Hotel elevators: the rules, the maintenance contract and a guest stuck inside

A hotel elevator in Türkiye needs a monthly maintenance contract with the installer or its authorised service, an annual inspection by an authorised A-type body, and a coloured label inside the car. The hotel is the building manager (bina sorumlusu): it signs the contract, keeps the records and answers for an unsafe elevator.

It is 23:00 and the elevator stops between the third and fourth floors with a family inside. The alarm rings at the desk. What happens in the next ten minutes was decided months earlier, by a contract, a training report and a small coloured label in the car. This article sets out the rules, the duties and the desk procedure, so that a technical service head, a front office manager or a general manager can check the hotel's position in one afternoon.

Which rules apply to a hotel elevator in Türkiye?#

Three texts, each doing a different job. The tourism facility regulation decides whether you need an elevator and what it must contain; the operation and maintenance regulation decides who services it and who rescues; the periodic inspection regulation decides the label and the deadlines behind it.

The Regulation on the Qualifications of Tourism Facilities (Presidential Decision No. 1134, consolidated text on mevzuat.gov.tr (opens in a new tab), to the 31 August 2026 amendment) sets the floor thresholds in Article 18(1)(c): a guest elevator is required when guests go up or down more than three floors in pensions, motels, apart hotels, one- to three-star hotels and special accommodation facilities; more than two floors in four-star hotels; more than one floor in five-star and boutique hotels. Two exemptions are written into the same article: facilities in buildings that are protected immovable cultural property, and rooms that themselves contain more than one floor.

The equipment requirement is short and practical: every elevator has an alarm device and a ventilation system (Article 18(1)(c)). That alarm is the line between a guest who waits calmly and a guest who pries the doors. Accessibility is a separate duty: in facilities with 80 or more rooms, and in four- and five-star hotels and holiday villages, the accessibility arrangements include the elevators (Article 18(1)(b)). An accessible room on the fourth floor with an inaccessible car is not an accessible room.

Older properties had a transition. Tourism businesses certified before the regulation entered into force on 1 June 2019 had one year from that date to bring guest elevators, service elevators and service stairs into line; for tourism investments certified before that date, the year starts when the partial or full tourism operation certificate is issued (Provisional Article 1(1)).

The floor thresholds in one table#

What the regulation does not say#

The text sets no car dimensions. Do not treat any figure you hear as a rule: dimensions come from the installer's design, the building and the accessibility requirement, so settle them with the firm and the inspection body before anything is ordered. Put the elevator on the same compliance calendar as the boiler, the electrical installation and the fire systems, because the inspection dates and the follow-up windows behave the same way; see our guide to periodic inspections for boilers, lifts, electrics and fire systems on one calendar.

Who is responsible: the hotel, the maintenance firm or the inspection body?#

All three, for different things. The hotel carries the legal duty as building manager, the firm does the work and records it, and the inspection body tests the elevator and labels the result.

In commercial and service buildings the building manager (bina sorumlusu) is the responsible authorised person, which in a hotel means the hotel itself, not the contractor (Lift Operation and Maintenance Regulation, Article 4(1)(f); Lift Periodic Inspection Regulation, Article 4(1)(e)). The hotel's duties are listed plainly in the Lift Operation and Maintenance Regulation (opens in a new tab) (Resmî Gazete, 6 April 2019, No. 30737): sign a maintenance contract with the installer or its authorised service, have the elevator maintained so it works safely, and pay the maintenance fee (Article 14(1), as amended in 2021); keep it running safely and continuously for disabled people's access (Article 14(2)); report any dangerous situation to the firm and take safety measures until the firm intervenes (Article 14(3)).

Two duties are easy to break by accident. When the firm reports in writing that the elevator is a risk, the hotel must have it made safe through the firm (Article 10(4)). And nobody other than the contracted firm may intervene in the elevator (Article 10(13)), which includes the helpful maintenance technician from the neighbouring hotel.

