School trips and student groups: a quote checklist for hotels

A school group rate is a per-student, per-night price that names what it includes: rooms, meals, teacher and driver places, rooming and floor rules, night supervision and the terms. Quote it in writing before the school's trip file is approved, because the school's own permission and approval steps decide the dates.

For example, the call comes in February: 90 students, three nights in April, one coach and four teachers. Before anyone names a price, four things decide whether this is a good week or a week of complaints: who signs, who supervises at night, what the per-student price actually covers, and who pays when a room comes back damaged. This article walks through each one, so you can answer the next enquiry with a written quote instead of a phone estimate.

Who books a school trip, and who signs the contract?#

Three different parties can stand in front of you, and each one changes who signs, who pays and who is on the ground at 2 a.m.

The school itself may book directly. The principal approves the activity, the teachers in charge run it, and the invoice usually goes to the school or to a parent association acting for it. A travel agency acting as the organizer is the second possibility: your terms then sit behind the agency's terms, so agree in writing who handles damage, behaviour and late changes. The third is a parent association, which may hold the money while the school holds the responsibility, so ask which entity signs and which entity pays before you send the quote.

Ask for one named contact, and confirm that this person is the group leader recorded in the school's trip file, not a volunteer who leaves after the first night. Record the group leader's name and mobile number in the reservation itself, so the front desk does not have to find a piece of paper at check-in. Put the invoicing name and tax number in the quote: a group that arrives with a different payer than the one on the contract creates a billing problem on departure day.

What do the Ministry of National Education trip rules actually require?#

They set duties for the school and the organizer, not for the hotel, and they contain no separate rule for overnight stays. The regulation is the Ministry of National Education's Regulation on Social Activities in Educational Institutions, published in the Official Gazette on 8 June 2017 and last amended on 18 January 2023 (Mevzuat Bilgi Sistemi, Presidency of the Republic of Türkiye (opens in a new tab), viewed 7 November 2026).

Article 10 requires the teachers in charge to obtain a parental permission form (Veli İzin Belgesi, Annex 5) before the trip and to keep it in the trip file. Each trip has one group leader. For up to 40 students there must be at least one and at most two teachers; students with special educational needs need at least two teachers per 10 students, and preschool groups at least one teacher each. Preschool children must travel with a parent on trips outside the province or abroad.

Accident insurance, the choice of vehicles and related matters follow the School Trips Framework Contract (Annex 6), and road vehicles must comply with road transport rules. The school management checks every document in the trip file. Article 13 sets the approval level: the principal inside the school, district or province; the local civil administrator outside the province; the governorship abroad. For activities outside the district, the school informs the provincial or district directorate of national education in writing at least three days in advance.

Because the regulation says nothing about hotels, do not advertise an approval, a certificate or a status you cannot point to in the text. Ask for information; do not promise to police the school's file.

How do you build a per-student price?#

Build it bottom-up from rooms, meals and extras, divide by the number of paying students, and state every line that the division assumes. School group hotel rates work only when the per-student figure is honest about what sits behind it.

Start with the room block: number of rooms, occupancy per room and nights. The per-student room cost is the block cost divided by paying students, not by beds sold. Free teacher places are a discount you chose, not a rule in the regulation: decide the ratio, write it down, and check what it does to the per-student figure before you send it. For the mechanics of free and comp places in group contracts generally, see what FOC means in group contracts: free places, guide rooms and driver rooms.

Separate the group leader's single room and the driver's room. A driver room is only needed when the coach crew stays overnight, so ask rather than assume. Price meals as a fixed menu with a service window, not as an open buffet, so the cost per student is knowable in advance. Say whether taxes are included, and confirm the treatment of accommodation, food and package prices with your own accountant before the rate leaves your desk.

Send three numbers, clearly labelled: the per-student price, the group total, and the deposit. Groups compare the first and sign against the second. The wider mechanics of quoting a hotel group, from rates to deposits, are covered in how to quote a hotel group: rates, free places, deposits and terms.

