Privacy notice | Homeground China

When you choose to subscribe, we collect your email, interface language, the page where you signed up and a record of your newsletter permission. These records are separate from travel enquiries. Cookie choices do not subscribe you to emails. We activate your subscription only after you confirm it by email.

Subscriber records are stored in Supabase and confirmation emails are delivered through Resend. We use your details to deliver the newsletter and manage subscription choices. Opening a confirmation or unsubscribe page does not change your subscription until you press its button. These pages do not load our optional analytics or marketing measurement.

Unconfirmed requests are removed after 7 days. After an unsubscribe, the email and first name are removed from the subscriber record after 30 days; a protected email hash and permission history remain to honour the unsubscribe. Active subscriptions remain while you subscribe. Confirmation delivery records are kept for up to 30 days. You can unsubscribe through the link in our emails or contact us to request deletion.

Your browser stores a small interface preference to prevent repeated newsletter prompts. It contains no email address and does not enable analytics or advertising.

From the website to a human reply

After the traveller first interacts with the trip brief, the form may keep selected structured answers in this browser’s session storage so progress can be restored. It never stores the free-text “other place”, route note, contact details, optional departure country or rough budget there. This browser copy is cleared after 30 minutes without planner activity, on restart and after a successful enquiry.

When a traveller submits the form, Supabase validates and saves the trip brief, the selected email address or WhatsApp number, and any optional request for full-trip planning and ground support, route note, departure country, region or rough per-person budget. The page shows a saved state only after that save succeeds.

The homepage quick-email option sends the entered email address, page language, fixed language-specific submit-surface code and the limited technical record needed for reliable submission and rate limiting. When the contact area was opened from a published private-tour page, it also sends that tour’s allowlisted slug, canonical localised name and any valid service option and group-size selection shown above the contact choices; a name supplied in the URL is never accepted. It does not collect an itinerary, traveller profile, date, destination, budget or free-text message, and it shows success only after Supabase confirms the save.

The homepage WhatsApp and Messenger options are direct outbound links. Opening either link does not save the visitor’s phone number or message on Homeground’s website and is not treated as a submitted enquiry. If the visitor then sends a message, WhatsApp or Facebook and Meta process that conversation under their own terms and infrastructure.

For visitors in Korea, the United States, Singapore, Malaysia, Australia and Hong Kong, a prepared WhatsApp, email or KakaoTalk message from these pages ends with one short reference line, for example “ref: forbidden-city-for-foreign-visitors · google”. It names the page where the first visit started and the kind of site that sent the visitor (such as a search engine, an AI assistant or social media), so Homeground can learn which pages lead to enquiries. To remember this between visits, the browser keeps one local-storage entry, “homeground-first-touch.v1”, holding only that page, that source label and the date of the first visit, which is used only to delete the entry after 30 days. It is not sent with page requests and contains no personal identifier. The approximate country comes from Cloudflare, which serves this website, and is compared with the browser’s time zone on the device; neither is stored. The line is visible before sending and can be deleted. Choosing “Necessary only”, or saving Privacy choices with analytics off, deletes the entry and stops the line; clearing this site’s data in the browser also deletes it. Visitors elsewhere, visitors whose country cannot be determined and browsers that send a Global Privacy Control signal get neither the entry nor the line.

If the visitor allows analytics, Homeground creates a temporary anonymous browser-session token. The event service first issues a short-lived signed credential; bare or expired event requests are rejected. A limited first-touch source is recorded only when the landing link contains Homeground-signed UTM source, medium, campaign and content codes. Unsigned, altered or unrecognised UTM values remain Unknown. The website-event record does not store a full referrer URL, raw IP address, user-agent string, click identifier, contact detail or free-text answer.

With analytics permission, Homeground records page views and fixed actions: viewing contact options, choosing a channel, opening a contact link, starting the email form, changing a published tour option, and attempting to submit an enquiry. The first-party service may also receive the published product code, service option and the group-size choice displayed on that product page. These product-choice fields are not sent to Google Analytics or Meta Pixel. A click means only that an option was opened; it does not prove that a message was sent or a booking was made. Definite submission failures and results the browser cannot confirm are recorded separately; saved enquiries are counted from server records. Temporary retries keep the same event identifier and are cleared when analytics permission is withdrawn.

When the same browser later submits an enquiry, the saved first-touch labels may be attached to that enquiry so Homeground can understand which page or post led to it. The enquiry still succeeds when no session or source is available, and an unknown source is never guessed.