The firm's side: maintenance at least once a month (Article 4(1)(e)), covering lubrication and cleaning, checks, rescue operations, adjustments and the repair or replacement of worn components (Article 9(2)). Fire-brigade rescues and cleaning the inside of the car sit outside that scope (Article 9(3)). The firm is responsible for negligence during maintenance that could injure or kill anyone (Article 10(10)), and it may not service an elevator tagged red as unsafe until the elevator is brought to an acceptable state (Article 10(11)).

The inspection body is an A-type body authorised by the Ministry of Industry and Technology and signed up with the local administration; it inspects at least once a year (Lift Periodic Inspection Regulation, Article 8) and issues the labels described below. The useful management rule: one named person at the hotel owns the elevator file, and the front office knows who that person is at 23:00.

What should a hotel elevator maintenance contract contain?#

At minimum what the regulation already requires: a monthly visit, records the hotel keeps, and rescue training for staff the hotel names. Everything else, above all the response time, is yours to write in.

The counterparty must be the installer or its authorised service, and the contract must exist in writing before anything else is discussed (Article 14(1)). Scope should mirror Article 9(2): lubrication and cleaning, checks, rescue operations, adjustments, and repair or replacement of worn components. Ask what is excluded, because fire-brigade rescues and cleaning inside the car are outside the firm's maintenance scope by the regulation itself (Article 9(3)).

The regulation sets no response time for a trapped passenger. That is exactly why the contract should: a 24-hour number, a named person, a backup, and a stated time to reach the building. Records follow the same pattern: the firm records each visit on a maintenance sheet and gives the hotel a copy (Article 10(2)); part changes and reported accidents go into the elevator log book (Article 10(5)); the hotel keeps the maintenance sheets permanently in the machine room or the building's management office (Article 10(3)).

Training is a firm duty, not a favour. After signing, the firm trains the number of people the hotel chooses, taking account of how many elevators there are, in emergency rescue at least once a year, records it in a signed report and sends a copy to the hotel; when those people change, the hotel arranges training for the replacements (Article 10(6)). The rescue instruction must be kept where the rescuers can easily see it. A laminated sheet nobody has read is not a rescue plan. Write the escalation into the contract too: who the desk calls first, who calls the firm, and who decides to take the elevator out of service until the firm arrives.

A contract checklist for the technical service head#

What do the coloured labels in the elevator car mean?#

They tell the front desk whether the elevator may be used today. Green means no defects, blue minor defects, yellow defective with up to 120 days to fix, red unsafe with up to 60 days and immediate withdrawal from service.

The inspection body fixes a coloured information label of at least 16 by 8 cm with black text inside the car near the control panel, and on the main floor next to the landing call panel or on the landing door frame (Lift Periodic Inspection Regulation, consolidated text on mevzuat.gov.tr (opens in a new tab), Articles 11 and 22). Each elevator also gets a one-off grey identity label with its identity number (Article 21).

Red (güvensiz, unsafe): the hotel must not allow the elevator to be used and must have the nonconformities fixed within at most 60 days (Article 11). Yellow (kusurlu, defective): the nonconformities must be fixed within at most 120 days. For both, the inspection body re-inspects within at most three working days after the period ends, and if the faults remain the local administration takes the elevator out of service by cutting its main power supply and sealing it (Article 11(6), (8)). Blue (hafif kusurlu, minor defects): faults must be fixed by the next periodic inspection, and the first follow-up inspection is free if the hotel applies within 60 days of the report's approval (Article 11(10)).

The hotel is answerable for loss of life or property if an unsafe elevator is used before it is made safe (Article 11(7)). That sentence belongs in the general manager's file, not only the technician's. Practically, the desk should be able to say, without walking to the car, what colour each elevator carries and when the next inspection falls due.

A guest is stuck inside: what should the desk do in the first minutes?#

Talk to the people inside, call the contracted firm, and keep everyone else away from the doors. Nothing else in the first minutes is worth improvising.

