Privacy policy
Version 1.0 — in effect since September 12, 2026
About GOT A COUCH?
GOT A COUCH? is an international community-based accommodation platform connecting travelers and hosts around the world. Depending on the services available, members may use GOT A COUCH? to find or offer free community-based accommodation, find or offer paid stays, communicate with other members, create and manage accommodation listings, send and manage stay requests and reservations, participate in community activities and events, publish reviews and references, use safety and verification features, and participate in GOT A COUCH? community programs. To provide these services safely and effectively, GOT A COUCH? processes certain personal information.
Information We Collect
The information we collect depends on how you use GOT A COUCH? Account information may include your first name, last name, email address, password in securely protected or hashed form, account creation date, account status, preferred language, and country or region. You may also choose to provide additional profile information, including profile photographs, a biography, city and country, languages spoken, interests, travel preferences, hosting preferences, availability, lifestyle information you choose to disclose, community participation, and verification status. Some profile information may be visible to other GOT A COUCH? members or to visitors depending on your privacy settings and the platform feature concerned.
Information That Is Public
Certain information may appear on your public GOT A COUCH? profile. Depending on your settings and platform functionality, this may include your first name, profile photographs, city and country, biography, languages, interests, travel preferences, hosting information, reviews and references, community or Ambassador status, and verification badges. Verification badges indicate verification status only. Sensitive verification information and identity documents are not displayed publicly. Your email address, telephone number, exact date of birth, password, payment credentials and identity documents are not intended to be publicly displayed through your profile.
Identity Verification
GOT A COUCH? may provide identity-verification services to improve trust and safety within the community. When identity verification is performed through an external verification provider, identity documents and related verification information may be transmitted directly to that authorized provider. Where GOT A COUCH? does not directly store identity documents, the platform may retain limited information relating to the verification process, such as verification status, verification date, verification result, and a technical reference associated with the verification. The verification provider processes information according to its own privacy and security obligations.
Contact Information
Depending on the features you use, GOT A COUCH? may collect or process contact information such as your email address, telephone number, and emergency or trusted contact information. Adding a trusted contact may be optional. Trusted contact information is treated as private and is not displayed publicly unless expressly stated otherwise.
Messages and Communications
When members communicate through GOT A COUCH?, we may process and store information associated with those communications, including messages between members, message timestamps, sender and recipient information, reservation-related communications, and reports associated with messages. Messages may be processed when reasonably necessary for delivering the messaging service, preventing spam, detecting fraud or scams, investigating safety reports, enforcing GOT A COUCH? rules, resolving disputes, and protecting members and the platform. Access to private communications by authorized personnel should be limited to situations where it is reasonably necessary and permitted by applicable law.
Reservations and Stay Information
When you request, offer or confirm accommodation, GOT A COUCH? may process information such as host and traveler identifiers, accommodation information, requested dates, reservation dates, number of guests, reservation status, price and fees where applicable, cancellation information, payment status, stay-related communications, and reviews or references associated with the stay. Certain reservation records may need to be retained after a stay for accounting, fraud prevention, dispute resolution, safety or legal purposes.
Payment Information
When paid services are available, payments may be processed through authorized third-party payment providers. GOT A COUCH? does not intend to store complete payment card numbers or sensitive banking credentials on its own systems when payment processing is handled by an authorized payment provider. GOT A COUCH? may nevertheless receive and retain transaction-related information such as the transaction amount, currency, payment status, transaction reference, refund information, payment date, and limited payment method information where provided by the payment processor. Payment providers process payment information according to their own privacy policies and legal obligations.
Technical and Usage Information
When you access GOT A COUCH?, certain technical information may be collected automatically, including your IP address, browser type, device type, operating system, language settings, approximate location derived from technical information, pages visited, date and time of access, referring pages, session information, error and diagnostic information, security events, and interaction with platform features. This information helps us operate, secure, troubleshoot and improve GOT A COUCH?
Cookies and Similar Technologies
GOT A COUCH? may use cookies and similar technologies for purposes such as authentication, session management, security, language preferences, user preferences, platform functionality, analytics, and performance measurement. Where required by applicable law, non-essential cookies will be used according to the choices made through the platform's cookie-management system. Additional information is available through the Cookie Policy / Cookie Management page.
How We Use Personal Information
GOT A COUCH? may process personal information to create and manage user accounts, provide platform functionality, display member profiles, connect travelers and hosts, process accommodation requests and reservations, facilitate communications, process payments and refunds, provide customer support, verify accounts and identities, prevent fraud and abuse, detect fake accounts, protect members, investigate reports, moderate content, enforce our Terms of Use, improve platform functionality, diagnose technical problems, communicate important account information, send notifications, meet legal and regulatory obligations, and protect the legal rights of GOT A COUCH?
Safety, Fraud Prevention and Moderation
Trust and safety are essential to GOT A COUCH? We may process account, profile, technical, reservation and behavioral information to identify potentially harmful activity, including fake accounts, spam, scams, fraud, payment abuse, harassment, platform manipulation, unauthorized automated activity, security threats, and violations of GOT A COUCH? rules. GOT A COUCH? may use automated systems to help identify suspicious activity. Where appropriate, significant enforcement decisions may also involve human review.
