Terms of Use & Data Privacy Policy

This website, www.ramatniseko.com, and the Ramat Niseko lodge business are operated by Japan Investments Pty Ltd, acting in two capacities:

• in Australia, as Japan Investments Pty Ltd as trustee for the Japan Investments Unit Trust (atf the Japan Investments Unit Trust) — the entity that runs the website and handles bookings, marketing and guest communications; and
• in Japan, as Japan Investments Pty Ltd — the entity that holds the accommodation licence and operates our two lodges, Ramat Lodge and Snowgum Lodge, in Niseko Hirafu, Hokkaido.

In these Terms of Use and our Data Privacy Policy, “we”, “us” and “our” mean Japan Investments Pty Ltd in both capacities, together trading as Ramat Niseko. These Terms of Use govern your use of the website. By accessing or using the website, you agree to them. If you do not agree, please do not use the website.

These Terms of Use cover the website only. The conditions that apply to a booking and stay with us are set out separately in our House Rules & Booking Conditions.

You may view, download and print material from this website for your own personal, non-commercial use in planning or managing a stay with us. All content on the website — including text, images, logos and design — belongs to us or our licensors and is protected by copyright and other rights. Unless we agree in writing, you may not:

• copy, reproduce or republish material for any commercial purpose;
• modify the material or present it in a misleading way;
• remove any copyright or ownership notices; or
• reproduce, mirror or store the website on another server.

This permission ends automatically if you breach any of these terms.

We take care to keep the website accurate and up to date, but we provide it on an “as is” basis. To the extent the law allows, we do not warrant that the material is complete, current or error-free, and details such as prices, availability and facilities may change without notice. Any reliance you place on the material is at your own risk; please confirm anything important with us directly before relying on it.

To the extent permitted by law, we are not liable for any loss or damage arising from your use of, or inability to use, this website, or from any errors in its content. Nothing in these terms excludes or limits any liability that cannot lawfully be excluded, including under applicable consumer law.

Our website may link to websites operated by others, such as activity providers, transport services or partner businesses. We provide these links for convenience only. We do not control those websites and are not responsible for their content or for how they handle your information. Visiting a linked website is at your own risk and subject to that website’s own terms.

We may update these Terms of Use from time to time. The current version always lives on this page, and your continued use of the website means you accept the version then in force.

This Data Privacy Policy explains how we (as defined in section 1), trading as Ramat Niseko, collect, use, share and protect the personal information you provide through our website and when you enquire or book with us. Because we operate from both Australia and Japan, we handle your personal information in line with Australian privacy law for our Australian operations, and with Japan’s Act on the Protection of Personal Information (個人情報保護法, the APPI) for our lodge operations in Japan.

The personal information we record as part of guest registration during your stay (for example the passport details required by Japan’s Ryokan Business Act) is described in our House Rules & Booking Conditions. This policy focuses on information collected through the website and the booking process.

Information you give us

This includes your name, email address and phone number; your booking and stay details; the payment information needed to process your booking; the content of any enquiry or message you send us; and any details you choose to provide when you sign up for our newsletter or contact us.

Information we collect automatically

When you visit the website, we and our analytics providers may collect your IP address, browser and device type, operating system, the pages you view, and how you arrived at and moved through the site. This is collected through cookies and similar technologies, described below.

We use your personal information to:

• respond to your enquiries and manage your bookings and stay;
• process payments and send booking confirmations and related messages;
• provide the accommodation and any extra services you request;
• send you marketing and offers where you have asked to receive them, which you can opt out of at any time;
• operate, maintain and improve the website and understand how it is used;
• keep the website and our business secure and prevent fraud; and
• meet our legal and regulatory obligations.

If you are in the EU, EEA, Switzerland or UK

Under the GDPR and UK GDPR, we rely on these legal bases:

• Contract — to take and manage your booking and provide your stay;
• Legal obligation — to keep the guest and tax records the law requires (for example, the guest register required by Japan’s Ryokan Business Act);
• Legitimate interests — to answer your enquiries, keep the website and our business secure and prevent fraud, and send you news about similar stays if you have stayed or booked with us before (you can opt out at any time); and
• Consent — for statistics and marketing cookies, and for marketing emails where the law requires it. You can withdraw consent at any time without affecting anything we did before you withdrew it.

Our website uses cookies and similar technologies (small files and scripts that run in your browser). When you first visit from the European Union, the European Economic Area, Switzerland or the United Kingdom, a pop-up asks which of these you are happy for us to use, and nothing beyond the essential ones runs until you choose.

Essential (always on, the site needs them)

• Complianz remembers your cookie choices so we don’t ask again on every page.
• Google reCAPTCHA protects our enquiry and sign-up forms from spam.
• Our booking engine keeps your booking details together while you book.

