Last updated: 20 June 2026
This page lists every cookie and tracking technology used on stayalbanianriviera.com, who sets it, what it does and how long it lasts. It’s the technical companion to our Privacy Policy. We follow the EU ePrivacy Directive (Article 5(3)) and the GDPR: nothing beyond strictly necessary cookies loads until you give explicit, informed consent. You can change or withdraw your choice anytime by clicking Cookie settings.
How our banner works. When you first visit, you see a banner with three options: Accept all, Reject non-essential or Manage choices. “Reject non-essential” is just as prominent as “Accept all” — we comply with EDPB Guidelines 05/2020 and CNIL guidance that rejection must be as easy as acceptance. “Manage choices” lets you toggle Analytics and Affiliate & newsletter tracking independently. You can reopen these choices any time via Cookie settings in the footer.
1. Strictly necessary (always on, no consent required)
These cookies are essential for the site to work and for us to remember your consent decision. Under Article 5(3) ePrivacy Directive, no consent is required.
| Cookie / token | Set by | Purpose | Duration | Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|
sw_consent_v1 | Stay Albanian Riviera | Stores your consent choices (analytics yes/no, marketing yes/no, timestamp) | ~180 days | HTTP cookie (first-party) |
__cf_bm | Cloudflare | Bot management — distinguishes humans from automated traffic | 30 minutes | HTTP cookie (first-party) |
_cflb | Cloudflare | Load balancing across edge servers | Session | HTTP cookie (first-party) |
cf_clearance | Cloudflare | Records that you passed the security challenge (if shown one) | 30 days | HTTP cookie (first-party) |
2. Analytics (consent required, off by default)
We use Google Analytics 4 with IP anonymisation and Google Signals disabled, under Google Consent Mode. Before you opt in, GA4 runs in a cookieless mode — it sends anonymous, ID-less measurement pings, sets no cookies, and cannot identify you; this lets us see aggregate, non-personal traffic estimates. The cookies below are set only after you opt in to “Analytics” via the consent banner. Crazy Egg heatmaps load only after opt-in.
| Cookie | Set by | Purpose | Duration | Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|
_ga | Google Analytics 4 | Distinguishes unique users via a pseudonymous client ID (IP is anonymised before storage) | 2 years | HTTP cookie (first-party) |
_ga_4WJPQ1YEJH | Google Analytics 4 | Maintains session state for this specific property | 2 years | HTTP cookie (first-party) |
Data is sent to Google in the US under the EU–US Data Privacy Framework adequacy decision. Retention: 14 months.
3. Affiliate & newsletter (consent required, off by default)
When you click an affiliate link, the partner sets their own cookies on the partner’s domain so they can credit us if you book. This is third-party tracking and only happens if you opt in to “Affiliate & newsletter” via the banner. The Travelpayouts script (which manages Booking.com hotels, Localrent car rental, KiwiTaxi and GetTransfer transfers, WayAway flights and Tiqets ticket attribution), the Stay22 script (which rewrites accommodation links so a hotel booking can be credited to us) and the MailerLite Universal script (which powers our optional newsletter signup popup) are all only loaded after opt-in.
| Partner | Purpose | Cookie window | Where data goes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Travelpayouts (Booking.com hotels, Localrent car rental, KiwiTaxi & GetTransfer transfers, WayAway flights, Tiqets tickets) | Credits the booking to our site if you book within the cookie window | Per-partner (Booking.com & Localrent: lifetime; others: 30–365 days) | Cyprus / EU |
| Stay22 (accommodation link rewriting — Booking.com and other hotel sites) | Rewrites accommodation links at click time and credits the booking to our site | Session, plus the destination partner’s own window | Canada (adequacy decision) |
| Viator | Activity booking attribution | 30 days | USA (SCCs) |
| Discover Cars (reserved — no active links on the site; superseded by Localrent) | Car rental booking attribution (reserved for future use only) | 365 days | Latvia / EU |
| Airalo | eSIM purchase attribution | Impact-tracked, typically 30 days | Singapore (SCCs) |
| SafetyWing | Travel insurance attribution | Per partner policy | USA (SCCs) |
| Wise | Money transfer attribution | Per partner policy | UK / EU |
| Heymondo | Travel insurance attribution | Per partner policy | Spain / EU |
| MailerLite (newsletter popup & signup) | Loads the signup popup, prevents re-showing it after dismiss, processes form submissions if you actively subscribe | Session + suppression list if you unsubscribe | Lithuania (EU) + USA sub-processors (SCCs / DPF) |
We don’t see, store or process your purchase data. Each partner is an independent data controller for the data they collect after you click — their privacy policies are linked from our privacy policy. The newsletter itself requires a separate, explicit form submission after opt-in — cookie consent alone never adds you to any mailing list.
4. Marketing / advertising
None. We don’t run Google Ads, Facebook Pixel, retargeting, or any other advertising trackers. There are no ad cookies on this site.
5. How to manage your cookies
- On this site: click Cookie settings at any time to reopen the consent banner. You can switch Analytics or Affiliate tracking on or off independently, or reject everything in one click.
- Withdraw consent globally: Click “Cookie settings” → “Reject all”. Existing cookies set with consent will stop being read on your next page load, and we’ll instruct Google to honour the withdrawal via Consent Mode v2.
- In your browser: Chrome, Firefox, Safari and Edge all let you block third-party cookies or clear all cookies in their settings. Step-by-step guides.
- Opt out of Google Analytics universally: install the official Google opt-out add-on.
- “Do Not Track” / Global Privacy Control: if your browser sends a GPC signal we treat it as a request to reject non-essential cookies.
6. Changes
We refresh this page whenever we add or remove a tracker. If we add a new category we’ll re-prompt for consent so your previous choice doesn’t silently grant something new.
Questions or a request relating to your cookies? Email contact@stayalbanianriviera.com.