With separate marketing permission, Homeground stores a Google ad click identifier (gclid, gbraid or wbraid), its capture time, the landing-page path and the permission record in this browser and links them to a saved enquiry. If Google Ads conversion reporting is configured, Google receives the click identifier, event time and a unique event ID for that saved enquiry and for the first actual payment confirmed by authorised staff. The payment event also includes the amount received and currency. Names, email addresses, phone numbers, questionnaire answers and messages are not sent for ad matching. Opening a contact link is not a saved enquiry or a sale.

Authorised staff may view restricted aggregate counts and, only after the 30-day window contains at least five eligible anonymous sessions that are not linked to enquiries, a day-level recent-session summary without per-session click or event timelines. Contact details, trip-questionnaire answers and message text are kept out of analytics and are not sent to Google Analytics or Meta Pixel.

Resend sends an internal notification to Homeground’s monitored email inbox. Authorised staff use the submitted contact to answer the request; internal notification instructions are not intended for the traveller. For a WhatsApp enquiry, staff receive a link to start the requested conversation from the studio’s account.

When enquiry acknowledgements are enabled, Resend also sends an automatic confirmation to the submitted email address. It contains the enquiry reference and available structured enquiry details, such as the published tour, requested date and selected option. It does not repeat free-text notes. Replies go to hello@homegroundchina.com. The confirmation is a receipt, not a personal reply, a booking or a requirement to reply before we handle the enquiry. It is separate from marketing consent.

An enquiry remains saved if its confirmation is delayed, not sent because of a sending limit, or cannot be delivered. Sending and failure records help us prevent repeated messages and investigate delivery problems; an accepted or delivered email status does not prove that the message reached an inbox or was read.

Homeground uses Gmail for email handling and connects selected Gmail folders and the studio WhatsApp account to SaleSmartly for shared handling. Internal notifications, submitted trip details and later messages may therefore also be synchronised into the studio’s SaleSmartly team inbox for authorised staff.

Choosing WhatsApp and submitting asks Homeground to contact that number about this trip request. The later conversation is processed by WhatsApp and Meta under their own terms and infrastructure.

Online checkout is not enabled. Accepted trip arrangements and payment conditions are confirmed in writing. Do not submit card, bank or payment QR information through the enquiry form.

When the quick-email form is unavailable, the contact card offers a prepared mailto link to the same monitored inbox. Opening an email app is never described as a saved or successful website submission.

Purpose and fields

Only what is needed for the active request

A traveller can prepare structured trip answers before submitting. Enquiry fields are sent only when the traveller deliberately submits; the separate website-measurement fields below are used only after the relevant optional permission.

Browser session, submitted enquiry, notification and connected team inbox

Trip brief

Selected destinations, another place entered, total nights, party, pace, must-see priorities, timing status, page language and internal rules version describe the request. Restricted summaries count compatible structured choices to improve the planner and travel information; the free-text other place is excluded from those summaries.

Submitted enquiry, notification and connected team inbox when supplied

Optional full-trip request and route context

A traveller asking about full-trip planning and ground support can include that interest and add a short route outline, fixed constraints or shareable route link. This free text is used for the human reply and is excluded from restricted summaries. Earlier enquiries may retain route-review or route-build choices as historical request records; those standalone services are no longer offered. Full files can be requested later by reply.

Homepage contact surface, submitted quick-email enquiry or prepared WhatsApp/email message

Optional published-tour interest

A traveller arriving from a published private-tour page may carry that product’s allowlisted slug and canonical localised name into the contact handoff. URL-provided product names and free text are rejected; this context is used only to identify the tour being asked about.

Submitted enquiry, Gmail notification and connected team inbox

Chosen reply contact

The full trip-brief form accepts either an email address or a WhatsApp number. The homepage quick-email option accepts only an email address. These details are used to reply to the active request and are not consent for unrelated marketing; the direct homepage WhatsApp and Messenger links do not save a contact detail on Homeground’s website.

Submitted enquiry, notification and connected team inbox when entered

Optional departure country or region

This optional context helps the studio understand the traveller’s likely departure point. It can be provided later instead.

Submitted enquiry, notification and connected team inbox when entered

Optional rough budget per person

This traveller-stated range helps the studio prepare realistic options. It excludes international flights, is not a Homeground quote and can be left blank.

