Privacy Policy
Effective and last updated: October 7, 2026
Hostee Venue Suite (“Hostee”, “we”, “us”) is a software service for wedding and event venues, available at hosteevenuesuite.com. It is operated by Guardian Media, Inc., an Indiana company. This policy explains what information Hostee collects, how we use it, who we share it with, how long we keep it, and the choices you have. It includes the specific rules we follow for data we receive from Google, such as Gmail.
The short version. We use your information only to run Hostee for you. We do not sell personal information. We do not use email content for advertising, and we do not use it to train AI models. If you connect a Gmail account, Hostee sends the emails you send from Hostee, and it only brings in emails that belong to your venue’s client conversations. You can disconnect at any time.
1. Who we are
Guardian Media, Inc., 400 Hornettown Rd, Morgantown, IN 46160, USA. Email: support@hosteevenuesuite.com. Phone: (888) 940-0123.
2. Whose information this covers
- Venue customers: venue owners and team members who have a Hostee account.
- Venue clients and contacts: couples, event hosts, family members, planners and vendors whose details a venue adds to Hostee, or who use a venue’s client portal. The venue decides what to collect about its clients and how to use it. We handle that information on the venue’s behalf and according to its instructions. If you are a venue’s client and want to see, correct or delete your information, please contact the venue. You can also contact us, and we will help.
- Visitors to hosteevenuesuite.com.
3. Information we collect
- Account information: name, email address, phone number, password (stored only as a one-way hash), role, and profile details.
- Venue and event information that you enter or upload: clients, leads, events, dates, quotes, contracts, planning forms, timelines, payments schedules, team schedules, notes, photos and files.
- Messages: messages sent and received in Hostee by in-app chat, text message (SMS) and email, including attachments.
- Connected account data: if you connect an email account or another service, the data described in section 4, plus the sign-in tokens that let Hostee act for you.
- Payment information: payments are processed by Intuit (QuickBooks Payments). Hostee does not store full card or bank account numbers.
- Technical information: IP address, browser and device type, pages requested, and error logs, which we use to keep the service secure and working. If you allow notifications, we store your browser’s push subscription. Our sign-up, sign-in and contact forms use Google reCAPTCHA to block automated abuse.
- Contact form: the name, company, email, phone and message you send us.
4. Connected email accounts (Gmail and Google user data)
A venue or team member can choose to connect a Gmail or Google Workspace mailbox to Hostee using “Connect with Google”. This section explains exactly what Hostee does with that access. Connecting is optional. Hostee also works without it, using Hostee’s own sending address.
Permissions Hostee asks for
| Google permission | What Hostee uses it for |
|---|---|
| Send email on your behalf (gmail.send) |
To send the emails that you or your team write in Hostee to your clients and contacts, plus the email notices your venue has chosen to send, from your own address so replies come back to you. Hostee sends only when a person sends a message in Hostee or a notice the venue turned on is due. Hostee never sends its own marketing or promotions from your address. |
| Read your email messages and settings (gmail.readonly) |
To bring replies and emails from your clients into the matching Hostee conversation, so your team sees the whole conversation in one place. It is also used to read your mailbox address and your “Send mail as” addresses, so Hostee only sends from addresses Gmail allows. This permission is read-only. Hostee cannot change, delete, move or label anything in your mailbox. |
What Hostee reads, and what it keeps
- When you connect: your mailbox address and your list of “Send mail as” addresses. Hostee also starts watching for new mail from that moment on. It does not import your existing mail.
- For each new email that arrives after you connect, Hostee reads only basic header details (sender, recipients, subject, date, message and reply IDs, mailing-list and auto-reply markers) and Gmail’s labels for it. It uses these to decide whether the email belongs in Hostee. Emails sent to spam, trash or drafts are ignored. If an email does not match, Hostee does not store anything from it and does not open its contents.
- An email matches, and Hostee reads its full content and attachments, only when:
- it is a reply to an email that was sent from Hostee;
- it is part of an email conversation that is already in Hostee;
- you have put a Gmail label named “Hostee” on it to bring it in on purpose; or
- it comes from someone your venue has already added to Hostee as a client, event contact, vendor, lead or team member. This is on for a venue’s shared address. For a team member’s own address, it is that person’s choice.
- Looking back: Hostee may look at recent mail in limited cases only. One is catching up after syncing was interrupted (up to the last day). Another, where available, is when a staff member adds a new contact or presses “Pull recent emails”, which brings in that one contact’s emails from the chosen period (up to 90 days). Where available, an email you send from Gmail itself in a conversation that is already in Hostee may also be added, so the conversation stays complete. The same matching rules apply.
- Matched emails are saved as messages in the right Hostee conversation. That includes the sender, recipients, subject, text and attachments, plus a copy of the original email that we keep for 30 days for accurate display and troubleshooting. They are visible only to the venue’s authorized users and, in a conversation the venue shares with its client, to that client.
- New-mail alerts: Hostee uses Google Cloud Pub/Sub to learn right away when new mail arrives. These alerts contain only your mailbox address and a change number, not email content.
Limited Use
Hostee Venue Suite’s use and transfer to any other app of information received from Google APIs will adhere to the Google API Services User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements.
In particular, for data we receive from Gmail and other Google APIs:
- We use it only to provide and improve the user-facing email features described above, which you can see in the Hostee interface.
- We do not transfer it to others, except as needed to provide or improve those features, to comply with the law, to protect security, or as part of a merger, acquisition or sale of assets, and then only after getting your explicit consent first.
- We do not use it, or transfer it, for advertising, including retargeting, personalized or interest-based ads.
- We do not sell it, and we do not use it to determine creditworthiness or for lending.