Statistics (only with your consent where consent is required)

• Google Analytics shows us how visitors use the site (pages viewed, how you found us, bookings made) so we can improve it. If you decline, Google may receive a basic, cookie-free signal that a page was viewed, which cannot be used to identify you or follow you across sites.
• Hotjar shows us heatmaps and recordings of how pages are used (clicks, scrolling and page movement), so we can find and fix things that are confusing. We do not use it to identify you.
• Ahrefs Web Analytics gives us simple website traffic statistics.

Marketing (only with your consent where consent is required)

• Google Ads measures which of our ads lead to bookings and lets us show our ads to past visitors.
• Meta Pixel (Facebook and Instagram) does the same for our Meta ads.

Behind the scenes

• Google Tag Manager loads the tools above and makes sure each one only runs when your choices allow it. It does not keep information about you itself.
• Brevo sends our emails and newsletters, and tells us whether an email was opened or a link was clicked. You can unsubscribe from any marketing email using the link at the bottom.

For the full list of cookies, what each one stores and how long it lasts, see our Cookie Policy (EU · UK). That page is kept up to date automatically.

Changing your choices

If you were shown our cookie pop-up, you can change or withdraw your consent at any time using the “Manage consent” button on the site. You can also delete cookies in your browser settings. Turning off essential cookies may stop parts of the website, including booking, from working.

We do not sell your personal information. We share it only where it is needed to run our business and your stay, namely with:

• service providers who work on our behalf — for example our payment provider, booking and channel-management systems, email and hosting providers, and analytics and advertising platforms;
• travel agents or partners involved in a booking you make through them;
• authorities or professional advisers where the law requires it, or to protect our rights, property or safety or those of others; and
• a buyer or successor if our business is sold or transferred, under appropriate confidentiality.

We operate from Australia and use international service providers, so your personal information may be stored or processed outside Japan, including in Australia, the United States, the European Union and other countries where our providers operate. In particular, the tools in section 10 send information from your browser directly to their providers: Google (United States), Meta (United States and Ireland), Hotjar (Malta, EU), Ahrefs (Singapore) and Brevo (France, EU).

Where information is transferred across borders, we take reasonable steps to ensure it remains protected to a standard consistent with this policy and applicable law. For transfers from the EU or UK to countries without an adequacy decision, our providers rely on safeguards such as the European Commission’s Standard Contractual Clauses or the EU-US Data Privacy Framework.

Information sent to third parties from your browser (Japan)

In line with Japan’s rules on the external transmission of user information (Telecommunications Business Act, 外部送信規律), section 10 and our Cookie Policy list each third party that receives information from your browser when you use this website, what information is sent (such as your IP address, device and browser details, the pages you view and, if you book, the booking value) and why.

We use reasonable administrative, technical and physical measures to protect your personal information against loss, misuse and unauthorised access. No website or system can be guaranteed completely secure, but we take security seriously and limit access to your information to those who need it to do their work.

We keep your personal information only for as long as we need it for the purposes described in this policy, or for as long as the law requires us to. When it is no longer needed, we delete it or remove the details that identify you.

Website statistics are kept by Google Analytics for up to 14 months and then deleted. Cookies last for the periods listed in our Cookie Policy, and your cookie choices are remembered for up to 12 months, after which we ask again.

You may ask us to:

• tell you what personal information we hold about you;
• correct information that is wrong or out of date;
• delete information we no longer need to keep; or
• stop using your information for marketing.

If you are in the EU, EEA, Switzerland or the UK, you also have the right to object to how we use your information, to ask us to limit how we use it, to receive a copy of it in a portable format, and to withdraw any consent you have given. You can also complain to your local data protection authority (in the UK, the Information Commissioner’s Office), although we would appreciate the chance to sort out any concern first.

To make any of these requests, contact us using the details below. We will respond within a reasonable time and may need to confirm your identity first.

Our website and services are intended for adults arranging accommodation. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children. If you are under the age at which you can agree to this policy in your country, please do not use the website or provide personal information without the involvement of a parent or guardian. If you believe a child has given us personal information, please contact us and we will remove it.

We may update this policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices or in legal requirements. The current version always lives on this page, with the “last updated” date shown above. Please check back from time to time.

For any question or request about your personal information, or about these terms, contact us at:

These Terms of Use and this Data Privacy Policy are governed by the laws of Queensland, Australia, where our operating entity is based, and you submit to the courts of that State. Personal information we handle in operating the lodges in Japan is additionally subject to Japan’s Act on the Protection of Personal Information. The booking conditions for your stay are governed separately by the laws of Japan, as set out in our House Rules & Booking Conditions. The English version of this page is the binding version; a Japanese translation is available on request.