How we look after your data

Porchlight Hospitality Ltd ("Porchlight", "we", "us") provides technology for independent restaurants, pubs and cafes: an AI phone host ("Thomas") that answers calls and takes bookings, an online booking page, and a staff app (Porchlight Staff) for bookings, rotas, clock-ins, timesheets and payslips. This policy explains what personal data we handle, why, how long we keep it, and who helps us run the service.

We are registered with the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), the UK's data protection regulator.

1. Who is responsible for your data

For guests and staff of a venue that uses Porchlight, the venue is the data controller (for example, The Kings Head, Tealby). We act as its service provider (processor) and only use the data to run the service for that venue.

Porchlight is the data controller for our own demo (the Talk to Thomas page and demo phone line) and for enquiries sent to us through this website or by email.

2. Data we collect

Guests who book or call a venue

When you call a venue that uses Thomas, use its online booking page, or ask for a call back:

• Your name and phone number (and email address, if you give one)
• Booking details: date, time, number of people and any notes
• Dietary or allergy information, only if you choose to share it
• A returning-guest record at that venue: just your name, phone number and how many times you've booked, so Thomas can greet you by name when you call again and the team can recognise regulars. It never includes dietary, allergy or other booking details.

Calls are handled by voice AI: what you say is turned into text so Thomas can understand and reply. Our voice provider keeps call recordings and transcripts for a short time so we can check quality and fix problems, after which they are deleted automatically.

Venue staff

Through the Porchlight Staff app:

• Name, email address, role and pay rate
• Rotas, shifts, clock-in and clock-out times, and approved hours
• Login details and a PIN for clocking in (stored securely, never in plain text)
• Wifi check at clock-in: When you clock in or out on your phone, the app checks that you are connected to the venue's wifi, so you can only clock in at work. It checks the network you are connected to at that moment only. It does not use GPS or track where you are.
• Pay estimate: an estimate of your pay for each period, worked out from your approved hours and pay rate. This is a guide only: it does not include tax, National Insurance, pension or other deductions, and it is not a payslip.
• Payslips: If your venue chooses to, the official payslips produced by its accountant or payroll provider are stored in your account so you can view and download them. Payslips include your pay, tax, National Insurance and pension details.

People who try our demo

• Anything entered on the demo booking board on this website is visible to other visitors and is wiped every night. Please don't enter real personal details there.
• If you call or talk to Thomas on the demo, we'll remember your first name and phone number for 90 days so Thomas can welcome you back, and so we can see who has tried the demo.

Website enquiries

If you contact us through this website or by email, we keep your name, contact details and message so we can reply.

Visitors to this website

We use Cloudflare Web Analytics to count visits to this website: which pages are viewed, roughly where visitors are and what kind of device they use. It does not use cookies, does not track you across visits or other websites, and does not identify you.

3. Why we use it, and our legal basis

• Taking, confirming, changing and cancelling your booking, on behalf of the venue: this is necessary for the contract between you and the venue. Call backs you ask for are handled on the same basis.
• Recognising returning guests (greeting you by name, keeping a visit count): the venue's legitimate interests in offering a personal welcome. You can ask not to be remembered at any time.
• Dietary and allergy information: your explicit consent, given when you share it, used only to help the venue prepare for your visit safely.
• Staff rotas, clock-ins, timesheets and payroll hours: the venue's obligations as an employer and its legitimate interests in running the business. The wifi check at clock-in is part of this: it makes sure hours are recorded accurately.
• Sending hours to the venue's accountant or payroll provider: the venue's legal obligations as an employer (paying staff correctly and keeping payroll records). We send approved hours to the venue's accountant or payroll provider only on the venue's instruction.
• Storing payslips in the staff app: the venue's legitimate interests in giving staff one secure place to find their payslips. Payslips are stored only if the venue chooses this.
• Our demo and website enquiries: our legitimate interests in showing how Porchlight works and replying to people who contact us.

