Your information is used to serve your event.

Information we collect

Through our contact and reservation forms we collect the information you provide: your name, email address, phone number, event date, event location or delivery address, estimated guest count, the equipment you select, and any message you send us.

Our servers also record basic technical information such as your request details and error logs, which we use to keep the site secure and working correctly.

How we use it

We use this information to check date-specific availability, prepare and manage your reservation, coordinate customer pickup or delivery, process your deposit and remaining balance, and communicate with you about your event. We do not sell your personal information, and we do not share it for advertising.

Driver's license and residential address

For every rental, we ask for your full legal name, the physical residential address where you live, and, after your deposit is paid, a photo of the front of your current U.S. driver's license uploaded through a secure single-use link. We use these only for rental identity and address verification. A Claus Rentals owner compares the photo with the details you entered by hand; no automated or biometric analysis is performed. We do not ask for the back of the license or record your license number.

The photo is processed to remove embedded metadata (such as location data) and stored in private storage that only Claus Rentals owners can open through short-lived secure links. It is never included in emails, receipts, calendars, payment-processor records, analytics or exports. Photos are deleted 30 days after the rented equipment is returned, or 30 days after a request is rejected or abandoned; photos uploaded but never attached to a booking are deleted within about a day. We keep the review decision and your residential address with the reservation record.

Payments (Stripe)

Card payments are processed by Stripe, Inc. When you pay your 25% reservation deposit or your remaining balance, your card details are entered directly into Stripe's secure payment form and are transmitted to Stripe — Claus Rentals never receives or stores your full card number. We retain only the payment status, amounts, and a Stripe reference identifier for your order. Stripe acts as an independent payment processor and handles your payment data under its own privacy policy at stripe.com/privacy. Stripe may set cookies necessary to operate its payment form and to prevent fraud.

Email communications

We send transactional email related to your booking: a confirmation of your inquiry, a reservation confirmation once your deposit clears, and, three calendar days before your rental starts — the requested pickup or delivery start (or right away for short-notice bookings), a Stripe invoice for the remaining balance sent by Stripe, Inc. with a secure hosted payment page. These emails arrive from "Claus Rentals Website <noreply@clausrentals.com>", are delivered through our managed email provider using our verified sending domain notify.clausrentals.com, and have replies directed to reservations@clausrentals.com. They are service messages, not marketing, and we do not add you to a marketing list.

Cookies and similar technologies

We do not sell or share data for targeted advertising. With your permission (the marketing switch in the cookie banner), we use Google Ads conversion measurement: when a reservation deposit is paid, a single "Purchase" conversion is reported to Google with the deposit amount in US dollars and an order reference number — never your name, address, email, phone, or ID details. This tells us whether a paid reservation came from one of our ads. The Google tag loads only if you allow marketing cookies; analytics and marketing switches default to off, and a Global Privacy Control signal from your browser is honored as a marketing opt-out. The technologies below are strictly necessary to provide the site and services you request, so they cannot be switched off.

Pages also load our fonts from Google Fonts, which receives your IP address and browser details to deliver the font files; no Google cookies are set by this. You can review or change your choice at any time using the Cookie Settings link in the footer.

Analytics

We do not install third-party analytics or advertising trackers. Our website host may provide basic visitor statistics (page views and page-speed measurements) through its own first-party script; this is not used for advertising or cross-site tracking. If we add any analytics that use optional cookies, they will be placed in the "Analytics" category, default to off, and load only after you allow them.

Data retention

Reservation and payment records are kept for up to seven years to meet accounting, tax, and dispute-resolution obligations. Contact form inquiries that do not become reservations are kept for up to two years so we can follow up on repeat events. Pending reservations from abandoned checkouts expire automatically within 30 minutes and are not retained as bookings. Your cookie preference is stored in your own browser for 180 days, or until you clear it or change it.

How your information is protected

Reservation and contact records are protected using secure cloud infrastructure and role-based access controls. Access is limited to Claus Rentals staff who need it to fulfill your rental.

Your choices and deletion requests

You may request access to, correction of, or deletion of your personal information at any time by emailing reservations@clausrentals.com or calling 517.888.4018. We will respond within 30 days. Please note that we may need to retain reservation and payment records required by tax and accounting law; in that case we will delete everything we are not required to keep.