Use the alarm device the regulation requires in the car (Regulation on the Qualifications of Tourism Facilities, Article 18(1)(c)), and the intercom if the car has one. Establish how many people are inside, whether anyone is unwell, and whether there is a child or someone who cannot stand for long. Reassure and inform: tell them help has been called, ask them not to force the doors, not to try to climb out, and to stay away from the gap. Then stay on the line or come back at short intervals.

Call the firm's emergency number from the contract, note the time, and note the time again when the firm confirms it is coming. A rescue operation, in the regulation's words, starts when the firm learns that people are trapped inside and ends when they are freed (Lift Operation and Maintenance Regulation, Article 4(1)(j)). Only staff the firm has trained act, and only as the posted rescue instruction says. The regulation forbids anyone other than the contracted firm from intervening in the elevator (Article 10(13)), and the training duty sits with the firm at least once a year (Article 10(6)).

There is no legal deadline for reaching a trapped passenger in the text. That is not permission to be slow: it means the standard is the one the hotel wrote into its own contract, and it should be measured after every event. Cameras in the car help the desk see what is happening, but they are a personal data question, not a technical one; see our guide to CCTV in hotels under KVKK: notices, placement and footage. Afterwards: the visit goes on the maintenance sheet, the event goes in the log book, and someone calls the guest the next morning. A stuck elevator handled well is a story the guest tells for years.

Why do guest and service elevators stay apart?#

Because the regulation asks for it in the properties that need it, and because linen, food trolleys and luggage should not travel with guests.

Five-star hotels and boutique hotels that must have a guest elevator because of their floor count also need a service elevator linked to the service areas (Regulation on the Qualifications of Tourism Facilities, Articles 19(6)(b) and 21(2)(i)). Where a guest elevator is not required, a service staircase is enough. For detached, spread-out and low-rise layouts, a communiqué sets the rules on service stairs or elevators, so check the current text for your layout rather than assuming.

The operational reason is flow. Housekeeping carts, food and beverage trolleys, luggage and staff movement peak at the same hours as guest traffic, and a shared car means wet floors, smells and waiting guests. A service elevator is still an elevator: it needs the same maintenance contract, the same annual inspection and the same label. Hotels that forget this discover it at the inspection.

Plan the fallback before you need it. When the service elevator is out, decide in advance which movements move to the stairs, which wait, and which may use a guest elevator outside peak hours with the car cleaned afterwards. Keep the service elevator out of the storage business. A car used for boxes is a car that is unavailable when a guest with luggage arrives.

Power cuts, fire and an elevator out of service#

A car that stopped because the power failed is a different event from a car that failed, but the first question at the desk is the same: is anyone inside?

On a power cut, check every car first, then start the generator sequence and the guest communication. The first hour has its own order of work, and the elevator check belongs at the top of it; see our power cut checklist for the first hour and the generator. In a fire or a fire alarm, elevators are not evacuation routes. Guests use the stairs, and staff confirm that no car is occupied before the system is taken out of service.

For a planned outage, tell guests at check-in and put a signed notice at every landing, with the hours and the alternative route. A note only at the desk reaches the guests who least need it. When a car is out of service for days, the guests who suffer most are those who cannot use the stairs. Move them to a lower floor at check-in, offer help with luggage and meals, and keep the accessible route real rather than nominal; our accessible hotel checklist covers rooms, routes and service.

Keep a simple list during a long outage: which floors hold guests who need the elevator, and who has been told what. The front office can maintain it on paper. The inspection label, the firm's report and the outage log all belong in the same file, because the next inspection will ask what happened between visits.

What to do next#

The next step is a fifteen-minute walk: read the label colour in every car, find the emergency number in the maintenance contract, and pull the last rescue training report. If any of the three is missing or out of date, that is the item to fix this week, because the elevator will not choose a convenient moment to stop.