XLBookMe Privacy Policy

About this policy

XLBookMe is an online appointment booking service. Businesses use it to publish a booking page and manage their appointments, and their customers use it to book those appointments.

This policy describes what information XLBookMe handles, why, and the choices people have. It describes the service as it works today. Where a business uses XLBookMe to take bookings, that business decides what it asks its customers for and what it does with the result; XLBookMe provides the technology.

Information customers provide when booking

When someone books an appointment through a business's booking page, we handle:

• their name
• their email address
• their phone number, when they provide one
• the booking itself — what was booked, when, and any note they added
• their answers to any additional questions the business chose to ask during booking

Information businesses provide

A business using XLBookMe provides the details needed to run its booking page: its name and contact details, its services and products, its opening hours and booking rules, its appearance settings, and the account details of the people who manage it.

Requests for a booking page

Someone who asks us to set up a booking page for their business gives us the business's name, a contact name, an email address, optionally a phone number, the business's category and location, optionally a website or social media page, and a description of what the business offers.

We use these details only to review the request and to contact the person who sent it about setting up their page. They are not used for marketing, and we do not send text messages about a request. Sending a request does not create an account or a booking page; that happens only if we set one up together.

The form also asks, optionally, how the person heard about XLBookMe - for example from another business that uses it, a search or social media - with a short note where it helps. We use the answer only to understand how businesses find us. If a booking page is set up, the answer is kept with our own records about that business; it is never shown on the booking page or to its customers.

To have a request removed, write to support@xlbookme.com.

Why we use this information

• to create and manage appointments
• to send booking confirmations and booking-related updates
• to operate, support and secure the service

Service providers

We use service providers to run the service — for example to host it, to send email, and to send text messages. They process information only as needed to provide XLBookMe functionality on our behalf, and not for their own purposes.

Using a service provider to deliver a message is not the same as selling or transferring anyone's information, and we do not do the latter.

All the above categories exclude text messaging originator opt-in data and consent; this information won't be shared with any third parties.

The messaging provider that transmits a text message acts on our behalf to deliver the message that was asked for. It is not given opt-in data for any purpose of its own.

Text messages and consent

A business can choose to confirm bookings by text message. Where it does, the booking form asks the customer whether they want booking updates by text. The box is not ticked for them, consent is optional, and a booking can be completed without it.

Text messages are transactional: they are about an appointment that was booked. They are sent on behalf of the business the customer booked with, using XLBookMe as the technology platform. We do not send marketing text messages.

We record that consent was given, when it was given, and the exact wording the person agreed to, so that we can show why a message was sent. A recipient can reply STOP at any time to stop receiving them, or HELP for help. Message frequency varies depending on bookings and activity. Message and data rates may apply.

A business owner can also choose to receive one text message a day listing their own business's appointments (the Daily Schedule SMS). Only the owner can turn it on, from their XLBookMe account: they agree to the wording shown beside an unticked checkbox and confirm their mobile number with a 6-digit code texted to it, and nothing is sent to a number that has not been confirmed. Customers are never enrolled in it.

Text messaging originator opt-in data and consent will not be sold, rented, transferred, or shared with third parties for their own marketing or promotional purposes.

All the above categories exclude text messaging originator opt-in data and consent; this information won't be shared with any third parties.

Message delivery necessarily involves a messaging provider, which transmits the message on our behalf as a service provider. That is processing to deliver the message you asked for — it is not a sale or transfer of consent, and the consent itself is not shared for anyone else's marketing.

WhatsApp messages and consent

Where a customer gives an international mobile number, the booking form may instead offer booking updates on WhatsApp. That is a separate choice with its own box: it is not ticked for them, consent is optional, a booking can be completed without it, and agreeing to text messages is never treated as agreeing to WhatsApp messages or the other way round.

WhatsApp messages are transactional and are about an appointment that was booked. They are sent from one XLBookMe WhatsApp number on behalf of the business the customer booked with — the number does not belong to that business — and each message names the business and gives that business's own contact details. We do not send marketing messages on WhatsApp.

As with text messages, we record that consent was given, when, and the exact wording agreed to. The WhatsApp number is not monitored and replies to it are not read; a customer who wants to change or cancel contacts the business directly. These messages can be stopped at any time in WhatsApp itself.

WhatsApp opt-in data and consent will not be sold, rented, transferred, or shared with third parties for their own marketing or promotional purposes.

Where messages are sent

XLBookMe sends text messages only to mobile numbers in the United States and its territories. A number outside that range is never sent a text message, whatever a business has configured.

The decision is made from the mobile number itself, not from where a business is, what language a browser asks for, or anything a person types as their country.

Security

We take reasonable steps to protect the information the service holds. No online service can be guaranteed to be completely secure, and we do not claim otherwise.

Keeping information

We keep information for as long as it is needed to provide the service and to keep a business's own record of its appointments, and for as long as we are required to keep it. A business that no longer uses XLBookMe can ask us about removing its data.

Children

XLBookMe is intended for use by businesses and their customers, and is not directed at children.

Changes to this policy

If this policy changes, the effective date above will change with it.

Contact

Questions about privacy, or about information held about you, can be sent to support@xlbookme.com. If your question is about a booking you made, the business you booked with is usually the quickest place to start.