This Cookie Policy explains which cookies and similar technologies www.valza.al uses, why, on which legal basis, and how you can accept, refuse or withdraw your consent at any time. Last updated: 27 October 2026.
Who is responsible
The website is run by Valza Boutique Hotel, Rruga Llambro Rexho 1, Objekti Nr.3, Lagjja Uji i Ftohtë, Vlorë 9405, Albania. For any question about cookies or your personal data, write to info@valza.al or call +355 69 60 22022.
What cookies are
Cookies are small text files that a website stores on your device. Similar technologies, such as local storage and tracking pixels, work in a similar way. Some cookies are set by us (first-party cookies), others by the services we use (third-party cookies).
Your choice and how to change it
When you first visit the site, a banner asks for your consent. Until you choose, only necessary cookies are active: statistics, marketing and external content stay off. “Accept all” and “Reject all” are equally available, and “Customise” lets you choose by category. Your choice is kept for 6 months, then we ask again; we also ask again if we add new services.
You can change or withdraw your consent at any time with “Review your choices” at the bottom of every page. When you withdraw a category, we delete the cookies that category set on our own domain and reload the page. Cookies that YouTube or Tripadvisor stored on their own domains can only be deleted in your browser or on their websites. Withdrawing consent does not affect what happened before.
To be able to show that consent was given, we keep an anonymous record of each choice: the date, a random identifier also stored in your consent cookie, the version of the banner, the categories you allowed, the language and the page. It contains no IP address or other information that identifies you.
Necessary cookies
These are needed for the website, the booking system and payments, and for remembering your cookie choice. They do not require consent: we use them to provide the service you request and, for payment security, on the basis of our legitimate interest in preventing fraud. The session and booking cookies are set by the booking system on your first visit.
| Cookie | Provider | Purpose | Duration |
|---|---|---|---|
| vz_consent | Valza | Stores your cookie choice | 6 months |
| pll_language | Valza (Polylang) | Remembers the language you are browsing in | 1 year |
| PHPSESSID | Valza | Keeps your browsing session on the server | Session |
| wp_woocommerce_session_*, woocommerce_cart_hash, woocommerce_items_in_cart | Valza (WooCommerce, booking system) | Hold the details of a booking while you search and book | Session to 2 days |
| __stripe_mid, __stripe_sid, m | Stripe (booking page only) | Secure card payments and fraud prevention | 30 minutes to 2 years |
| __ssid | Sift, for WooPayments (booking page only) | Fraud prevention; Sift also receives device information through hexagon-analytics.com | Set by Sift |
Statistics cookies (with your consent)
They help us understand how visitors use the site, which pages are useful and how people find us. They are set only if you allow “Statistics” (legal basis: your consent). Google Analytics keeps the data it collects for the retention period set in our Analytics property, at most 14 months.
| Cookie | Provider | Purpose | Duration |
|---|---|---|---|
| _ga, _ga_61FJXDNL7L | Google Analytics (Google) | Count visits and distinguish visitors | Up to 400 days |
| tk_ai, tk_lr, tk_or, tk_r3d, tk_qs | Jetpack and WooCommerce statistics (Automattic), with a counting pixel from pixel.wp.com | Count visits and see where visitors come from | Session to 400 days |
| sbjs_* | WooCommerce order attribution | Record how a visitor reached the site, to attribute bookings | Session |
Marketing cookies (with your consent)
Our Google Analytics account is linked to Google Ads. If you allow “Marketing” together with “Statistics”, Google may use cookies such as _gcl_* and its advertising services (including Google Signals and doubleclick.net) to measure and personalise the advertising we run for the hotel (legal basis: your consent). Without this consent, Google Analytics runs, when allowed, without advertising cookies. More information: how Google uses information from sites that use its services.
External content (with your consent)
Some pages show content from other services (legal basis: your consent). Until you allow “External content”, we show a placeholder instead, with a button to load that single item and a link to open it on the service’s own website.
- YouTube (Google): videos, loaded from youtube-nocookie.com. Once a video is loaded or played, YouTube may store information in your browser and set cookies such as YSC, VISITOR_INFO1_LIVE, VISITOR_PRIVACY_METADATA, __Secure-YNID, __Secure-ROLLOUT_TOKEN and __Secure-YEC, for up to 180 days.
- Google Maps (Google): the map on our Contact page. Once loaded, Google may set its own cookies.
- Tripadvisor: the script of the Travellers’ Choice badges, which may set cookies such as TADCID, TAUnique, TASSK, TASession, SRT, ServerPool, PMC, TART, TATravelInfo, TAUD and TASID on Tripadvisor’s domain.
Other services on the site
Some files on our pages come from other services, also before you choose. Google Fonts provides some of our fonts. The Trustindex review widgets show reviewers’ profile pictures served by Google and Tripadvisor. Without consent, the Tripadvisor badge is shown as a simple image from Tripadvisor’s servers, and the award badges of My Boutique Hotel and Restaurant Guru load from their own servers. These files do not set cookies on our site, but, as with any website, the services receive your IP address when your browser loads them.
Transfers outside Europe
Google, Automattic, Stripe, Sift and Tripadvisor may process data in the United States. These providers state that they protect such transfers with the EU–US Data Privacy Framework or the European Commission’s standard contractual clauses. You can read their privacy policies on their websites.
Managing cookies in your browser
Besides “Review your choices”, you can delete or block cookies in your browser settings. If you block necessary cookies, parts of the site, such as the booking system, may not work.
Your rights
Under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the applicable Albanian data protection law, you can ask to access, correct or delete your personal data, to restrict or object to its use, and to receive it in a portable format. You can also lodge a complaint with a data protection authority, such as the one in your country of residence or the Albanian Information and Data Protection Commissioner. To exercise your rights, write to info@valza.al.
Changes to this policy
If we add new cookies or services, we update this page and ask for your consent again where needed.