Hotel NACE codes in Türkiye: how to pick the right activity code

A NACE code is the six-digit statistical classification of an economic activity, and in Türkiye it is recorded on the business's tax registration. Accommodation sits in division 55 (Konaklama). The classification is revised from time to time, so check the code list currently in force with your accountant before you rely on a specific code.

The lease is signed, the accountant opens the registration form, and one field asks for a six-digit activity code. The official list has 2,141 rows, and two of them describe a hotel almost identically. After reading this article you will know which division your property sits in, how to separate the two hotel rows, what happens when a restaurant or rented flats sit alongside the rooms, and how to correct a wrong code.

What is a NACE code, and where is it recorded?#

A NACE code is a statistical label for what a business does, not a permit and not a licence. In Türkiye it is recorded on the tax registration and then read by other official systems.

NACE is a classification of economic activities: it names the activity in a code that tax offices, statistical agencies, safety authorities and program administrators can all read the same way. The code is built in layers, and the official file is organised the same way: section, division, group, class, then the national activity digits that make it six digits long. Accommodation is section I, division 55, titled Konaklama in the Turkish file, and everything else in this article happens inside that division.

The code is entered when the business registers with the tax office, and it then travels: into the workplace hazard class list, into employment statistics, and into the forms of support programs. The current list is built on NACE Rev.2.1, so a code copied from an old form, an old software template or a blog post may not match what the Revenue Administration publishes today.

One distinction matters early. The NACE code is not the same thing as the Ministry of Culture and Tourism certification type. A property can be a certified butik otel and still have to choose between two hotel rows in division 55. The two systems describe different things, and they can disagree in wording without either being wrong.

Which NACE code applies to a hotel, pension or apart?#

Every accommodation business sits in division 55, and the six-digit row is chosen by facility type plus two details: whether the property serves restaurant meals to its own guests, and whether any unit is a timeshare.

The two hotel rows are separated by one clause only. 55.10.02 covers hotel-type lodging with daily cleaning and bed-making, excluding those that do not serve restaurant meals to their own guests, which means hotels that do serve them. 55.10.05 is the mirror image: hotels that do not serve restaurant meals to their own guests. Both rows exclude timeshares, so a timeshare development is not filed under either of them.

There is no separate boutique hotel code. Butik otel is a certification type, and the code decision is still between the two hotel rows, decided by the restaurant question. Holiday and other short-stay accommodation is 55.20.01, holiday pensions are 55.20.04, and stays of less than a month in owned or rented furnished houses are 55.20.03. Camping grounds and caravan parks are 55.30.36, and intermediation services for accommodation, where the business sells beds it does not own, are 55.40.00. The 55.90 rows catch what is left: dormitories and rented rooms not used for holidays, guesthouses and institutional rest facilities, flats let for less than a year, and other accommodation.

For an apart, ask what the guest actually receives. If units are cleaned and beds made daily, the hotel rows describe the activity more closely than the flat rows do. If the guest simply takes a furnished flat for a week, 55.20.03 is the closer fit. Confirm the final choice with your accountant.

Codes as printed in the Revenue Administration file NACE Rev.2.1-Altılı, 2026 (opens in a new tab).

What if the hotel also runs a restaurant, a spa or rented flats?#

The registration carries a main activity and can carry side activities. The main activity is the one that decides the hazard class, so it has to be chosen deliberately, not by habit.

A restaurant that serves the hotel's own guests is already inside the hotel rows: that is exactly the clause that separates 55.10.02 from 55.10.05. Nothing extra needs to be added for it. A restaurant, bar or cafe open to the public is a different activity, classified outside division 55 in the same official list, and it belongs on the registration as an activity in its own right.

The same logic applies to a spa, a beach club or a shop that sells to people off the street: add the activity rather than stretching the accommodation row to cover it. Renting out units is not automatically accommodation either. A short-stay let and a long lease sit in different rows, and the dividing line is how long the guest stays and what service comes with the unit.

Under the hazard class communiqué, if more than one activity qualifies as the main activity, the one with the higher hazard class applies. That single rule can change the safety contract. A practical order: list every activity the business actually performs, mark the one that produces most of the work and revenue, then check the hazard consequence of that choice before the form is filed.

