Distance sales contract and pre-information form for a hotel website: a section-by-section sample

A hotel distance sales contract is the contract a guest makes with the hotel online or by phone. Before payment, the guest must receive a pre-information form with the Article 5(1) details, and the text must state that the 14-day withdrawal right does not apply to a stay on fixed dates.

Open your booking engine, click the small link under the price, and read the contract it shows. It may have been written for an online shop: a delivery time, a returns address, a carrier for sending the product back. The guest is booking three nights in August, and none of those things exist. This article walks through what the regulation actually requires, section by section, so you can rewrite the document around a stay rather than around a parcel.

What must a hotel tell a guest before they pay?#

The pre-information form is the set of written disclosures that Article 5(1) of the Distance Contracts Regulation requires before a distance contract is made or an offer accepted, and it becomes an inseparable part of the contract. The regulation is the Mesafeli Sözleşmeler Yönetmeliği, published in the Official Gazette on 27 November 2014, No. 29188, consolidated with amendments up to 24 May 2025 (glossed here as the Distance Contracts Regulation). Its current wording of the withdrawal and dispute-route items comes from the amendment published on 24 May 2025, in force since 1 January 2026, per the consolidated text on mevzuat.gov.tr (opens in a new tab) (T.C. Cumhurbaşkanlığı Mevzuat Bilgi Sistemi, 2026-11-04).

The list in plain words#

Article 5(1) lists, in letters from (a) to (k), everything the seller must tell the consumer before the contract is concluded. In plain words, for a hotel:

• The main characteristics of the service: room type, number of guests, board, dates.
• The seller's name or trade name and MERSİS or tax ID number, and the same for any intermediary, such as the booking engine operator or an agency.
• The full address, telephone and fast contact details, plus anyone acting on the seller's behalf.
• A separate complaint contact, if there is one.
• The total price including all taxes, or how it is calculated, plus any extra costs.
• Any extra cost of using the remote channel, where the normal tariff does not cover it.
• Payment information, the performance time, related commitments, and the complaint-resolution methods of the seller and the intermediary.
• Where a withdrawal right exists, its conditions, period and procedure.
• The address or e-mail for withdrawal notices.
• Where withdrawal cannot be used under Article 15, the statement that the consumer cannot withdraw.
• Any deposits or financial guarantees.
• That disputes can go to consumer arbitration committees or the consumer court, with the mediator step under Article 73/A of Consumer Protection Law No. 6502.

This information is an inseparable part of the contract, and the burden of proving it was given sits with the seller and the intermediary, not with the guest. That is why the stored record matters as much as the text itself.

Form, type size and durable medium#

Article 6 sets the form rules. The information must be given in writing or on a durable medium, something the guest can keep and refer back to, such as a saved page or an e-mail. It must use at least 12-point type and understandable, clear, plain and legible language.

For contracts made over the internet, four items must also be shown together and clearly immediately before the guest commits to pay: the main characteristics, the total price, the withdrawal conditions where a right exists, and the statement that withdrawal cannot be used where Article 15 applies. Under Article 7, the guest must be able to confirm receiving the pre-information; without that confirmation, the contract is deemed not concluded.

One limit on all of this: the article describes the duty in general terms and is not legal advice. Confirm the wording, dates and your own case with your lawyer or adviser before publishing.

Why does a copied online-shop contract fail for a hotel stay?#

Because its clauses describe goods and delivery, while the parts a stay actually turns on, dates, room, board, no-show and taxes, are missing. A copied template is not a smaller problem of style; it is a document that answers questions nobody asked and leaves the real ones open.

A delivery time and a carrier have no counterpart in a stay. There is nothing to ship, and the guest cannot return a night. The 14-day withdrawal sentence copied from a shop is wrong for accommodation performed on a specific date, and it creates a promise the hotel did not intend to make: the guest reads a right the regulation excludes for this type of contract. The main-characteristics clause is the one that matters most for a hotel, and a shop template leaves it as "the product described on the website", which says nothing about room, board or dates.

Price language copied from retail often shows a figure that grows at the payment page, with taxes and fees added late. That breaks the requirement that the total including taxes be clear before payment. "Cash on delivery" and "returns address" appear where the hotel actually takes a deposit or a prepayment. And a copied text often names the software vendor or the booking engine as the seller, when the seller is the party the guest contracts with for the stay.

The fix is not a better template from another shop. It is rewriting the same headings around a stay, as the sections below show.

Section by section: parties, the stay and the total price#

Five sections carry most of the risk: who the seller is, what exactly is being sold, what the guest pays in total, how and when it is paid, and when the service runs. Everything else in the document supports these five.

Parties and the seller's identity#

Name the legal entity the guest contracts with, which may be the owner, the management company or the operator, with its trade name, MERSİS or tax ID number, full address, telephone and e-mail. Name any intermediary, such as the booking engine operator or an agency, with the same details. The guest must be able to see who is liable for the stay, and the entity on the contract should match the entity on the invoice.

The stay and the total price#

Describe the property by name and address, the room type, the number of guests, the board type, the arrival and departure dates, and the check-in and check-out times. Add an explicit list of what is included and what is excluded, so that "half board" and "city tax" mean the same thing to both sides.

