Cookies Policy
Balham Lodge | Cookies Policy | Version 01/2026
Balham Lodge
1. Overview
Balham Lodge is a short-stay guest accommodation business operated by Astra Homes Ltd, a company registered in England and Wales (Company Number 04660818), with its registered office at 21 Mount Ephraim Lane, London, England, SW16 1JF (“the Company”, “Astra Homes”, “Balham Lodge”, “we”, “us” or “our”). The Company operates the website www.balhamlodge.uk (the “Website”) in connection with the operation of the lodge.
This Cookies Policy explains how the Website uses cookies and similar technologies. It should be read together with our Privacy Notice, which sets out how we collect and use personal data more generally. Both documents are available from the footer of every page of the Website.
The use of cookies on the Website is governed by the Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) Regulations 2003 (“PECR”), supplemented by the UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018 (as amended by the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025) where the cookies process personal data.
2. What are cookies?
Cookies are small text files which a website places on your device (computer, smartphone, tablet or other internet-enabled device) when you visit. They allow the website to recognise your device, to remember your preferences, and to provide you with a tailored experience. Cookies do not, in themselves, identify you personally — but in some cases they may, when combined with other information, become personal data within the meaning of the UK GDPR.
This Cookies Policy uses the term “cookies” to refer not only to cookies in the strict technical sense, but also to other similar technologies that may be used to access or store information on your device (for example, web beacons, pixel tags, tracking pixels, and local storage). The framework set out below applies to all of these technologies.
3. The categories of cookies
Cookies on the Website fall into four broad categories:
Strictly necessary cookies. These are cookies that are required for the operation of our Website. They include, for example, cookies that enable you to log into secure areas of our Website, hold the contents of a booking enquiry or contact form while you complete it, and remember your cookie preferences.
Analytical or performance cookies. These allow us to recognise and count the number of visitors and to see how visitors move around our Website when they are using it. This helps us to improve the way our Website works, for example, by ensuring that users are finding what they are looking for easily.
Functionality cookies. These are used to recognise you when you return to our Website. This enables us to personalise our content for you, greet you by name and remember your preferences (for example, your choice of language, currency or region).
Targeting cookies. These cookies record your visit to our Website, the pages you have visited and the links you have followed. We will use this information to make our Website and the advertising displayed on it more relevant to your interests. We may also share this information with third parties for this purpose.
Under the Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) Regulations 2003 (“PECR”), strictly necessary cookies may be set on your device without your consent. The other three categories — analytical or performance cookies, functionality cookies, and targeting cookies — may only be set with your prior consent. You may withdraw your consent at any time using the cookie preferences controls available in the footer of the Website.
4. How we obtain your consent
When you first visit the Website, you will see a cookie banner. The banner explains the categories of non-essential cookies in use on the Website and offers you the following options:
- Accept all cookies — this option authorises the Website to set both strictly necessary cookies and all categories of non-essential cookies.
- Reject all non-essential cookies — this option allows the Website to set only strictly necessary cookies. The Website remains fully accessible if you select this option, although some of its features (for example, embedded maps and videos) may be limited.
- Manage preferences — this option allows you to consent to some categories of non-essential cookies while declining others.
The cookie banner offers “Accept” and “Reject” options of equal visual prominence, in line with the ICO’s published guidance. Rejecting non-essential cookies is as easy as accepting them.
Your choices are recorded by a cookie preference cookie, which itself is a strictly necessary cookie. If you wish to change your preferences at any time, you may do so by clicking the “Cookie preferences” link in the footer of every page of the Website.
The withdrawal of consent does not affect the lawfulness of any processing carried out by reference to your consent before the consent was withdrawn.
5. Cookies in use on the Website
The Website currently uses the categories of cookies set out in the tables below. The tables identify, for each category, the cookies set, the purpose of those cookies, the duration for which they are retained, and whether they are first-party (set by us directly) or third-party (set by a service provider operating on our behalf or otherwise present on the Website).
Strictly necessary cookies (consent not required)
| Cookie name | Provider | Purpose | Duration | Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Session cookie | Balham Lodge (first-party) | Maintains your session as you navigate between pages of the Website. | End of session | Necessary |
| Cookie consent | Balham Lodge (first-party) | Records your cookie preferences so that the cookie banner is not redisplayed on every visit. | 12 months | Necessary |
| Booking enquiry cookie | Balham Lodge (first-party) | Remembers the contents of a booking enquiry or contact form while you complete it. | End of session | Necessary |
| Security cookie | Balham Lodge (first-party) | Protects against cross-site request forgery and other security threats. | End of session | Necessary |
Performance and analytics cookies (consent required)
| Cookie name | Provider | Purpose | Duration | Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| _ga | Google Analytics (third-party) | Distinguishes individual users for the purposes of statistical analysis of Website usage. | 2 years | Analytics |
| _ga_<container-id> | Google Analytics (third-party) | Persists session state for Google Analytics 4. | 2 years | Analytics |
| _gid | Google Analytics (third-party) | Distinguishes individual users (legacy). | 24 hours | Analytics |
Functional cookies (consent required)
| Cookie name | Provider | Purpose | Duration | Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Map content cookies | Google Maps (third-party) | Set by embedded Google Maps content displaying the location of the lodge. | Varies by provider | Functional |
| Embedded video cookies | YouTube, Vimeo (third-party) | Set by any embedded video content displayed on the Website. | Varies by provider | Functional |
| Currency / language preference | Balham Lodge (first-party) | Remembers any currency or language preference you have selected. | 12 months | Functional |
Marketing and advertising cookies (consent required)
| Cookie name | Provider | Purpose | Duration | Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Meta Pixel (_fbp) | Meta (Facebook) (third-party) | Tracks user activity for the purposes of Meta advertising and conversion measurement, where Meta advertising is used. | 3 months | Marketing |
| Google Ads / Conversion | Google (third-party) | Tracks user activity for the purposes of Google Ads conversion measurement, where Google Ads is used. | Up to 540 days | Marketing |
| Remarketing cookies | Various (third-party) | Used to display advertising for Balham Lodge on third-party websites you visit after leaving our Website, where remarketing campaigns are active. | Varies by provider | Marketing |
Note: marketing and advertising cookies are only set when we are running active marketing campaigns through the relevant platforms. The cookies listed above may not be active at all times. The cookie banner will always reflect the cookies currently in use.
