Selling rooms to public institutions: direct procurement, tenders and invoices

Public institutions in Türkiye buy hotel accommodation either through a tender under Public Procurement Law No. 4734 or by direct procurement (doğrudan temin), a simplified route with no announcement, no guarantee and no tender commission, used for listed cases, including needs within the monetary limit and purchases of accommodation, travel and catering within representation and hosting (temsil ağırlama).

For example, a regional directorate wants forty staff for three nights, half board, with a meeting room. The hotel sends a price, then waits, and the event shrinks to a single day or moves to a public guesthouse. The reason is usually written in a text that nobody at the sales desk has read. After this article you will be able to name the buying route an institution is using, prepare a quote that survives its file, and invoice the stay so it is actually paid.

How do public institutions buy hotel accommodation in Türkiye?#

Through one of the methods set out in Public Procurement Law No. 4734 (opens in a new tab): one of three tender procedures, or direct procurement for the cases the law lists.

Articles 18 to 20 of the law set three tender procedures. In the open procedure, all bidders may bid. In the restricted procedure, only bidders invited after prequalification may bid. The third is the negotiated procedure, which Article 21 allows only in listed cases, including case (f): goods or services with an approximate cost up to a monetary limit. In cases (b), (c) and (f) no announcement is required; where none is made, the institution invites at least three bidders to submit their qualification documents and price offers together.

Direct procurement (Article 22, doğrudan temin) is the fourth route. The need is met without an announcement and without a guarantee, in the cases the article lists. Monetary limits are updated every year with effect from 1 February (Article 67), so a figure read in January can be out of date in February. Read the current communiqué before you quote.

The same institution can buy the same three-night stay by different routes depending on value and circumstance. Ask which route is being used, in writing, before you build the offer. Three words carry the whole conversation: ihale (tender), doğrudan temin (direct procurement) and yaklaşık maliyet, the institution's own cost estimate, which is not the bid. Ask the institution in writing which figure it is working from.

What is direct procurement, and what does the hotel have to put in writing?#

Direct procurement is the Article 22 route: the institution meets a need without an announcement and without a guarantee, using people it appoints to research market prices and buy.

No tender commission is needed, and the qualification rules of Article 10 do not apply. The people appointed by the tendering authority do market price research and then buy. This is the practical point for the hotel: your written quote is the evidence the file rests on.

Two listed cases matter for a hotel. Case (d) covers needs that do not exceed the monetary limit, together with purchases of accommodation, travel and catering within representation and hosting (temsil ağırlama) activities. Cases (a) and (b) cover situations where only one natural or legal person can meet the need or holds a special right related to it. The Article 22(d) limits for 2026 are TRY 1,021,827 for administrations within metropolitan municipality boundaries and TRY 340,391 for other administrations, under Kamu İhale Tebliği No. 2026/1 (Resmî Gazete 22.01.2026, No. 33145), in force 1 February 2026.

Because the buyer must be able to show market price research, the quote has to be usable as evidence: dated, signed, itemised by room type and board type, with taxes shown separately, a validity period and the reference the institution gave. Never send a range or a "from" price; a single firm price per unit is what can be compared with another quote and filed. Price the stay, not the room: meeting room, coffee breaks, parking and meals belong on the same sheet, or the comparison will be made without them.

How does a hotel find and bid in a public tender for accommodation?#

Notices are published, and the offer must answer the specification line by line, with unit prices and every document the notice lists.

Look in the Public Procurement Authority's tender bulletin (ihale.gov.tr) and in the Resmî Gazete. The notice names the procedure, the documents required and the deadline. The specification (teknik şartname) is the real contract in draft: read it as a list of obligations, covering the number of rooms, board type, location, certification or class, check-in and check-out times, parking, meeting space, and any service the hotel does not actually run.

The negotiated procedure under Article 21(f) also runs on a monetary limit that is updated every year with effect from 1 February, under the same communiqué; confirm the current figure in the Kamu İhale Tebliği before you rely on it. Above that band, an announced procedure is the normal route. One unmet mandatory item usually ends the bid, so decide early whether to bid or to walk away, and put the decision in writing so the sales desk does not reopen it under pressure.

Keep the arithmetic visible. The institution must be able to check each unit price against the total, and an unexplained lump sum invites a query that costs more time than the tender is worth. Deadlines are absolute: a late, unsigned or incomplete submission is not cured afterwards, so build the envelope backwards from the closing time. Have the hotel fact sheet agencies and tour operators expect on one page ready before the notice appears: capacity, room types, board options, distances, certification and the person who signs offers.