Automated Systems and Artificial Intelligence
GOT A COUCH? may use automated technologies, including artificial intelligence systems, to support certain platform functions. These systems may assist with activities such as fraud detection, fake-profile detection, spam prevention, content moderation, safety monitoring, customer support, matching and recommendations, platform security, and service improvement. Where required by applicable law, GOT A COUCH? will provide appropriate safeguards regarding automated processing that produces significant effects on users.
Email Communications
GOT A COUCH? may send transactional communications relating to your account and use of the platform, including email verification, password reset messages, security alerts, reservation notifications, stay requests, messages and activity notifications, and important platform updates. Transactional communications necessary for operating your account may not always be optional. Marketing or promotional communications, where used, may be managed separately according to your communication preferences and applicable law.
How We Share Information
GOT A COUCH? does not sell your personal information. We may share limited personal information where reasonably necessary with service providers that help operate the platform, including providers of hosting and infrastructure, payment processing, identity verification, email delivery, security, analytics, customer support, fraud prevention, and technical services. Service providers should only receive information necessary to perform their authorized functions and are subject to applicable contractual and legal obligations.
Information Shared Between Members
Certain information is shared with other members when necessary for platform functionality. For example, when a traveler contacts a host or requests accommodation, relevant profile and reservation information may be available to the other party. Users should remember that information voluntarily shared directly with another member may subsequently be stored or used by that member outside the direct control of GOT A COUCH? Do not share sensitive information unless necessary.
Legal Disclosures
GOT A COUCH? may disclose information when reasonably necessary to comply with applicable law, respond to valid legal requests, protect the rights or safety of users, investigate fraud or serious misconduct, protect GOT A COUCH? and its services, or respond to emergencies involving serious threats to safety. Requests from authorities will be evaluated according to applicable legal requirements.
International Data Transfers
GOT A COUCH? is designed as an international platform. Personal information may therefore be processed in countries other than the country where you live. Where required, GOT A COUCH? will implement appropriate safeguards for international transfers of personal information in accordance with applicable data-protection laws.
Data Retention
GOT A COUCH? retains personal information only for as long as reasonably necessary for the purposes described in this Privacy Policy or as required by law. Retention periods may depend on factors such as whether your account remains active, reservation history, payment and accounting obligations, fraud-prevention requirements, safety incidents, disputes, and legal requirements. Inactive or unverified accounts may eventually be anonymized or deleted according to the retention procedures of GOT A COUCH? Certain transaction, reservation, security or dispute records may be retained when legitimately necessary even after an account has been closed.
Account Deletion
Users may request deletion of their GOT A COUCH? account through available account settings or by contacting GOT A COUCH? Account deletion may result in the deletion or anonymization of personal information where appropriate. Some information may be retained when required or permitted for legal obligations, accounting requirements, fraud prevention, security, dispute resolution, or protection of legal rights. Information that has been legitimately anonymized may no longer constitute personal information and may therefore be retained.
Your Privacy Rights
Depending on the laws applicable to you, you may have rights concerning your personal information, including the right to request access to your personal information, request correction of inaccurate information, request deletion of certain information, request restriction of processing, object to certain processing, request data portability where applicable, withdraw consent where processing is based on consent, manage certain communication preferences, and lodge a complaint with a competent data-protection authority. Some rights may be subject to legal limitations or exceptions.
Data Security
GOT A COUCH? uses technical and organizational measures designed to protect personal information against unauthorized access, loss, misuse, alteration, unauthorized disclosure, and destruction. These measures may include access controls, secure communications, authentication systems, monitoring, encryption where appropriate, and security procedures. However, no online service can guarantee absolute security. Users are responsible for protecting their passwords and account credentials.
Children's Privacy
GOT A COUCH? accommodation and member-interaction services are intended for adults. Users must generally be at least 18 years old to create an account and independently use accommodation-related services. GOT A COUCH? does not knowingly intend to operate member accounts for children in violation of applicable law.
Third-Party Services
GOT A COUCH? may integrate services provided by third parties. These providers may process personal information according to their own privacy policies. We encourage users to review the privacy practices of relevant third-party services.
External Links
The platform may contain links to external websites. GOT A COUCH? is not responsible for the privacy practices of independent websites or services that it does not control.
Changes to This Privacy Policy
GOT A COUCH? may update this Privacy Policy as the platform, technology, services or applicable legal requirements evolve. When significant changes are made, users may be informed through the platform, by email or through another appropriate communication method. The date displayed at the top of this Privacy Policy indicates when it was last updated.
Data Controller
The complete legal identity and contact information of the entity responsible for operating GOT A COUCH? and acting as the relevant data controller will be published before the official public launch of the platform. Once the operating legal entity has been established, this section will be updated accordingly.
Contact Us
For questions regarding this Privacy Policy, personal information or privacy rights, please contact support@gotacouch.com. When submitting a privacy request, we may need to verify your identity before processing certain requests in order to protect your account and personal information.