6. Cookies related to Online Travel Agents (OTAs)
Balham Lodge is listed on a number of Online Travel Agents (OTAs), including Booking.com, Airbnb, Expedia, Lastminute.com, and Hotels.com. We do not embed OTA tracking pixels on the Website. However, the following points may be relevant in connection with cookies and OTA-related processing:
OTA-direct visits. When you visit an OTA’s website to view or book Balham Lodge, the cookies set on your device by that OTA are governed by the OTA’s own privacy and cookies policy, not by this Cookies Policy. Please refer to the OTA’s privacy and cookies policy for further information.
Links from OTAs to the Website. Where you reach our Website by clicking through from an OTA’s listing, our Website will set the cookies described in section 5 above, subject to your cookie preferences on our Website. The OTA may set its own cookies on your device separately.
Conversion tracking. Where we operate Meta Ads or Google Ads campaigns (and you have consented to marketing cookies), the relevant platform may track that your visit to our Website resulted from an advertisement you saw on the platform’s services. This is used for the purpose of measuring the effectiveness of our advertising and does not involve sharing your personal data with the OTAs.
7. Third-party cookies
Some of the cookies in use on the Website are set by third parties (for example, Google for analytics, Google Maps for embedded maps, YouTube and Vimeo for embedded video content, and the marketing platforms identified above). When you visit a page containing third-party content, that third party may set cookies on your device, separately from the cookies we set ourselves.
We do not control these third-party cookies. To find out more about the cookies set by a particular third party, please visit that third party’s own cookie or privacy policy:
- Google (Google Analytics, Google Maps, Google Ads): https://policies.google.com/technologies/cookies
- YouTube (embedded videos): https://policies.google.com/technologies/cookies
- Vimeo (embedded videos): https://vimeo.com/cookie_policy
- Meta (Facebook Pixel): https://www.facebook.com/policies/cookies/
Where you have not consented to functional or marketing cookies through the cookie banner, third-party embedded content (for example, an embedded map or a YouTube video) may not load automatically. You will be offered the option to load the content on a case-by-case basis, with the relevant cookies being set only at that point.
8. Cookies and personal data
Some cookies (in particular, analytics, marketing and third-party cookies) may collect or process information which constitutes “personal data” within the meaning of the UK GDPR. Where this is the case, our processing of that personal data is also governed by our Privacy Notice.
Where the personal data is processed on the basis of your consent (which is the position for the non-essential cookies described above), you may withdraw your consent at any time by changing your cookie preferences. The withdrawal of consent does not affect the lawfulness of any processing carried out before the consent was withdrawn.
9. How to manage cookies
There are three ways in which you can manage cookies on the Website:
Through the cookie banner on first visit. When you first visit the Website, the cookie banner offers you the options described in section 4.
Through the cookie preferences link. At any time, you may change your cookie preferences by clicking the “Cookie preferences” link in the footer of every page of the Website.
Through your browser settings. You may also control cookies through your browser settings. Most browsers allow you to block all cookies, to block third-party cookies only, or to delete cookies that have already been set. The way in which this is done varies between browsers; the help documentation for your particular browser will explain how. Note that if you use your browser to block cookies, this may affect the functionality of the Website (including the ability to remember your cookie preferences).
The ICO’s website at ico.org.uk provides further general information about cookies and how to manage them.
10. Do Not Track signals
Some browsers offer a “Do Not Track” feature which sends a signal to websites you visit indicating that you do not wish to be tracked. There is currently no settled industry or legal standard for how websites should respond to Do Not Track signals. The Website does not currently respond to Do Not Track signals, but provides the cookie consent framework described above to give you direct control over the cookies set on your device.
11. Children
The Website is not directed at children, and we do not knowingly collect personal data about children through cookies set on the Website.
12. International transfers in connection with cookies
Some third-party cookie providers (in particular, Google, Meta and the marketing platforms identified above) may process personal data outside the United Kingdom. Where this is the case, the third party will be responsible for ensuring that the transfer complies with the UK GDPR. We have selected providers who undertake to process personal data in accordance with the UK GDPR, including (where applicable) by reference to the UK Extension to the EU–US Data Privacy Framework (the UK–US Data Bridge) or other appropriate safeguards.
Further information about international transfers in connection with the Website is set out in our Privacy Notice.
13. Changes to this Cookies Policy
We will review and update this Cookies Policy regularly to reflect changes in the cookies in use on the Website, changes in the law, or other relevant developments. The current version of this Cookies Policy is always available from the footer of the Website. The date on which this Cookies Policy came into force is shown in the document footer.
If the cookies in use on the Website change in a way that affects the consent framework (for example, if we add or remove a category of cookies), you will be asked to re-confirm your cookie preferences via the cookie banner.
14. Contact us
If you have any questions about this Cookies Policy, or about cookies generally, please contact our Data Protection Officer, James Freeman, by emailing james@astra-homes.co.uk or by writing to 21 Mount Ephraim Lane, London, England, SW16 1JF.
If you have any concerns about our use of cookies which you feel we have not addressed, you may contact the Information Commissioner at ico.org.uk/concerns/ or by telephone on 0303 123 1113.