Foreign currency at the hotel desk: choosing and recording an exchange rate

A hotel may choose its own exchange rate. The Central Bank of the Republic of Türkiye publishes indicative rates once each business day, and they bind no one: the parties to a transaction decide which rate applies. The hotel's job is to write the choice down, show it to the guest, and record it on the folio.

A guest settles a bar bill in euros just after midnight. The desk applies the rate it remembers from the morning, and the folio ends up with one lira figure and no rate on it. Nothing about that is unusual, and nothing about it can be rebuilt six weeks later when the guest, the accountant or an inspector asks how the number was reached. This article walks through every foreign currency payment hotel front desk staff take: which rate to use, when to fix it, what to show the guest, how to record it, and which questions belong to the accountant.

What are the central bank's indicative rates, and what are they not?#

They are published reference prices for foreign currency, announced for information. They are not a price the central bank will trade at with the public, and they are not a rate any hotel is obliged to apply.

Indicative rates, in Turkish "gösterge niteliğindeki kurlar", are the Central Bank of the Republic of Türkiye's daily reference prices for foreign currency. They exist so that anyone can see where the market stood that day. The timing is fixed: the bank sets them once each business day at 15:30, announces them on its website the same day, and they appear in the Resmî Gazete the next day (TCMB, Gösterge Niteliğindeki Kurlar, 1 November 2026 (opens in a new tab)).

There is no new indicative rate on weekends, public holidays or half working days. On those days the most recent published rate is the newest one that exists. Half working days catch desks out because they look like normal days; the calendar, not the clock, decides whether a new rate exists.

The bank states plainly that its indicative rates bind no person or institution, and that in transactions between parties other than the central bank, the parties themselves decide which rate to apply (same source). The page also carries foreign exchange buying and selling rates, and separately banknote rates for cash. A guest handing over notes is a cash transaction; a transfer arriving from an agency is not, and the two published rates differ.

The consequence for the desk is simple. When a hotel applies a central bank rate, it is not obeying a rule; it is making a choice. That choice is exactly what the hotel's currency policy has to record.

Which rate should the desk use: buying or selling, and fixed when?#

The hotel decides, and the only wrong decision is an unwritten one. Two separate choices have to be made: which published rate to use, and which day's fixing applies to a payment taken now.

Choice one is the rate itself: foreign exchange buying, foreign exchange selling, banknote buying, banknote selling, or an internal rate the hotel sets and reviews. A hotel receiving cash is in effect buying foreign currency, which is why the banknote buying rate is the closest published comparison. It is a comparison, not a duty. If the hotel adds a margin to the published rate, the margin is part of the policy and must appear on the quote the guest sees. An unexplained margin is the fastest route to a complaint at check-out.

Choice two is the fixing date. One workable rule is to lock the rate at the start of each shift using the most recent 15:30 announcement and hold it until the next announcement, so that two guests paying an hour apart get the same number. If instead the rate changes at 15:30 in the middle of a shift, the policy needs a rule for a bill opened before the change and settled after it. Without a written rule, the desk improvises, and two desks improvise differently.

Rounding is a decision too: how many decimals are kept, and whether the lira total is rounded up or down. Write it once and the arguments stop.

Cash, transfers and cards are three different mechanisms#

Cash is a foreign currency payment the hotel converts itself, so the hotel's rate applies and the recording rules below follow. A transfer arriving from an agency is converted through the banking system, and the hotel's question is which amount it recognises on the city ledger. Card payments in a foreign currency are a different mechanism again: the conversion is normally done by the card issuer or the acquiring bank. The hotel should confirm with its bank how the amount reaches its account, and whether it can choose a rate at all.

What happens at the weekend, when no new rate is published?#

Nothing new is published, so the desk needs a written rule for carrying the last rate forward and for saying which day it comes from.

No indicative rate is set on weekends, public holidays or half working days (TCMB, Gösterge Niteliğindeki Kurlar, 1 November 2026), so there is no fresh number to apply on a Sunday morning. The workable rule is to carry the last published rate forward and to record its date next to it on the folio, not only the number. A rate without a date cannot be defended later.

Over a long holiday the carried rate can drift some distance from the market. A hotel may instead set an internal rate reviewed weekly and use it for the whole period. That is a policy choice, not a legal requirement.

