Privacy Notice

This Privacy Notice explains how CheckMate Experiences Ltd collects, uses, stores and protects your personal information across all of our activities — including CheckMate Kids, CheckMate Retreats, CheckMate Lates, private and group coaching, our classes, community sessions and corporate or private venue hire at the Rafayel, and applications to coach or work with us.

We are committed to handling your data responsibly and in line with the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR), the Data Protection Act 2018, and the guidance of the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).

1. Who We Are

CheckMate Experiences Ltd is the data controller for the personal information you provide when you book or enquire about any of our activities. We are registered in England and Wales under company number 17114396. Our registered office is Flat 8 Wesley Court, 82 Webster Road, London, SE16 4DT. We are registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) as a data controller under registration reference ZC124690. Data protection enquiries should be directed to Gabriel Barr.

If you have any questions about how we use your data, please contact us at coaching@checkmateexperiences.co.uk.

2. What Data We Collect

The information we collect depends on the activity you are booking or enquiring about. We only collect what we need to provide that activity safely and well.

CheckMate Kids (children’s coaching and events)

Because these activities are for children, we collect additional information to keep them safe:

  • Attendee details: Child’s name, date of birth, age on the day, and gender; school name; chess experience level, where they play, and chess rating (if available); any relevant health, medical, additional needs or learning information.

  • Booking details: Parent or guardian name, email address and mobile number; relationship to the child; emergency contact name, relationship and number; alternative collection person (if applicable).

  • Preferences: Photo and media consent preference, safeguarding acknowledgement, marketing consent preference, and how you heard about us.

Retreats, classes, community sessions, lates and adult coaching

For our adult and general activities, we typically collect:

  • Your name, email address and contact number.

  • Any health, dietary, accessibility or wellbeing information you choose to share that is relevant to your participation (for example, for catering or activity suitability at a retreat).

  • Emergency contact details, where relevant to the activity.

  • Your chess level or experience, where relevant to grouping or tailoring sessions.

  • Marketing consent preference, and how you heard about us.

Coach and team applications (Work With Us)

If you apply to coach or work with us, we collect: your name, email address and phone number; your chess background, rating or title; your coaching experience; your availability and location; whether you hold a current Enhanced DBS check; and any other information you choose to include in your application. If your application progresses, we may collect further information needed for recruitment and safeguarding checks, such as references, proof of identity and DBS certificate details.

Corporate and private venue hire (the Rafayel)

For event and venue enquiries and bookings, we typically collect:

  • Your name, organisation (if applicable), email address and contact number.

  • Details of your event or enquiry, such as date, type and approximate numbers.

  • Any information needed to deliver your event, including catering and accessibility requirements.

Information collected automatically (website tracking and marketing)

Where you book or pay online, our booking and payment providers may also collect technical data such as IP address, browser information and cookies. Additionally, we use Squarespace's built-in analytics on our website to see how popular our pages are and to help us improve our services. Please refer to their respective privacy policies for details.

3. Children’s Data

We recognise the importance of protecting children’s privacy. Personal data about children is collected from and with the consent of their parent or guardian. We do not knowingly collect data directly from children, and we apply additional care to how children’s information is stored, used and retained.

4. How We Collect It

We collect your information when you book, enquire about, or take part in one of our activities. We use trusted booking and enquiry tools to do this. Our approach may differ by activity — for example, CheckMate Kids bookings are taken through the booking system built into our website, which is provided by Squarespace, while retreats, classes, community sessions and venue hire may use this booking system, online enquiry forms, email or other secure booking methods. Whichever method is used, we only collect the information described in this notice and handle it in the same careful way.

5. Why We Collect It

We use your information to:

  • Process your booking or enquiry and take payment where applicable.

  • Organise participants into appropriate groups (for example, by age, experience or ability).

  • Ensure the safety and wellbeing of those attending, including managing medical, dietary and accessibility needs and safe collection of children.

  • Plan and deliver events, retreats, sessions and venue hire.

  • Contact you with relevant information, reminders and updates.