How should you room students and arrange night supervision?#

Decide the rooming rule before the quote goes out, because a rooming argument at check-in cannot be won at the desk.

Set a maximum number of students per room and keep it inside the room's legal capacity and your own house rule, and write the number in the quote. Separate rooms by gender, and place teachers on the same floor as their students, ideally near the stairs and the lift rather than at the far end of the corridor. Block a whole floor where the building allows it and keep other guests on other floors; where that is impossible, keep students away from the quiet wing and say so in the quote.

Agree the night arrangement in writing: who from the school is on duty, at what times the hotel does a corridor check, what the quiet hours are, and which hotel manager a teacher can call. Name the person who holds the rooming list and the person who holds spare key cards, so a locked-out student at 02:00 does not become a front-desk negotiation. Stagger breakfast and lift use against other guests: a school group and a business group sharing one lift at 08:00 produces complaints from both.

What should the quote say about meals and allergies?#

A fixed menu with a written allergen list and a named contact answers the question before a parent asks it.

Ask the school for the allergy list by a stated date, with names and room numbers, and say what happens if it arrives late. Keep the menu fixed and repeatable, and record what was served on each day, so a reaction can be traced to a specific meal. State the service window for each meal, and offer a packed breakfast for early departures with its contents listed. The wider safety routine is covered in food allergies in hotel restaurants and buffets: a guest safety routine.

Say what is included at no charge, water at meals for example, and what is charged to the room, so the bill at departure holds no surprises. Write your alcohol policy into the quote and describe how it is applied at the bar and in the minibar: a policy the night team does not follow is worse than no policy. Separate meal times from other groups where the dining room allows it, and note the arrangement in the confirmation.

Identity notification for minors: what does the hotel do at check-in?#

Treat a group check-in as a data collection problem: one list, one trained person, one system, and no rule invented on the spot.

In Türkiye every stay involves a payment, a fiscal document (an invoice or e-document), a guest identity notification (KBS) and personal data (KVKK). Ask for the guest list before arrival, collect identity documents once at check-in, and have one trained person prepare the notifications rather than five people doing it in parallel. The KBS system itself is explained in KBS explained: guest identity notification for hotels in Türkiye.

For under-18 guests, confirm with your own legal adviser which documents the hotel holds and what it records. The rules here are case-specific, so do not publish a house rule you have not checked. Never photograph an identity document on a personal phone: use the system that produces the notification, so the record and the copy stay in one place. Agree how long copies are kept, who deletes them, and what the hotel does if a document is missing at check-in. Decide this before the group arrives, not during the queue.

Deposit, damage and cancellation: what belongs in the terms?#

A refundable damage deposit, a departure inspection and a cancellation ladder that accounts for late school approvals belong in the quote, not in a conversation.

State the damage deposit as a term with its amount, how it is taken (pre-authorization or cash), when the rooms are inspected, and how many days the refund takes. Name who pays the deposit: the school, the agency or the parent association. A deposit collected from the wrong party is a dispute waiting for departure day.

Build the cancellation ladder around the school's approval timeline. Approval may come late or not at all, so write a separate term for "approval not granted" rather than treating it as a normal cancellation. Add a behaviour clause with a named school contact, the consequences of a breach, and who pays for damage caused by a student. Limits on cancellation penalties and no-show charges are case-specific: describe your terms in general words and have counsel review them before they go into a template. Keep the terms on one page attached to the quote, so the person signing sees the price and the conditions at the same time.

What to do next#

Build one school-group template and stop rebuilding it per enquiry: the inclusion list, the rooming and floor rule, the night arrangement, the allergy deadline, the identity-notification routine and the terms page. Then open the regulation text on mevzuat.gov.tr, read Articles 10 and 13 next to your template, and have a lawyer read the terms once. The next enquiry in a quiet week then takes an hour, not a week.