Leasing out a hotel in Türkiye: an ordinary lease, a hasılat kirası or a management agreement?

In Türkiye an owner can let the building on an ordinary lease, lease the running business as a productive asset (the Code of Obligations calls it ürün kirası, widely known as hasılat kirası), or keep the profit and loss and pay an operator a fee under a management agreement. Each places season risk and reporting duties differently.

The contract is signed in spring, the season is good, and nobody looks at it again. Then a February letter arrives: the tenant has stopped paying, the tourism operation certificate is in the tenant's name, and no one told the nearest law enforcement station that the responsible operator had changed. A hotel lease agreement in Türkiye is usually drafted as if it were an apartment lease with a bigger number in it, and that is where the trouble starts. After reading this you will be able to tell the three structures apart, know what the Code of Obligations actually says, and walk into the lawyer's office with the right questions already written down.

What are the three ways to let someone else run a hotel in Türkiye?#

There are three: an ordinary lease of the building, a lease of the running business as a productive asset, and a management agreement in which the owner keeps the revenue and the costs.

In an ordinary lease, the owner lets the building and the tenant fits it out, staffs it, carries the trading risk and pays rent. The owner's income does not move with occupancy. In a lease of the business, the object of the contract is the operating business and its yield, so rent can be a share of what the business produces; the tenant still runs it in its own name. In a management agreement, the owner remains the operator of record, keeps revenue and costs on its own books, and pays an operator a fee for running the property to agreed standards.

The name on the cover matters less than three allocations: who holds the tourism operation certificate, whose books carry revenue and cost, and who absorbs a bad month. A fourth question decides most exits: who owns the furniture, linen, kitchen and equipment, and who funds their replacement.

For example, a lease whose rent is set as a share of sales behaves like a lease in law and like a partnership in commerce. The contract has to say which of the two it is when the year turns bad, because the Code of Obligations will not decide it for you.

What does an ordinary lease of a hotel building involve?#

The owner lets the building, the tenant fits it out and runs the business in its own name, and the owner collects rent.

The tenant normally holds the tourism operation certificate in its own name, or the certificate carries an operator annotation (işletmeci şerhi) for the main activity. Article 10 of the Tourism Facilities Regulation treats both as a change the Ministry assesses (Official Gazette dated 28 November 2021, No. 31665, consolidated text in force 31 August 2026 (opens in a new tab)).

Rent is fixed or indexed. The owner's return does not rise with a strong season and does not fall with a weak one, provided the tenant survives. The tenant carries payroll, utilities, sales, the compliance steps every stay involves in Türkiye, and the trading loss.

What the owner must settle in the contract: permitted use and service standard, insurance, who pays major repairs and structural work, subletting and the letting of individual spaces, fit-out ownership, restoration at exit, and what happens when the tenant stops paying. The owner keeps a residual risk no clause removes: a tenant that fails leaves a building that needs re-fitting and a certificate that has to be moved back. Keep a contractual right to see the certificate status and the operator notification, because those two documents prove who is actually running the property. The operator notification itself is described in our guide to the operator identity notification (Form 1) when a hotel opens or changes operator.

Hasılat kirası: what does the Turkish Code of Obligations actually call it?#

The current Code of Obligations (Law No. 6098) does not use the term hasılat kirası: it regulates the lease of a thing or right that yields products as ürün kirası, in Articles 357 to 378, and calls the share-based version ürüne katılmalı kira (mevzuat.gov.tr (opens in a new tab), Türk Borçlar Kanunu, consolidated text, 2026-11-04).

Article 357 defines ürün kirası as a contract in which the lessor lets the lessee use a thing or right that yields products and collect those products, for a consideration. Where the rent is a share of the products, it is ürüne katılmalı kira, and if the contract sets no share, local custom sets it. Under Article 358, the general lease provisions apply unless this division has its own rule, so the special rules sit on top of ordinary lease law rather than replacing it.

Article 359 matters most in practice. Where tools and equipment, animals, transferred goods or stock are part of the deal, the parties must value them together, record them in an inventory drawn up in two copies, sign it and give each other a copy. For a hotel that means the furniture, the linen, the kitchen and the stock.

Articles 360 and 361 place delivery and major repairs on the lessor: the lessor delivers the object fit for use and operation, keeps it so during the contract, and makes the major repairs that become necessary at its own cost, as soon as the lessee reports them. Article 362 sets the payment rhythm: unless the contract or local custom says otherwise, rent and ancillary costs fall due at the end of each lease year, and if a payment due after delivery is not made, the lessor may give at least 60 days' written notice that it will terminate.

