Who we are
Kashi Experts is a travel agency based in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, arranging pilgrimage and heritage tours across India and Nepal. In this policy "we", "us" and "our" mean Kashi Experts; "you" means anyone who enquires with us, books a trip or uses www.kashiexperts.com.
We are the data fiduciary for the personal data described here, which means we decide what is collected and why, and we are answerable for it. Our registered address is B-1/152, Assi, Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh - 221005.
Questions about this policy go to info@kashiexperts.com or +91 73888 50395, 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. IST.
What we collect
We ask for as little as a trip allows. In practice that falls into four groups:
- <b>Enquiry details</b> - your name, phone or WhatsApp number, email, city, travel dates, the number of travellers and any preferences you tell us about (hotel category, darshan requests, dietary needs, mobility requirements).
- <b>Booking details</b> - once you confirm, the names and ages of everyone travelling, government ID numbers where a hotel or railway booking requires them, and for foreign nationals the passport and visa details Indian law requires hotels to record.
- <b>Payment details</b> - the amount, date and reference of a payment. Card and UPI details are handled by our payment gateway and never reach or get stored by us.
- <b>Website data</b> - basic analytics such as which pages were viewed and roughly which region a visit came from. This is not linked to your name.
Health and mobility information is <strong>sensitive</strong>, and we only ask for it when it changes the plan - whether a traveller can manage the ghat steps, for instance. You are free not to tell us, though it limits how well we can plan.
Why we use it
Every use below is either something you asked for, something a booking cannot happen without, or something the law requires.
- To answer your enquiry and write an itinerary and quote.
- To make the actual bookings - hotels, vehicles, guides, boats, entry tickets and train or air tickets where you ask us to.
- To meet the guest-registration rules Indian hotels operate under, including Form C filing for foreign nationals.
- To reach you before and during the trip, including the 24x7 number while you are travelling.
- To keep accounts and file tax returns, as Indian law requires of us.
- To handle a complaint, a refund or an insurance claim if something goes wrong.
We do <strong>not</strong> use your details for automated decision-making or profiling, and we do not build advertising audiences from them.
WhatsApp and messaging
Most of our conversations happen on WhatsApp, because that is where our travellers are. It is worth being plain about what that means.
When you press a Book Now or Enquire button on this site, nothing is sent anywhere. The site opens WhatsApp with a message already written out, and <strong>you</strong> press send. Until you do, we have received nothing.
- Once sent, the message sits in your WhatsApp and ours, and on Meta's servers, governed by WhatsApp's own privacy policy rather than this one.
- We keep the chat as the record of what was agreed for your trip - it is often the only place a change of plan was written down.
- You can ask us to delete a conversation at any time, and we will delete our copy.
If you would rather not use WhatsApp at all, email info@kashiexperts.com or call +91 73888 50395. Nothing on this site requires a WhatsApp account.
Who else sees your details
Arranging a trip means telling other people you are coming. We share the minimum each supplier needs, and nothing beyond it.
| Hotels and guest houses | Guest names, ages, contact number and ID details, as guest-registration rules require. |
| Transport operators | The lead traveller's name and number, pickup point and timings - so the driver can find you. |
| Guides and boatmen | The group size and the meeting point, usually nothing more. |
| Temple and darshan desks | Names and ID numbers only where a special or assisted darshan requires registration. |
| Payment gateway | Your payment goes directly to them; we see only that it succeeded. |
| Government authorities | Only where the law obliges us - Form C for foreign nationals, or a lawful order. |
We do not sell your personal data, rent it, or hand it to advertisers or data brokers. Suppliers receive it to perform your trip and are not permitted to use it for their own marketing.
ID and travel documents
Indian hotels are legally required to record a government photo ID for every guest, and foreign nationals must additionally be registered with the authorities through Form C. This is not our rule and we cannot waive it.
- Send ID copies only over WhatsApp or email directly to us - never to a number or address given to you by anyone else claiming to be us.
- We forward the ID to the hotel making the booking and keep our copy only until your trip is complete and settled.
- We do not ask for OTPs, card numbers, CVVs or net-banking passwords. Nobody from Kashi Experts will ever ask for these. If someone does, it is not us.
Payment fraud is common in Indian travel. We will only ever ask you to pay to the account named on our official invoice. If a payment request reaches you from anywhere else, stop and call +91 73888 50395 to confirm before paying.
Cookies and analytics
This site uses very little. There is no advertising tracker, no remarketing pixel and no cross-site profiling.
- <b>Essential storage</b> - small preferences kept in your own browser, such as a filter you last chose. It never leaves your device.
- <b>Analytics</b> - aggregate counts of page views so we know which destinations people read about. Not tied to you by name.
- <b>Third-party embeds</b> - fonts, icons and an embedded Google map on the contact page, which are requested from Google and load under their terms.
Blocking cookies in your browser will not stop you using the site or sending an enquiry.
How long we keep it
| Enquiries that never booked | Up to 12 months, then deleted. |
| Booking and trip records | 8 financial years, as Indian tax and accounting law requires. |
| ID document copies | Deleted once the trip is completed and settled. |
| WhatsApp conversations | Kept while you are an active traveller with us, or until you ask us to delete them. |
| Website analytics | 26 months, in aggregate form only. |
Where the law obliges us to keep a record, we keep only the record itself - not the supporting documents.
Your rights
Under India's Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023, you can ask us to do any of the following, free of charge:
- <b>See it</b> - a summary of what we hold about you and who we have shared it with.
- <b>Correct it</b> - fix anything inaccurate, incomplete or out of date.
- <b>Erase it</b> - delete what we hold, except records tax law requires us to keep.
- <b>Withdraw consent</b> - stop us using your details for anything that is not needed to complete a trip you have already booked.
- <b>Nominate someone</b> - name a person who may exercise these rights on your behalf if you are unable to.
- <b>Complain</b> - to us first, and to the Data Protection Board of India if we do not resolve it.
Write to info@kashiexperts.com with the request. We will confirm who you are before acting - it protects you more than it protects us - and reply within a reasonable period, normally well inside 30 days.
Children
Families travel with us constantly, and we hold children's names and ages because hotels and transport need them. We collect that information from the booking adult, not from the child, and we do not market to children or knowingly collect their data any other way.
If you believe a child's data has reached us other than through a parent or guardian, tell us at info@kashiexperts.com and we will remove it.
How we protect it
We are a small team, and our protections are the practical kind rather than the corporate kind: access limited to the people actually planning your trip, devices locked and password-protected, ID copies deleted once a trip is settled, and payments handled entirely by the gateway so card details never sit with us.
No system is perfectly secure, and we will not pretend otherwise. If a breach ever affects your personal data, we will tell you and the Data Protection Board of India as the law requires, and we will tell you what we are doing about it.
Changes to this policy
When we change this policy we update the date at the top of the page. If a change materially affects how your data is used, we will tell active travellers directly rather than relying on you to notice.
This policy is governed by the laws of India, and any dispute about it falls to the courts at {{jurisdiction}}.