Cookies we set
One kind: analytics, described below. PlayoffHotels.com has no logins and no shopping cart, so there are no session or account cookies. Alongside Google Analytics we also use Cloudflare Web Analytics, which is cookieless. It counts visits without identifying or following you.
Not a cookie, but disclosed here anyway: our own analytics keeps a random session identifier in your browser's sessionStorage to measure how searches and clicks lead to bookings. It disappears when you close your browser and is not tied to your name, email, or IP address. Details in the privacy policy.
Cookies we set: analytics
We use Google Analytics 4 to understand traffic: pages visited, where
visitors come from, roughly where in the world they are. It sets
first-party cookies (names beginning _ga) that expire after
up to 13 months. This data is aggregate measurement; we don't use it for
advertising profiles, and it never affects which hotels we recommend.
Block it freely: the site works identically with these cookies refused.
Browser settings or any content blocker will do it.
Coming as we grow: advertising pixels
Straight answer about where this is heading: as we start running ads for the site, we expect to add advertising pixels from platforms like Meta, TikTok, and Google Ads. Those measure whether campaigns work and enable audience targeting, and they involve those platforms setting their own cookies or identifiers. None are installed today. When the first one ships, this page gets a named, per-platform list before the pixel goes live, not after. Where the law requires it, a consent prompt comes first too.
Cookies our partners set
We're a booking-referral business, and referral credit runs on cookies:
- Stay22 powers our booking search, maps, and hotel links. Their scripts and embeds may set cookies or use local storage so that if you book, the referral is attributed. Stay22 privacy policy.
- Travelpayouts is a travel affiliate network whose script performs the same attribution job for links to booking sites. Travelpayouts privacy policy.
- Booking sites you click through to (Expedia, Booking.com, and others) set their own cookies on their own domains once you arrive, governed by their policies.
These are attribution cookies, not advertising-network profiles: they exist to answer "did this visit lead to a booking?" That credit is how this site earns its commission at no extra cost to you.
Managing cookies
- Your browser can block or clear third-party cookies entirely (open Settings, then Privacy, in Safari, Chrome, Firefox, or Edge). The site works fine with them blocked; partners just can't credit referrals.
- Private/incognito windows discard cookies when closed.
- Opt-outs for partner data practices are in the partner policies linked above.
Our playoff-alert emails contain no tracking pixels beyond our email provider's defaults, and every email has one-click unsubscribe. Details in our privacy policy.
Changes
If we ever add cookies of our own or new categories of partner cookies, this page changes first and the effective date moves. Questions: contact us.