Why does the NACE code matter beyond the tax registration?#

Because the workplace hazard class is read from the same code family. The class then sets how much safety expert time, workplace doctor time and training the employer must provide.

The Communiqué on Workplace Hazard Classes (Resmî Gazete 26 December 2012, No. 28509) sets the classes in its Ek-1 list. That list was replaced on 13 March 2025 (Resmî Gazete No. 32840) with NACE Rev.2.1 codes, so the class now follows the same code you put on the tax registration. The replacement list is published on mevzuat.gov.tr, in the communiqué's Ek-1 workplace hazard class list (opens in a new tab).

Hotel-type accommodation under 55.10.02 and 55.10.05 is classed az tehlikeli, the least hazardous class the communiqué uses. So are holiday and other short-stay accommodation (55.20.01), holiday pensions (55.20.04), stays under a month in furnished houses (55.20.03), campsites and caravan parks (55.30.36), accommodation intermediation (55.40.00) and the other accommodation rows (55.90.xx). In other words, the whole of division 55 sits in the least hazardous class.

The class follows the main activity. Where several activities qualify as main, the higher class wins, which is why a public restaurant or a workshop on the same site can pull the whole workplace up a class. The employer must notify the Ministry of Labour and Social Security of a change of main activity within one month at the latest. The later amendments of 21 May 2025 and 1 April 2026 did not change the accommodation rows, so the class for a hotel is stable across those revisions.

The required expert time, doctor hours and training load that follow from the class are set out separately; the mechanics are in our article on safety expert and workplace doctor time for hotels by hazard class. The code also appears in employment statistics, which is why activity codes and workforce figures are read together when the sector is measured; see reading TÜİK and SGK employment data for accommodation.

Where do I read the current official list?#

At the source. The Revenue Administration publishes the 2026 activity classification as a spreadsheet titled "NACE Rev.2.1-Altılı, 2026", and the hazard classes are in a separate official list on mevzuat.gov.tr.

Open the Revenue Administration file and note the date you opened it; the file holds 2,141 six-digit codes, and the date is part of the evidence that you used the current version. Go to section I, division 55 (Konaklama): everything an accommodation business needs is in that division, apart from activities it runs alongside.

Read the exclusion clause inside the row. The two hotel rows are separated only by "excluding those that do not serve" and "excluding those that serve", and a fast reading gets them backwards. Answer two questions about the property before choosing: does it serve restaurant meals to its own guests, and is any unit a timeshare.

Open the hazard list separately, the Ek-1 of the communiqué as replaced on 13 March 2025, to see the class attached to the code you have chosen, rather than assuming it. Keep the dated file or a printout with the registration papers, so that a later revision can be compared against what was filed.

How do I change a wrong code, and what does the code not decide?#

The tax-side correction is filed through your accountant as a change in the business's registered activity, and if the main activity changes, the one-month notification to the Ministry of Labour and Social Security applies on the safety side.

Ask your accountant to file the activity change with the tax office and to confirm the current procedure and any deadline; the filing route is administrative and your accountant owns it. On the safety side the rule is explicit: a change of main activity must be reported to the Ministry of Labour and Social Security within one month at the latest, and the hazard class may move with it.

Check what was built on the old code: the contract with the safety expert, the workplace registration, and any program application already submitted with that code on the form. A wrong code is usually simple to correct; the cost sits in the documents that were built on it, which is why the correction is worth doing as soon as it is found.

Two things the code does not decide. First, the Ministry certification type: otel, pansiyon, apart and butik are certification categories decided in a separate process, explained in our article on İşletme, Yatırım and Basit certified accommodation. Second, incentives: the code does not by itself bring any support, exemption or incentive. Programs read many fields and set their own conditions, so confirm eligibility with your accountant before relying on a code.

What to do next#

Open the Revenue Administration file, write down the two candidate rows for your property, and answer the restaurant and timeshare questions before anything is filed. Then have your accountant file the code and check the hazard class in the same sitting, so the tax registration and the safety contract rest on the same six digits.