Enquiry service

Technical request record

A public reference, time, form version, brief revision, fixed language-specific submit-surface code and limited anti-abuse data support reliable submission and duplicate prevention. The submit-surface code is not treated as a traffic source.

Enquiry service and email provider, when confirmations are enabled

Enquiry confirmation and sending controls

The confirmation job and delivery events are deleted with the website enquiry under its retention rules. Preparation records become eligible for deletion after 48 hours and are removed by the scheduled daily cleanup. To avoid contacting an address again after a bounce, complaint or stop-contact request, a separate secret-keyed hash of the recipient, its reason and timestamps remain until authorised review removes that sending restriction. This separate record contains no trip notes and is not used for marketing.

Browser, Homeground first-party event service and optional Google Analytics or Meta Pixel

Optional anonymous website measurement

After permission, a temporary session token, short-lived signed event credential, page path, language, Homeground-signed first-touch campaign codes and fixed event/action codes help Homeground understand useful pages and contact attempts. Published product, service and group-size choices are sent only to the first-party service. Unsigned campaign labels stay Unknown. The event service excludes names, email addresses, phone numbers, trip-questionnaire answers, messages, raw IP addresses, user-agent strings and full referrer URLs.

Attraction reservations

Passport details for an accepted reservation

The attraction reservation request on the website does not ask for passport numbers. Passport details are requested only after the traveller accepts Homeground's written confirmation, and only for the attractions in that confirmation.

Purpose: Real-name attraction reservation
Many Chinese attractions require each visitor's name and identity document for the booking and check the original document at entry. Homeground uses the details only to make and manage the reservations the traveller asked for.
What is collected: Full name as printed, passport number, nationality and, where the booking form asks, date of birth or passport expiry
Only the fields the attraction's official booking channel requires, for each traveller in the reservation. Please do not send passport images unless a planner explains that the official channel needs one.
How it is received: Email, WhatsApp or KakaoTalk, after the written confirmation is accepted
Passport details are never entered in a website form. They arrive in the same conversation as the written confirmation and may therefore also be held by that messaging or email provider under its own terms.
Who receives it: The attraction's official booking channel
Homeground enters or sends the details only through the booking channel the attraction names, such as its website, WeChat account or mini-program, a platform its official site links to, or the booking email address it publishes. They are not sold, used for marketing or passed to other parties.
How long it is kept: Deleted after the trip
Homeground deletes the passport details it holds for the reservation after the trip ends. The booking record held by the attraction's own system follows that operator's rules.

Service providers

The services in this enquiry path

The locations below identify the configured primary service regions. These providers may also use global infrastructure for delivery, security, support and legal compliance, so processing may occur outside the traveller’s country.

Website hosting: GitHub Pages · Cloudflare edge delivery and security
GitHub Pages hosts the static site. Cloudflare provides DNS, content delivery and security at the edge. Both may process ordinary request metadata, such as IP address, request time and path, under their terms. Cloudflare Web Analytics and browser RUM are disabled.
Studio inbox: Google Gmail · monitored Homeground inbox
Receives the notification and holds the later email conversation. Google may process data through its global infrastructure; Homeground does not claim a precise physical Gmail location. The website never uses the Gmail password.
Enquiry storage: Supabase · Seoul (ap-northeast-2)
Validates and stores the enquiry before the page can show a received state.
Email notifications and enquiry confirmations: Resend · Tokyo (ap-northeast-1)
Sends internal notifications to Homeground and, when enabled, a transactional confirmation to the submitted email address. Resend processes the recipient, message content and sending or failure records for these messages. Confirmation replies are directed to hello@homegroundchina.com; these messages do not subscribe the traveller to marketing.
WhatsApp and Messenger: Direct homepage links; optional saved-number trip brief
The homepage links open WhatsApp or Messenger without saving the visitor’s number or message on Homeground’s website. The fuller trip-brief form separately allows a traveller to submit a WhatsApp number so authorised staff can start the requested conversation. WhatsApp, Facebook and Meta may process later messages under their own terms and infrastructure.
Shared team inbox: SaleSmartly · connected Gmail and WhatsApp channels
Synchronises selected Gmail folders and WhatsApp conversations so authorised studio members can handle the enquiry together. SaleSmartly and its service providers may process this information under their own terms and infrastructure.
Website measurement: Supabase first-party events · Google Analytics · Google Ads · Meta Pixel (optional)
None of these optional destinations receives a website event before the visitor grants the relevant choice. Analytics permission enables limited first-party events and Google Analytics; marketing permission separately enables Google Ads attribution and Meta Pixel. Homeground does not send contact details, trip answers or message text to those tools. AI chat is not used.