For the price, write the arithmetic the guest can check: nights multiplied by rate, taxes, fees and extras, and the currency. The number the guest sees before payment must be the number written in the contract. Under payment, state the method, when the card is charged, the deposit amount, who collects the money, and what happens if payment fails. Under performance, state when the service begins and ends, what the guest must bring or do, and how a late arrival is handled.

Keep one term for one thing across the whole document. Do not switch between "guest", "customer" and "passenger", or between "rate" and "price". Small inconsistencies become arguments later.

How should cancellation, no-show and the withdrawal right be written?#

As two separate things: the hotel's own cancellation and no-show terms, which the hotel sets, and the statutory withdrawal position, which for a stay on fixed dates is that the 14-day right cannot be used unless the parties agree otherwise. Mixing the two is a common drafting error in hotel contracts.

The withdrawal statement#

Under Article 15(1)(g) of the Distance Contracts Regulation, unless the parties agree otherwise, the consumer cannot use the right of withdrawal for accommodation contracts that must be performed on a specific date or in a specific period (Source: mevzuat.gov.tr, Mesafeli Sözleşmeler Yönetmeliği, Articles 5(1)(h) and 15(1)(g), 2026-07-30). Under Article 5(1)(h), the pre-information must tell the guest when withdrawal is not available. Silence is not enough, and a general link to "terms and conditions" does not carry it; the statement belongs in the pre-information itself. For the background on how this right works, see our article on the right of withdrawal and hotel bookings in Türkiye.

Cancellation and no-show as contract terms#

"Unless the parties agree otherwise" means a hotel may offer a free cancellation window. That is a contractual term, and if it is presented as a withdrawal right it must be described with its conditions, period and procedure. Keep the labels honest: a 48-hour free cancellation the hotel grants is a term, not a statutory right.

Package tours fall outside the regulation under Article 2(2)(f). A stay sold together with transport as one product is a different document, so check before reusing the text. For no-show, state what is charged and when, in the same place as the cancellation terms, and make the booking engine, the confirmation e-mail and the contract say the same thing. Do not publish penalty amounts or percentages in your draft without advice; your adviser confirms what the property may charge and how it is described.

Where does the document sit in the booking path, and how is acceptance recorded?#

Immediately before payment, with the four key items visible together, and with a record that the guest confirmed receiving the pre-information. Placement and proof are as important as the text.

On the internet, the main characteristics, the total price, the withdrawal conditions where they exist and the statement that withdrawal cannot be used must be shown together and clearly right before the guest commits to pay (Article 5). The full form sits one click away, on something the guest can keep: a page they can save, or a copy sent by e-mail.

The confirmation step is a checkbox the guest ticks, never pre-ticked, with a record of which version was shown, and the date and time. Send the accepted text with the confirmation e-mail, so the guest holds it on a durable medium and the hotel holds proof of what was given. Keep a version history, because the burden of proof is on the seller and the intermediary, and the text will change between seasons. Test the whole path on a phone, where the price and the checkbox often land on different screens. Our hotel website checklist covers the surrounding content, and the questions to ask a booking engine provider include where the contract link sits.

Payments by link and by phone: does the same information apply?#

Yes. The disclosures come before the guest commits to pay, whatever the channel, and a payment link or a phone call does not remove the need for a written pre-information form. The regulation sets the duty; the channel sets the mechanics.

A payment link sent by e-mail or message is still a distance channel: the guest should see the form and the four key items before paying, not after. On the phone, read the key terms, then send the form in writing and get the guest's confirmation before charging, and keep the record of both steps. A written quote the guest accepts by e-mail is a distance contract, so the same document and the same confirmation apply. Our guide to turning phone, e-mail and WhatsApp inquiries into reservations covers the workflow around this.

The payment page and the contract must agree on the total, the currency and what is included; a deposit collected on the phone belongs in the contract as a deposit. If the hotel takes a deposit or another financial guarantee, say so in the pre-information, because Article 5(1) lists deposits and guarantees as a disclosure item. Confirm the exact sequence for phone and link payments with your adviser.

What must your lawyer check before you publish?#

Five things: who the seller is, whether the cancellation terms and the withdrawal statement contradict each other, whether any booking is really a package, whether the versions match across channels, and the dispute route. Each is a small check; together they decide whether the document holds.

Seller identity must be consistent across the contract, the invoice and the booking engine. Groups and management contracts change the answer, and the guest must be able to see who is liable. Consistency means the booking engine text, the confirmation e-mail, the website terms and the signed contract are one version, not four. The package boundary matters because a stay sold with transport or excursions as one product falls outside the regulation. Company and group bookings need separate treatment: the regulation protects consumers, so do not extend the consumer text to corporate contracts without advice. Language matters too: the regulation asks for understandable, clear and plain language, so every language version the hotel sells in needs the same content, not a shorter translation. The dispute route names consumer arbitration committees and the consumer court, with the mediator step under Article 73/A of Law No. 6502.

This article and the sample are not legal advice. Confirm dates, scope and your property's own case with your adviser.

What to do next#

Take the contract out of your booking engine, put it next to the Article 5(1) list, and rewrite the sections that talk about delivery, carriers and returns. Then have your lawyer confirm the seller's identity, the withdrawal statement and the cancellation terms before the next season's rates go live.