Articles 364 and 366 govern conduct. The lessee operates the object properly and in line with its purpose, may not make a change whose effects outlast the lease without permission, and may not sublet or transfer use and operation without consent, though it may let some spaces where that harms nothing. Articles 365, 367 and 368 close the cycle: the lessee makes small repairs and replaces low-value items that wear out, in line with local custom; a fixed term ends automatically and tacit continuation renews it a year at a time; and an open-ended lease can be ended by either party with at least six months' notice unless the contract or custom says otherwise.

Fixed rent or revenue-linked rent: who carries a weak season?#

A fixed rent puts the season on the tenant; a rent linked to revenue, and any management agreement, leaves the season with the owner.

Fixed rent is predictable for the owner, but the tenant's margin is the buffer. In a weak year the tenant cuts maintenance and staffing first, and the asset pays for it later. Revenue-linked rent shares the upside and the downside, so the owner must be able to verify the number it is sharing.

Define revenue in the contract before arguing about the rate. Gross sales, or net of agency commissions, discounts, complimentary and house-use rooms, taxes, refunds and no-shows: each definition moves money between the parties. Agree the reporting pack and the cadence, a monthly statement signed by the tenant, the source reports behind it, a right to audit the tenant's books, and a deadline for objections. Consider a floor, a minimum rent plus a share above it, so the owner is not entirely dependent on the tenant's trading.

Watch the period. A share calculated on the calendar year and a share calculated on the season give different answers whenever a season straddles the year end. An owner who cannot read a revenue report cannot check a revenue-linked rent; that skill is the precondition, not the afterthought. Our guide to hotel revenue management for independent hotels covers the reports worth asking for.

How does a management agreement divide the work?#

The owner keeps the revenue, the costs and the certificate, and pays an operator a fee for running the property to agreed standards.

The owner's books carry sales, payroll, utilities and the result, so a weak season lands on the owner rather than on the operator. The fee can be fixed, tied to revenue, or tied to profit. Each shape gives the operator a different instruction, so the fee is a management decision, not a detail to leave to the last meeting.

Because the owner carries the result, the owner needs budget approval, monthly reporting, purchasing rules and a threshold above which the operator must ask before spending. Agree the standards: who sets the service standard, who inspects against it, and what the owner may change without breaking the operator's system. Agree performance in advance: what counts as underperformance, over what period, and what the owner may then do, because a management agreement is harder to exit than a lease. Staff needs its own answers: who employs the team, who carries the severance exposure, and what happens to the people when the agreement ends.

The owner's real work becomes governance: reading the numbers, approving the budget, and holding the operator to the standard it was paid for. If you run more than one property, our owner's governance checklist for multi-property hotel management sets out the cadence.

What has to happen when the operator changes?#

Two separate duties run at once: the tourism certificate route through the Ministry, and the operator identity notification to the nearest law enforcement station within 24 hours.

Article 10 of the Tourism Facilities Regulation applies in three cases: a request to transfer the certificate to a different real person or company, a request for an operator annotation for the main activity, or a Ministry finding that either has in fact happened. The Ministry asks for the documents listed in Article 6(1)(a), (c), (ç), (d) and (f), Article 7(1)(a) to (f) and Article 8(1)(a) and (b): identity or trade registry and tax numbers with a UETS e-notification address, a signature declaration, name registration, opening and closing periods, and the workplace opening and operating licence.

If only the trade name or company type changes, the Article 7 documents are not asked for again; the certificate is updated on the Article 6(1)(d) document, which is the relevant institution's approval letter where the facility sits on public land. Administrative procedures the Ministry is running do not block the assessment of a transfer, except procedures run on the opinion of the institution for businesses or investments on public land used with that permission. A certificate revived by a court decision waits until the case ends and the judgment is final. All certification applications are made through e-Devlet under Article 9 of the same regulation.

Separately, under Article 7 of the Identity Notification Regulation (Official Gazette 13 July 1974, No. 14944, consolidated text amended 17 June 2022 (opens in a new tab), No. 31869), the owner, legal representative or tenant reports the new responsible operator within 24 hours, with a document that also names the departing operator and the departure date. Under Article 24 of the same regulation, when the operator changes during the record-retention periods, the facility's documents and registers are handed to the new responsible operator. The full certificate route is walked through in our guide to transferring a tourism operation certificate.

What to do next#

Before you choose a structure, write down the three allocations it makes: who holds the tourism operation certificate, whose books carry the revenue and the cost, and who absorbs a bad month. Every clause in the contract is a consequence of those three answers, so take the draft to a lawyer and an accountant with the answers already on one page, and let them settle termination, renewal, stamp duty and tax treatment for your own case.