A mediation invitation reaches the hotel: consumer disputes above the arbitration limit

Mediation (arabuluculuk) is a supervised negotiation with a neutral mediator. In consumer disputes above the arbitration committee limit, applying to a mediator is a precondition of suing under Article 73/A of Law No. 6502. The hotel must attend the first meeting; a party that stays away without excuse bears half the other side's court costs even if it later wins.

The envelope is thin, comes from a mediation office, names a mediator and a date, and looks like something a hotel can leave until the season ends. It is not. In consumer mediation in Türkiye above the arbitration limit, that invitation is the step before a lawsuit, and missing it has a price written into the law. After reading this article you will know which road a claim takes, when mediation is a condition of suing, who should attend for a company, what the mediator costs, what an agreement binds, and which papers to bring.

Which road does a consumer claim take: committee, mediator or court?#

Three doors, and the amount decides which one opens: a consumer arbitration committee below the yearly limit, a mediator in front of the consumer court above it.

Consumer arbitration committees (tüketici hakem heyetleri) are set up by the Ministry of Trade under Articles 66, 68 and 70 of Law No. 6502 to resolve disputes from consumer transactions and practices aimed at consumers. The monetary limit for applications is updated annually by the Ministry of Trade; for 2026, consult the latest communiqué published in the Official Gazette. Below the limit, applying to a committee is mandatory for the consumer. At or above it, a committee cannot take the case.

The consumer applies to the committee where they live or where the transaction took place; in a district with no committee, to the district governorship. The application is made in person or through a lawyer, by hand, by post, or online through e-Devlet via the Consumer Information System. Committee decisions bind the parties. Either side can object at the consumer court within two weeks of being notified, and the objection does not stop enforcement unless the judge orders it.

The same hotel can meet both roads in one season: a small claim at the committee, a larger one at mediation and then at court. The evidence file is largely the same. A claim is usually framed as defective service under consumer law in Türkiye, a broken promise about the stay, which is what the mediator and later the court will test.

The limit is reset every year by a new communiqué. Read the current one, not this article, before deciding which road applies to a claim.

When is mediation a condition of suing a hotel?#

Article 73/A of Law No. 6502, added by Law No. 7251 of 22 July 2020, makes applying to a mediator a precondition of action in disputes the consumer courts hear. A case filed without it is dismissed on procedural grounds.

A precondition of action (dava şartı) is checked by the court before it looks at the merits. No final report showing the mediation took place, no case. The claimant applies to the mediation office where the competent court sits; where there is no office, the application goes to the court registry the commission has assigned. The office appoints a mediator from its list, unless the parties agree on a mediator who is on that list. The hotel can be asked for its view on the name; it cannot impose one.

The rule does not apply to a closed list of exceptions: disputes within the committee's remit, meaning below the limit; objections to committee decisions; actions by consumer organisations, public bodies or the Ministry under Article 73(6) to stop breaches affecting consumers generally; actions about defective series goods under Article 74; and disputes that are consumer transactions and arise from rights in rem over immovable property.

If no agreement is reached and the consumer sues, the final report must be attached to the case. That report is also the hotel's record of what was offered and refused. Limitation periods stop running, and time bars are suspended, from the application until the final report is drawn up. Whether the precondition applies to a particular claim turns on how the dispute is classified, so confirm your own case with a legal adviser before deciding to ignore or to use the invitation.

The invitation arrives: who reads it, who attends, who may sign?#

The mediator informs the party itself, not only its lawyer, and keeps a record of doing so. Treat the invitation as a dated task with a named owner, not as correspondence.

The mediator contacts the parties by any means of communication and invites them to the first meeting. The record of those steps is kept and can matter later. Parties may attend in person, through their legal representatives, or through lawyers, under Article 15(6) of Mediation Law No. 6325. For a company, decide in advance who holds authority to settle and who may sign.

The person who attends needs the file, not a summary of it: reservation record, folio, correspondence, incident record, and a written mandate with a settlement range. Set the range before the session and write down who may go above it and by how much. A representative who can only say "I will ask my manager" turns one session into two and costs hours.

Check the date against the season: a session in the middle of a full house needs a deputy who can attend and sign. The mediator must generally conclude within three weeks of appointment, extendable by at most one week in compulsory cases, so the diary fills quickly. Keep the invitation, the mediator's notices and the final report in the same file as the guest's records, because the same papers serve the committee, the mediator and the court. Complaints that arrive through other channels, covered in guest complaints after checkout, often end up here.

What happens if the hotel misses the first meeting?#

The final report names the party that missed the first meeting without a valid excuse, and that party bears half of the court costs the other side would have to pay, even if it later wins, with only half the minimum attorney fee awarded in its favour.

This is Article 18/A(11) of Mediation Law No. 6325, as amended by Law No. 7531 of 7 November 2024. The earlier rule made the absentee bear all of the other side's court costs; the current rule halves it. If both parties miss the first meeting, each bears its own court costs in a later lawsuit.