4. Allergy and dietary information

Because this can relate to your health, it is a special category of data under UK GDPR, and we treat it with extra care:

• It is only collected if you choose to share it
• It is only shown to venue staff who need it to prepare your table and meal safely
• It is never used for marketing, profiling or anything other than your booking
• It is deleted with the rest of your booking's personal details (see below), and you can withdraw your consent at any time

5. How long we keep it

• Bookings and call backs: about 28 days after the booking date, your name, contact details, notes and any dietary or allergy information are permanently removed. This short window lets the venue deal with any questions about a recent visit. What's left (date, time, party size and how the booking was made) no longer identifies you and is kept so the venue can see how its bookings add up over the year.
• Booking change history and system logs that contain names or numbers: deleted after about 28 days.
• Returning-guest records: your name and number are kept while you keep booking. Each new booking restarts the clock, and after 12 months with no booking at that venue they are permanently deleted. The venue keeps only anonymous figures, such as how many visits were made, that can't be linked back to you.
• Staff records: kept for as long as the venue needs them to run its rota and payroll and meet its duties as an employer. The venue and its accountant keep their own copies of approved hours. When a venue stops using Porchlight, we give it a full copy of its staff and holiday records before we delete them.
• Holiday records: your holiday allowance, holiday taken, leave carried over, how your holiday pay was worked out and any payments made instead of holiday. These are kept for 6 years from when each record was made, including after you leave, because employers are required by law to keep them for that long.
• Payslips: kept in your account while you work at the venue, and for 12 months after you leave so you can still download them. After that they are deleted from Porchlight. The venue's accountant or payroll provider keeps the official payroll records for as long as the law requires.
• Wifi check at clock-in: only the result (connected to the venue's wifi or not) is kept, as part of the clock-in record. The network details themselves are not stored.
• Demo booking board: wiped every night.
• Demo callers' first name and number: deleted after 90 days.
• Website enquiries: kept for as long as needed to reply and follow up.

6. Who helps us run the service

We use these providers. Each only processes data to provide its own service to us, and may not use it for anything else:

• Supabase: database, logins and scheduled jobs (hosted in London)
• Vapi: voice AI platform that runs Thomas's calls
• Anthropic: the AI language model Thomas uses to understand and reply
• Soniox: speech-to-text on calls
• ElevenLabs: Thomas's voice
• Zadarma: phone lines
• Resend: emails such as booking notifications and published rotas
• Cloudflare: cookie-free visitor statistics for this website
• Netlify: hosting for this website, the booking page and the staff app
• Zoho Mail: our email
• GoCardless: collecting payments from venues

Some of these providers are based outside the UK, including in the United States. Where data leaves the UK, it is protected by the safeguards UK data protection law requires, such as the UK–US data bridge or approved contract clauses.

Your venue's accountant or payroll provider

If a venue asks us to, we send its approved staff hours (and holiday taken) to its accountant or payroll provider each pay period. If the venue chooses, the accountant also sends us payslips to store in each staff member's account. The accountant is chosen by the venue and works for the venue, not for Porchlight, and has its own duties under UK data protection law. Payslips are only visible to the staff member they belong to and the venue's managers.

We never sell personal data, and we never use booking or dietary information for marketing.

7. Your rights

Under UK GDPR you can ask to see, correct or delete your personal data, object to or restrict how it's used, withdraw consent you gave (such as for allergy information), or ask us to stop remembering you as a returning guest. For a venue's bookings or staff data, you can ask the venue directly or contact us and we'll help the venue deal with it. For our demo or enquiries, contact us. We will respond within one month.

If you're unhappy with how your data has been handled, please tell us first and we'll do our best to put it right. You can also complain to the Information Commissioner's Office at ico.org.uk or on 0303 123 1113.

8. Contact

For any privacy question: support@porchlightpro.com

9. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy from time to time. The date at the top shows when it was last changed. If you're reading a printed copy, the current version is always at porchlightpro.com/privacy.