- We do not use it to develop, improve or train generalized artificial intelligence or machine learning models.
- No person at Guardian Media reads it, unless you give us permission for specific messages (for example, when you ask for support). The other exceptions are when it is needed for security, such as investigating abuse, when the law requires it, or for our internal operations, and then only after it has been aggregated and anonymized.
Disconnecting, and deleting Gmail data
- Disconnect any time in Hostee: go to Settings → Messaging for a venue address, or to your profile’s Email account card for your own address, and press Disconnect. Hostee immediately stops reading and sending, asks Google to revoke its access, and deletes the stored sign-in tokens for that mailbox.
- You can also remove Hostee’s access from your Google Account at myaccount.google.com/connections. Hostee stops working with the mailbox as soon as Google refuses its access.
- Emails that were already brought into Hostee stay in the venue’s conversations as part of its client records until the venue deletes them or closes its account. To have imported emails deleted, email support@hosteevenuesuite.com from the connected address or the venue owner’s address. We will delete them within 30 days and confirm when it’s done.
Other email providers (Microsoft 365 / Outlook.com, or any provider through IMAP) follow the same rules: the same matching, the same Limited Use-style limits, and the same disconnect and deletion options.
5. How we use information
- To provide Hostee: managing events, clients, quotes, payments, planning, team work, messages and the client portal.
- To send messages you ask us to send, and the account and service notices you need (for example password resets and alerts you turned on).
- To keep Hostee secure, prevent fraud and abuse, fix problems, and improve how the product works.
- To answer your questions and provide support.
- To meet legal obligations.
We do not sell personal information. We do not use your clients’ information to market to them.
6. How we share information
We share information only as described here:
- Within the venue’s account: with the venue’s authorized team members according to their roles, and with a venue’s client for that client’s own event and conversations.
- Service providers who help us run Hostee and may use information only to provide their service to us: our server hosting provider; cloud file storage (Cloudflare); Twilio (text messages); Intuit (payments and QuickBooks, when a venue turns them on); Google (Gmail connections that you choose to set up, Cloud Pub/Sub new-mail alerts, reCAPTCHA and web fonts); and email delivery providers for Hostee’s own system emails. Email content from a connected Gmail account is stored only on our own servers and file storage. It is never given to any other third party.
- Legal and safety: when required by law or valid legal process, or to protect the rights, property or safety of our users, the public or Guardian Media.
- Business transfer: as part of a merger, acquisition or sale of assets, with notice to you. The new owner remains bound by this policy. Data received from Google (such as Gmail) is transferred only after getting your explicit consent first.
7. Text messages (SMS)
Hostee sends texts only to people who have opted in. Message frequency varies. Message and data rates may apply. Reply STOP to opt out, or HELP for help. More details are in our SMS Terms. No mobile information will be shared with third parties or affiliates for marketing or promotional purposes. All of the sharing described in this policy excludes text messaging originator opt-in data and consent; this information will not be shared with any third parties. We use phone numbers only to send the texts you agreed to (account notifications, event updates and replies to your messages).
8. Security
- All connections to Hostee use HTTPS (TLS 1.2 or newer).
- Email sign-in tokens, app passwords, and connection secrets are encrypted at rest with AES-256. They are never shown in the app and never written to logs.
- The original copies of imported emails, and email attachments, are encrypted at rest (AES-256-GCM).
- Access is limited by role inside each venue, and every form is protected against cross-site request forgery.
- Access to production servers is limited to authorized Guardian Media staff.
No system is perfectly secure. If we learn of a breach that affects your information, we will notify you as required by law.
9. How long we keep information, and deletion
- Account and venue data: kept while the account is active. If a venue closes its account, we delete or anonymize its data within 30 days of the request, except for records we must keep by law, such as payment and tax records.
- Email sign-in tokens: kept, encrypted, only while the mailbox is connected. They are deleted right away when you disconnect, and replaced when you reconnect. If the provider revokes access, Hostee stops using the mailbox, and the old tokens are deleted when you disconnect or reconnect, or when the account closes.
- Imported emails: kept with the venue’s conversations until the venue deletes them, asks us to delete them, or closes its account. Emails that did not match are never stored. The original copy of each imported email is deleted after 30 days; the message in the conversation stays.
- Logs and backups: server logs and backups are kept for a limited time and then overwritten.
To ask us to delete your information, email support@hosteevenuesuite.com. We may need to confirm your identity before acting.
10. Cookies
Hostee uses cookies that are needed to keep you signed in, protect forms, and remember your settings. Google reCAPTCHA sets its own cookies to detect bots. We do not use advertising or cross-site tracking cookies.
11. Your choices and rights
- You can view and update most account information in Hostee.
- You can disconnect connected accounts at any time, as described in section 4.
- You can opt out of texts by replying STOP, and turn off notifications in your settings or browser.
- Depending on where you live, you may have the right to access, correct, delete or get a copy of your personal information, or to object to certain uses. To make a request, email support@hosteevenuesuite.com. If you are a venue’s client, we may send your request to the venue, because it controls that information.
12. Children
Hostee is a business service and is not meant for children under 13. We do not knowingly collect information from them. If you think a child has given us information, contact us and we will delete it.
13. Changes to this policy
If we change this policy, we will update the date at the top. If a change is significant, we will also let account owners know in Hostee or by email before it takes effect. We will not use data from Google in a new way without first updating this policy and, when required, asking for your consent again.
14. Contact us
Guardian Media, Inc. · 400 Hornettown Rd, Morgantown, IN 46160 · support@hosteevenuesuite.com · (888) 940-0123
See also our Terms of Service.