Cookie policy
18 Nov 2020
Information about our use of cookies
J D Wetherspoon plc (“We” “Us” “Our”) is committed to protecting and respecting your privacy.
Our website uses cookies to distinguish you from other of its users. This helps us to provide you with a good experience when you browse our website and also allows us to improve the website. By continuing to browse the website, you are agreeing to our use of cookies.
What is a cookie?
A cookie is a small file of letters and numbers which we store on your browser or the hard drive of your computer, if you agree. Cookies contain information which is transferred to your computer’s hard drive.
Which cookies do we use?
We use the following cookies:
- Strictly necessary cookies. These cookies are required for the operation of our website. They include, for example, the Load Balancer cookie which makes it possible for us to provide a reliable website.
- Analytical/performance cookies. These allow us to recognise and count the number of visitors and see how visitors move around our website, when using it. These help us to improve the way in which our website works, for example, by ensuring that users easily find what they are seeking.
- Session cookies. These make it easier for you to navigate our website.
- Functionality cookies. These are used to recognise you when you return to our website. These enable us to personalise our content for you and remember your preferences (for example, your choice of language). The session cookie we use allows us to present you with search results when you are looking for a pub or hotel near you.
Where can you find more information?
In the table below, you will find more information about the individual cookies we use and the purposes for which we use them:
| Cookie | Name | Purpose | More information |
| Java session | JSESSIONID | This cookie will track purchase/s on the website, such as hotel bookings, from initial selection to final check-out. This cookie is essential for our website to work. | This cookie contains no personal identifiable information, just a tag code to identify the visitor to our website throughout the session. For example, as items are added to a shopping bag or when a visitor moves to the next screen, it remembers the contents of a visitor’s shopping bag. |
| Load Balancer | ai_session AWSELB | This just tracks an individual session and is an essential cookie to provide a better experience for visitors. | The cookie will track how long the visitor is on our website; when a visitor moves to another page, it will identify them as the same visitor. This cookie is essential for our website to provide a reliable and responsive experience for visitors. |
| Application Insights | ai_user | This is a monitoring cookie. | This cookie monitors how many visitors are on our website or accessing the website at any one time. If there were a flood of activity, we would investigate, as it may flag a data-protection issue. |
| Session | ASP.NET_SessioinId | This cookie is essential to provide search features. | This cookie is essential for us to provide search features and information about our hotels and pubs. |
| Google Analytics | _ga _gid _gat _gid _gat | This cookie enables us to understand how visitors navigate through our website. | This cookie enables us to understand more about the way in which visitors navigate through our website and allows us to use that information to make the website easier to use. |
| View Preference | sc_expview | This cookie helps us to display our website according to your preferences. | This cookie helps us to display the website according to your preferences and to make the site work well on different devices which you are using. |
How can I block cookies?
You can block cookies by activating the setting on your browser which allows you to refuse the setting of all or some cookies. However, if you use your browser settings to block all cookies (including essential cookies), you may be unable to access all or part of our site.
Except for essential cookies, all cookies will expire as follows:
| Cookie name | Expiry of the cookie |
| ASP.NET_SessioinId | 12 months |
| JSESSIONID | user session |
| ai_session | user session |
| ai_user | user session |
| AWSELB | 7 days |
| _ga | 24 months |
| _gid | 24 hours |
| _gat | 1 minute |
| sc_expview | 12 months |
How we use cookies
We use Google Analytics to see how visitors reach our website and the path they take through it. This helps us to understand how to improve our website, what our most popular content is and where we have issues which need fixing.
What about third-party websites?
Our website may link through to third-party websites which may also use cookies over which we have no control. We recommend that you check the privacy and cookie policies of those websites for information about the cookies they may use and their collection of personal data. We can’t accept any responsibility for any content contained in third-party websites.
What will you do with my personal data?
Personal data, as defined in our Privacy Policy, is collected by the cookies we use, listed in the tables above. Our explains why we collect this data, what we do with it, our legal basis for collection and information about your rights under data protection law.