The guest will check a live rate on a phone and see a different number. The desk needs one calm sentence ready: the hotel's rate is fixed for the day and is shown before payment. Decide in advance whether a bill opened on Sunday and settled on Monday uses Sunday's carried rate or Monday's new one, and write the answer down.

How should the rate be shown to the guest before payment?#

Show three things before the money changes hands: the amount in the guest's currency, the rate with its source and date, and the lira total. Then keep a copy of what was shown.

Write the pair explicitly, for example EUR/TRY, rather than the word "rate". A guest who reads the pair can check it; a guest who reads a bare number cannot. For cash, a short quote slip with the three figures and the guest's signature or initials settles most later disputes, and costs the desk thirty seconds.

For a card, say which amount the terminal will charge and in which currency, so the guest is not surprised by a second conversion on their statement. For a bill opened at check-in and settled at check-out, state at check-in which rate will apply at settlement. Guests assume the arrival rate unless told otherwise.

The quote is not the receipt. The receipt must show what was actually taken, and the two must agree, or the difference must be explained on the folio.

How is a foreign currency payment recorded on the folio?#

As separate fields, never as one net lira figure: the foreign amount, the currency, the rate, the rate's date and source, the lira amount and the change given.

The rate belongs in a field, not in a free-text note. If it is only a note, the lira figure cannot be reproduced by anyone who was not at the desk. Change given in lira and change given in the foreign currency are different transactions and need separate lines; a rounding residue needs a named line rather than a silent adjustment.

Corrections follow the normal accounting rule: void and reverse, never delete. A deleted line removes the evidence of the rate that was applied. The cash drawer is counted per currency at the end of the shift, so the folio record and the drawer count must reconcile in each currency separately.

The night audit closes the business day; a payment posted after the close lands on the next business date and needs a short note explaining why. The night audit checklist for closing the hotel business day is where that close runs in order, and the income audit that follows checks these postings against the shift paperwork, which is why the dated rate printout matters.

What does the accountant decide about invoices, tax and exchange differences?#

Which rate the invoice and the tax base must use is not settled by the central bank page, and it is not a decision for the front desk. Ask the accountant and write the answer into the policy.

The central bank states that its indicative rates bind no one and that parties decide which rate applies (TCMB, Gösterge Niteliğindeki Kurlar, 1 November 2026). Tax rules may nonetheless name a rate for a given document, so the two statements have to be reconciled for the hotel's own case by the accountant. The invoice currency and the folio currency can also differ. If the invoice is issued in a foreign currency with a lira equivalent, the rate used must match what the desk recorded, or the difference needs an explanation attached.

When a bill is incurred in one period and settled in another, the exchange difference has to land somewhere. Who bears it, and on which line, is an accounting policy question, not a desk decision. Bills settled by transfer from agencies and companies raise the same question at a larger scale, and the city ledger is where the answer becomes visible. E-invoices are reviewed by a person before sending, and the rate on the document is part of that review checklist.

Keep the wider frame in view. In Türkiye, a stay involves a payment, a fiscal document, a guest identity notification (KBS) and personal data (KVKK); the four steps of every stay run in that order. The rate record is the part of the payment step that makes the other three checkable.

A one-page currency policy for the desk#

One page, eight lines, signed by the owner and the accountant, is written to settle the rate questions that reach the desk.

Line one names the rate: which published rate, or the internal rate, and whether a margin is added. Line two fixes the time: when the rate is locked for the shift and what happens at 15:30. Line three covers weekends and holidays: carry forward, and record the rate's date. Line four covers rounding and change: decimals, direction, and the currency the change is given in.

Line five covers the guest: what is shown, what is signed, and which sentence the desk uses when a phone shows a different number. Line six lists the folio fields. Line seven names who to call for invoices and tax, and who to call at the bank for card conversion. Line eight sets a review date: once a quarter, and after any long holiday. Give the page a version number and a date. A policy that changes silently is the same as no policy.

What to do next#

Write the one-page policy this week, have the accountant sign the line about invoices and tax, and run it for one shift with the front office manager checking every foreign currency folio against the dated rate printout. The pieces fit together in one order: the central bank publishes a reference, the hotel chooses a rate and writes the choice down, the desk shows it to the guest, the folio records it as fields, and the accountant decides what the invoice needs.