  • Send you information about future CheckMate activities and offers (only with your consent).

  • Use photos and media for promotional purposes on our website and social media channels (only with your consent). You can message us at any time if you want photos removed.

  • Comply with our safeguarding and legal obligations.

  • Assess applications from prospective coaches and team members, and carry out recruitment and safeguarding checks.

6. Legal Basis

We process your data on the following legal bases under UK GDPR:

  • Contractual necessity: to fulfil your booking and deliver the activity you have requested.

  • Legitimate interests: to run our activities safely and effectively, including safeguarding, emergency contact, and managing our events and venue.

  • Explicit consent: for photography and media use, and for marketing communications. You can withdraw consent at any time.

  • Legal obligation: where we are required to process or share information to meet safeguarding or other legal duties.

  • Special category data: we process relevant health, medical, additional needs, or dietary information based on your explicit consent or, in the case of an emergency, to protect your vital interests.

  • Recruitment: we process application data based on our legitimate interests in recruiting suitable coaches and as steps taken at your request prior to entering a contract. We process information about DBS checks and criminal records in accordance with our safeguarding obligations and the conditions for processing criminal offence data under the Data Protection Act 2018.

7. How Long We Keep It

We keep personal data only for as long as necessary. As a general approach, we retain booking and enquiry records for up to 2 years after the activity for accounting and safeguarding purposes. Health, dietary and safeguarding information is deleted within 3 months of the activity unless there is a legal reason to retain it. After the retention period, data is securely deleted from our systems and from any third-party platforms where we have the ability to do so.

If you apply to work with us and your application is unsuccessful, we retain your application data for up to 6 months before securely deleting it, unless you ask us to keep your details on file for future opportunities. Records relating to engaged coaches, including DBS and safeguarding checks, are retained for the duration of the engagement and as required by our safeguarding obligations afterwards.

8. How We Store It

Booking and attendee data is stored securely in access-restricted systems available only to the directors of CheckMate Experiences Ltd. Payment data is processed and stored by our payment provider and is not held by us directly. We take appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect your personal data, including encrypted payment processing, secure cloud storage, and restricted access controls.

9. Who We Share It With

We do not sell your personal data, and we do not share it with third parties for their own marketing purposes. We use the following trusted service providers to operate our activities:

  • Squarespace: website hosting, online booking and website analytics.

  • Stripe: payment processing.

  • Mailchimp: email marketing and mailing list management (where you have consented to receive marketing).

  • Google Workspace: email and secure document storage.

  • Hotel Rafayel: we share necessary data (such as dietary or accessibility needs) only with Hotel Rafayel to help support and facilitate your event.

We may also use other reputable booking, email or event-management tools from time to time, each with appropriate data protection measures in place. In the event of a safeguarding concern, we may be required to share relevant information with the relevant local authority children’s services, the police, or other statutory agencies.

10. International Data Transfers

Some of our service providers, such as Squarespace, Google Workspace and Stripe, may process or store data outside the UK or European Economic Area (EEA). When this happens, we ensure your data receives the same level of protection as it would within the UK by putting appropriate safeguards in place, such as relying on UK adequacy decisions or using standard contractual clauses approved by the UK government.

11. Your Rights

Under UK GDPR, you have the following rights in relation to your personal data:

  1. The right to access the personal data we hold about you.

  2. The right to correct any inaccurate or incomplete data.

  3. The right to request deletion of your data.

  4. The right to restrict processing of your data.

  5. The right to data portability.

  6. The right to object to processing based on legitimate interests.

  7. The right to withdraw consent at any time.

To exercise any of these rights, please contact us at coaching@checkmateexperiences.co.uk. If you are unhappy with how we handle your data, you have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) at ico.org.uk.

12. Changes to This Notice

We may update this Privacy Notice from time to time. The latest version will always be available on our website. Where significant changes are made, we will notify you by email where appropriate.

CheckMate Experiences Ltd  |  coaching@checkmateexperiences.co.uk  |  Last updated: June 2026