Do the savings measures stop public bodies from holding meetings in hotels?#

They restrict them, and the restriction is written broadly: public institutions are to hold in-service training, conferences, seminars, workshops, symposia and similar activities by remote access as a rule.

The text is Presidential Circular No. 2024/7 on Savings Measures (opens in a new tab), signed 16 May 2024, published in the Resmî Gazete on 17 May 2024, No. 32549, which repealed Circular No. 2021/14. Where an activity must be held face to face, public facilities are to be used, the activity is to be run by public staff as far as possible, and the duration and the number of staff assigned are to be kept to a minimum. No trips, cocktails, meals or similar receptions are to be held for openings, conferences, seminars and anniversaries, except international meetings and national holidays. Representation and hosting allowances are not to be used except where necessary.

That last sentence meets the procurement law awkwardly. Article 22(d) of Law No. 4734 names accommodation within representation and hosting as a direct-procurement case, while the circular narrows when those allowances may be used at all. The two texts do not settle the question for the hotel, so ask the institution which basis it is relying on and record the answer.

Scope matters. The circular covers administrations in the schedules of Law No. 5018 and the bodies linked to them, special provincial administrations, municipalities and their affiliates, state economic enterprises and the other bodies it lists, for spending from their budgets or other resources. Disaster, epidemic, forest fire, security and intelligence spending sits outside it. Exceptions need permission: from the Presidency for central bodies, from the Ministry of Interior for special provincial administrations, and from the Ministry of Environment, Urbanisation and Climate Change for municipalities. An event that survives may be shorter, smaller, closer to the institution, or held under such a permission.

So do not chase an event the circular forbids. Ask what changed, keep the file, and offer the compliant version: a shorter stay, a smaller block at a public-sector rate, or a day meeting without accommodation.

How should the offer, the rooming list and changes be handled?#

As one document set the institution can file: a firm quote, a named rooming list with a deadline, and change terms written before the first room is held.

Structure the quote the same way every time: room type, board, nights, unit price, total, taxes, validity, and what is included such as parking, meeting room and coffee breaks. State free places and deposits in the quote itself. A deposit clause that assumes a card at the moment of booking will not survive a public body's payment process, so write the deposit as an invoice with a due date.

Ask for names, or at least a per-night allocation by room. An unnamed block drifts, and the hotel carries the risk of rooms it held and could not sell. Write a change window and name one person on each side; for late additions, say in advance whether they come at the quoted rate subject to availability or at the rate of the day. Separate the institution's cancellation from a no-show by an individual guest: they are different events with different consequences and should not share a clause. Keep every version of the quote and the rooming list, because the file is the hotel's defence if the invoice is queried months later. The mechanics of rates, free places and deposits are covered in how to quote a hotel group.

How are public institution hotel invoices issued and paid?#

To the contracting unit, with the documents the institution asked for, on payment terms that follow its budget cycle rather than the hotel's.

Invoice the legal entity that contracted, not the person who booked. The unit, the department and the reference number belong on the invoice, because they decide where it is routed inside the institution. Whether the document is an e-Fatura or an e-Arşiv depends on the taxpayer's scope, and a licensed integrator issues it; the choice is not the hotel's preference. The difference between the two is explained in e-Fatura and e-Arşiv: invoicing guests and agencies in Türkiye.

Confirm with an accountant whether VAT withholding applies to the invoice. It changes the amount the hotel actually receives and the way the sale is recorded, and it is a separate subject from the stay itself. Ask before the event which budget the spend is committed against and what the payment term is. Do not assume card-settlement speed: a public body pays from a committed line, and the year-end closes that line.

Track the receivable as a city ledger account with its own ageing, not as a guest balance. The folio is closed; what remains is a debtor with a name, a reference and a due date, and it belongs in the hotel city ledger alongside agencies and companies. Keep the paper trail together: signed rooming list, confirmation of services delivered, and the delivery note for meals and meeting room. A query is answered with documents, not with an explanation.

On people: deal with the unit that runs the purchase and the unit that pays, answer every request in writing, and never offer gifts, meals or hospitality to the people who decide. Procurement ethics apply to both sides: keep the relationship to written correspondence and the file, and ask the institution which ethics rules apply to its buyers.

What to do next#

Build one public-sector file and give it an owner. The file should hold the two 2026 limits with their communiqué reference, the savings circular, a quote template, a rooming list template, an invoice checklist and a named person who follows the receivable to payment. The route decides the documents, the documents decide the invoice, and the invoice decides when the hotel is paid.