The rule is deliberately asymmetric. Article 18/A(11) is not applied against the consumer, and where mediation ends because the parties cannot be reached, do not attend, agree or fail to agree, the fee the consumer would owe is paid from the Ministry of Justice budget, capped at the two-hour fee under Part One of the tariff. If the consumer later wins the case, that fee is collected from the defendant under Law No. 6183 and recorded as budget revenue. Ignoring the invitation can therefore end with the hotel paying the guest's side of the mediation.

What counts as a valid excuse is assessed by the mediator and, if it comes to it, by the court. A busy season is not automatically one. Missing the meeting does not stop the process: the mediator concludes within three weeks of appointment, extendable by at most one week in compulsory cases, and the report is written either way. The cost is not only financial. A hotel that never appears has no offer on the record, and the court later reads the file without it.

Who pays the mediator, and how much?#

The parties pay in equal shares unless they agree otherwise. The 2026 tariff sets consumer disputes at 1,000 lira per party per hour with two parties; when the parties agree on a sum, a percentage scale applies instead, with a 9,000 lira minimum.

The 2026 Mediation Minimum Fee Tariff was issued by the Ministry of Justice in the Official Gazette of 26 December 2025, No. 33119 (opens in a new tab), and has been in force since 1 January 2026. The tariff applies where there is no valid fee agreement between the mediator and the parties, or where the fee is disputed. No fee lower than the tariff may be agreed. The tariff in force on the date the mediation ends is the one that applies, not the one in force when the invitation was sent.

Part One, hourly, for consumer disputes: 1,000 TL per party per hour with two parties; 2,200 TL per hour with 3 to 5 parties; 2,300 TL with 6 to 10; 2,400 TL with 11 or more. Commercial disputes run higher, at 1,500, 3,200, 3,300 and 3,400 TL on the same scale. Part Two, on the amount agreed, with one mediator: 6% of the first 600,000 TL, 5% of the next 960,000 TL, then 4%, 3%, 2%, 1.5%, 1%, and 0.5% above 53,040,000 TL. The minimum is 9,000 TL whatever the amount agreed, and 13,000 TL in commercial disputes. Higher rates apply when more than one mediator acts.

For example, a two-party consumer session of three hours that ends without agreement comes to 3,000 TL per party under Part One. Treat that as an illustration, not a quotation. In compulsory mediation the mediator may not ask the parties for expenses, so travel and room costs do not appear on the invoice.

What should the hotel bring to the session?#

The same file the hotel would want in court: what was sold, what was paid, what was said, and what was recorded at the time.

Start with the reservation confirmation and the rate conditions the guest accepted. If the booking was made online, the distance contract terms matter, including what they say about cancellation and withdrawal; the rules are covered in right of withdrawal and hotel bookings in Türkiye. Then the folio: charges, payments, corrections, and the void and reversal entries that show how a mistake was fixed. Financial records are never deleted, so the history is available and should be read before the session.

Messages matter as much as documents: before arrival, during the stay and after checkout, including what the guest wrote through complaint channels and what the hotel answered. The incident record written at the time, with the author and the date, is the strongest single page; what belongs in it is covered in hotel incident reports. A record written on the day beats a better argument written later, and a document created after the invitation arrives is worth less and can hurt.

Bring the service actually delivered, set against what was promised. Most consumer disputes turn on that gap, not on the price. Add a written settlement range with a ceiling and a named signatory, plus a fallback position if the guest will not move. Finish with one page of chronology: arrival, the event, the complaint, the answer, the invitation. The mediator will ask for exactly that.

After the session: what does an agreement bind?#

The parties cannot sue over the matters they agreed, and a signed agreement counts as a document with the force of a court judgment.

Article 18(5) of Law No. 6325: once the parties agree on a matter, they cannot bring a lawsuit over it. Article 18(4): an agreement signed by the parties, their lawyers and the mediator is a document with the force of a court judgment (ilam niteliğinde belge) without an enforceability annotation, except where a law requires one. In commercial disputes the lawyers' and the mediator's signatures are enough. Where the signatures are not complete, the parties may ask for an enforceability annotation (icra edilebilirlik şerhi) from the civil court of peace where the mediator works, and the annotated agreement also carries the force of a judgment.

Write the agreement so it can be carried out: the amount, the date, the account, who signs, and what happens if a payment is late. General goodwill wording is not enforceable and reopens the argument. If no agreement is reached, the mediator writes the final report and the consumer may sue; the hotel keeps the file, because the same documents go to court. The mediator must conclude within three weeks of appointment, at most one week more in compulsory cases, and limitation periods that stopped at the application start again when the report is drawn. Have the wording checked by a legal adviser before signing. An agreement with the force of a judgment is difficult to revisit.

What to do next#

Name an owner and open a file the day the mediation invitation arrives. Then confirm three things with a legal adviser: the current committee limit, the current tariff, and your own classification of the dispute. The parts fit together as one chain: the amount chooses the road, the road decides whether mediation is a precondition, attendance and documents decide the session, and the signature decides whether the matter is closed.