About Us

Who we are: hotelDPO is a trading identity of Allstrat Ltd. Allstrat Ltd is a corporate member of the Data & Marketing Association (the DMA) and adheres to the DMA Code.

Who is in charge:

Director - Allan Simpson

Allan Simpson is a professional Data Protection Officer. He has practical, hands on experience as a DPO in the hospitality, tourism, healthcare and charity sectors. Allan is a Fellow (FIP) of the International Association of Privacy Professionals (IAPP) and holds their CIPP/E and CIPM certifications.

He is also a member of the Institute of Data and Marketing (MIDM), a member of the Institute of Hospitality (MIH) and a council member of the Data Protection Protocol Alliance.

He holds a BA degree in hotel management from the Queens College in Glasgow (yes, he's that old...) and an MBA from the Strathclyde Business School at the University of Strathclyde.

Before he found his enthusiasm for data protection and privacy he spent 20 years in and around the hospitality industry in London and Scotland, working as a general manager, sales and marketing manager and direct marketing consultant.

Principal Consultant - Rob Westwood

Rob started his hospitality career in 1983, installing call accounting systems on to manual pbx systems, the size of a small refrigerator. Long before computerised reservation systems and the internet were common in the workplace when telephone calls were one of the most profitable sales items in a hotel.

For the next 35+ years Rob continued along the same career path and witnessed first hand the innovation and development in back office technology and the multitude of systems used increase to deliver the guest experience. He has worked with many technology vendors, becoming a specialist in system integration and data exchange. This role took him across EMEA and North America, working with all major hotel brands, Independent hotels and some of the most luxurious properties in the world.

When GDPR was first announced, Rob applied it to hotel operations and it was clear the myriad of computer systems exchanging personal data within a hotel would make management of personal information very difficult, so Rob started his study in the new regulations.

The pandemic has accelerated hotel technology at a pace not seen before and Rob is ideally placed to advise hotels and travellers where personal information is used, stored, shared, in legacy technology and new, and how best practise of legislation should be adopted.

What we do: hotelDPO provides specialist DPO advice and the opportunity for you to outsource critical data protection work. We simplify. Making it easier for you to concentrate on what matters to you.

Why we do it: Data protection and privacy management can be complicated. This is a fast-moving, fluid activity. It is really hard for business owners and managers to keep up with it and do their own work at the same time.

We work hard to keep up to date with developments on your behalf. We build, implement, manage and monitor systems on your behalf. Which means it gets easier for you to take advantage of the useful parts of the GDPR and Data Protection Act, whilst observing the disciplines of the regulations.