities inquiry — the license status, license type, the holder's name as registered with the Ministry, issue and expiry dates, licensed regions, and the Ministry's reference for the record — together with the date of every check, any corrected number you submit, and TRIP's review decisions (approval, rejection, or a correction request) with the reason recorded for each. We do not store the photograph or contact details the Ministry's record may hold.
• Payout details (guides): the IBAN a guide adds so that TRIP can pay them. It is used only for payouts, is shown back to the guide masked, and is never shown to travelers.

What we do not collect

TRIP does not use analytics, advertising, or third-party tracking technologies. We do not build advertising profiles, we do not track you across other websites, and we do not sell personal data to anyone.

Why we use your data

• To create and manage your account, and to keep it secure.
• To verify your email address and mobile number, which protects the platform against fraudulent bookings.
• To process your bookings and custom trip requests, and to raise the corresponding payment.
• To share the details a guide needs in order to deliver the experience you booked — including with a replacement guide if TRIP has to reassign your trip.
• To verify that guides hold a valid tourist-guide license, and to keep an auditable record of how each guide application was decided.
• To assign guides to trips, to reassign a trip when a guide cannot cover it, and to record each guide's agreed commission rate and any different rate agreed for a specific trip.
• To send you service messages about your bookings, payments, and account — for example a booking status change or a password reset.
• To respond to your support enquiries.
• To detect and prevent fraud, abuse, and unauthorized access.
• To comply with legal, regulatory, tax, and accounting obligations in Saudi Arabia.

How we collect it

We collect personal data directly from you — when you register, complete your profile, make a booking, submit a custom trip request, or contact support. We also record technical information that is necessary to run a secure session, such as your signed session cookie. Payment outcomes are received from our payment provider. For guides, we also obtain the license details described above from the Ministry of Tourism's public inquiry service, using the license number the guide gives us.

Who we share it with

We share personal data only where it is necessary, and only with the following categories of recipient:

• Assigned guides — when a guide is assigned to your booking or trip, they receive the details needed to deliver it: your name, the travel date, party size, and any special requests you wrote. Guides do not receive your payment details.
• Our payment service provider — a licensed payment processor that operates the secure checkout page and processes card payments. Your card details are provided directly to it.
• Our email delivery provider — delivers account and booking emails on our behalf.
• Our SMS provider — used solely to send the one-time verification code to your mobile number.
• The Ministry of Tourism — when a guide submits a license number, we send that number, and nothing else, to the Ministry's public licensed-activities inquiry service to look it up.
• Our hosting and storage provider — stores the platform's data, including package photos, on our behalf.
• Our map provider — pages with a map load the map images from it, and when a guide or administrator searches for a meeting point, the search text is sent to its place-search service. No account information is sent.
• Competent government or regulatory authorities, where disclosure is required by applicable Saudi law or a valid legal request.

Storage and processing

Personal data is stored securely and protected by access controls. Passwords are stored only in an irreversibly hashed form. Session cookies are protected so they cannot be altered, and cannot be read by other scripts running in your browser. Guide verification records are visible only to TRIP administrators authorized to review guides, and every review decision is logged together with the administrator who made it; earlier checks and decisions are kept rather than overwritten. Some of our service providers may process data outside Saudi Arabia; where that is the case, we require appropriate safeguards consistent with the PDPL.

How long we keep it

We keep personal data only for as long as it is needed for the purposes described above. Account data is retained while your account is active. Booking and payment records are retained for the period required to meet contractual, tax, accounting, and regulatory obligations, and to resolve any dispute. Guide license-verification records and decision history are kept while the guide account exists and afterwards for as long as needed to evidence how the application was decided and to meet regulatory obligations. When data is no longer needed, it is deleted or anonymized.

Your rights under the PDPL

Under Saudi Arabia's Personal Data Protection Law, you have the following rights in relation to your personal data:

• The right to be informed of the legal basis and purpose for collecting your personal data.
• The right to request access to your personal data held by TRIP.
• The right to request a copy of your personal data in a readable, commonly used format.
• The right to request correction of personal data that is inaccurate, incomplete, or out of date.
• The right to request destruction of your personal data where it is no longer needed for the purposes for which it was collected.
• The right to withdraw consent, where our processing relies on your consent.

Exercising your rights

You can update your name, email address, mobile number, and password yourself from your profile page at any time; guides can also review and correct their license details from the License & Verification page of the guide dashboard. For any other request — access, a copy of your data, or destruction — write to [email protected] from the email address registered on your account. We will respond within the period required by the PDPL. Some data may need to be retained where a legal or contractual obligation requires it; if so, we will tell you why.

Children

TRIP accounts are intended for adults. We do not knowingly create accounts for children. A booking may of course include children traveling with you; in that case we only hold the number of travelers, not personal details about them.

Changes to this policy

If we change how we handle personal data, we will update this page and revise the date shown above. Where a change is significant, we will take reasonable steps to notify you.