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Bookster is a UK vacation rental and property management platform that offers a booking engine, channel manager and guest management tools with embedded JavaScript widgets and first party cookies.
Bookster is a UK based property management system designed for vacation rental owners and managers. It provides a hosted booking engine that can be embedded as an iframe or as a JavaScript widget on the property website, a channel manager that synchronises with major OTAs (Booking.com, Airbnb, Vrbo), and tools for guest communication, invoicing, and reporting.
The Bookster widget sets first party cookies including bookster_session (browser session) and bookster_book (thirty days, used for cart recovery). The PMS itself stores guest personal data: name, email, address, payment details (tokenised), booking history, and special requests. Some of this data is shared with the OTAs through the channel manager.
Booking related processing relies on contract performance (Art. 6(1)(b)) and legal obligation for tax records (Art. 6(1)(c)). Analytics and marketing cookies in the widget require consent under Art. 5(3) ePrivacy and Art. 6(1)(a) GDPR. Marketing emails and SMS need separate consent or the soft opt in for similar services where applicable.
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The European Commission adopted an adequacy decision for the UK in 2021, renewed in 2025, so transfers from the EU to Bookster (UK) are treated as intra EEA. Some sub processors (payment gateways, transactional email) may be in the US under SCCs.
Sign a Data Processing Agreement with Bookster, configure the widget to gate marketing cookies behind your CMP, retain guest data only as long as needed (tax retention can be up to ten years in some jurisdictions), encrypt or tokenise payment data, and inform guests of the OTA data sharing in your privacy notice.
European vacation rental PMS alternatives include Smoobu (Germany), Lodgify (Spain), Hostaway (multi region with EU), and Avantio (Spain). They offer similar features with clear EU residency options.
Websites using Bookster must obtain user consent under GDPR regulations.
DPIA considerations
A DPIA is recommended when Bookster handles guest data at scale combined with marketing automation and channel manager integrations spanning multiple OTAs.
Sample consent text
We use Bookster to manage bookings and guest communications. With your consent, Bookster may set marketing cookies and use your contact data for personalised offers.
Third-party domains contacted
booksterhq.comapp.booksterhq.combook.booksterhq.comCookies placed
| Name | Type | Duration | Purpose |
|---|---|---|---|
| bookster_session | first_party | Session | Session identifier for the booking widget |
| bookster_book | first_party | 30 days | Stores in progress booking for cart recovery |
| bookster_lang | first_party | 12 months | Stores the visitor language preference |
| bookster_utm | first_party | 30 days | Captures UTM parameters for attribution |
Bookster places tracking cookies for advertising — comply with GDPR using FlowConsent.
First party cookies bookster_session (session), bookster_book (thirty days), bookster_lang (twelve months), and bookster_utm (thirty days).
Strictly necessary booking cookies do not need consent. Analytics and marketing cookies require consent.
Contract for booking, legal obligation for tax retention, consent for analytics and marketing cookies, consent for marketing emails.
Primarily no. Bookster hosts in the UK, covered by the EU adequacy decision. Some sub processors may be in the US under SCCs.
A DPIA is recommended for large rental portfolios using marketing automation and multi OTA integrations.
Sign a DPA, gate non essential cookies, set proper retention, tokenise payments, disclose OTA sharing.
Smoobu (DE), Lodgify (ES), Hostaway (multi region), Avantio (ES).
List bookster_ cookies, durations, the booksterhq.com domain, and link to Bookster privacy policy.