Retention and control

How long information is kept

Homeground applies the following rules to the enquiry records and service copies it controls. Providers may retain limited security, billing or legal records under their own obligations.

Data controller and website operator: 盛世美达（北京）国际旅行社有限公司 (trading as Homeground China)
The registered operator is responsible for this website and the Homeground China enquiry records it receives. Homeground China is the public-facing brand used by this registered operator.
Processing and storage region: Supabase Seoul · Resend Tokyo · Gmail, WhatsApp and SaleSmartly provider infrastructure
Seoul and Tokyo are the configured primary regions. Email delivery, team-inbox synchronisation, WhatsApp conversations, security and support may involve provider infrastructure in other countries.
Inquiry retention: Up to 12 months from the website enquiry’s saved time
The website period is not reset by later email or WhatsApp activity. If the enquiry becomes a client or contractual relationship, relevant records may be kept separately for service, business-record and legal obligations.
Transaction and service records: Kept under the applicable business-record period
For accepted services, Homeground may keep the service confirmation, agreed scope, price and currency, payment confirmation, delivery correspondence and correction or refund record for service, accounting, dispute and legal obligations. These records do not use the website enquiry’s 12-month deletion period.
Rate-limit retention: 10-minute and 24-hour windows · deletion 24 hours after last update
Valid credential-bootstrap requests are counted as requests against separate client-IP and whole-site limits before a credential is issued. Event batches are counted separately by newly accepted events—not by event-batch HTTP requests or idempotent replays—against browser-session, client-IP and whole-site limits. The service stores secret-keyed hashes rather than raw IP addresses or browser tokens. A one-minute recurring task removes a bucket after its last updated_at value is 24 hours old, normally on the next cleanup run.
Anonymous website-event retention: Raw events and anonymous sessions · 30-day rolling window
The browser token is stored only in session storage after analytics permission. The server stores only a secret-keyed session hash. Raw events, anonymous sessions and reversible session links expire at the 30-day point and are removed by an hourly cleanup, normally within the following hour. A first-touch source snapshot attached to a submitted enquiry follows that enquiry’s retention period.
Google ad attribution: Click identifiers expire 90 days after capture
The browser stops using an expired identifier and removes it on its next check. The server stops using it after 90 days and removes it in the next daily cleanup, normally within 24 hours. Conversion records without the click identifier follow the linked website enquiry’s retention period. Turning marketing measurement off deletes local identifiers and requests deletion of linked identifiers and cancellation of unsent conversions. Failed withdrawal requests retain only a random token for retry; the server keeps a withdrawal-token hash for up to 90 days to reject late submissions. This does not automatically erase records already processed by Google; contact hello@homegroundchina.com for an access or deletion request.
Access, correction and deletion: Verified requests are normally handled within 30 days
Homeground may ask for reasonable identity verification. A separate contract, legal, dispute or security record may have lawful deletion limits; that does not extend the website enquiry row beyond its fixed period.

Traveller choices

You decide whether to submit

Trip-brief answers remain in the browser until the traveller deliberately submits the form with one reply contact. Leaving or restarting before submission sends no enquiry to Homeground.

Enquiry processing is separate from marketing consent. Homeground will not use the submitted contact for unrelated marketing without separate permission.

The visitor can allow or reject analytics and marketing measurement independently and can reopen Privacy choices from the footer. Rejecting optional measurement does not block the planner or enquiry form. Revoking a choice stops future events and clears the related Homeground browser choice where technically possible.

Do not submit the enquiry form.
Ask what personal information is held and request access, correction or deletion after reasonable identity verification.
Restart or leave the trip brief before submission.
Choose either email or WhatsApp for the human reply, and leave the optional departure country or rough budget blank.
Use necessary functions only, allow analytics without marketing, or later change both optional choices.

Privacy contact

Contact Homeground about your information

Use the monitored email below for an access, correction or deletion request. Send it from the same address used for the enquiry when possible. After reasonable identity verification, Homeground normally responds within 30 days.

Privacy email: hello@homegroundchina.com
Registered address: 北京市昌平区景兴街18号院2号楼3层303-2471（集群注册）

How an enquiry is handled