Selling tours at the hotel: what the travel agency law means for your excursion desk

Turkish law reserves tour sales to travel agencies holding a specific travel agency operating certificate from the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, distinct from the hotel's own accommodation certificate, and TÜRSAB membership. A hotel may host a certified agency's desk and sell its own products, but selling a third party's excursion for a fee is agency activity.

A laminated boat-trip poster beside reception looks like a favour to guests. If the boat is not the hotel's and the guest pays for the trip, the desk has stepped into an activity Turkish law reserves to travel agencies. This article explains what the law reserves, what a hotel may sell on its own account, how to structure a desk with a certified agency, how to verify a certificate, and how to present the offer so the guest knows who the seller is.

What does Turkish travel agency law reserve for licensed agencies?#

A fixed list of six services belongs to travel agencies holding a Ministry operating certificate, and selling a tour to a guest for a fee is on that list.

Law No. 1618 on Travel Agencies, published in the Official Gazette on 28 September 1972, defines an agency as a commercial organisation authorised, for profit, to give tourists tourism information, to put together package tours and tours, and to provide accommodation, transport, excursion, sport and entertainment services (Article 1(e)), according to the consolidated text on the Presidency's legislation database (opens in a new tab). The same law defines a tour narrowly: a commercial activity lasting under 24 hours, sold at a single price, that combines transport with presenting at least one of Türkiye's historical, natural, cultural or tourist assets (Article 1(d)). A guided day trip to a ruins site fits that definition; a plain ride to the airport does not.

Article 4 requires an operating certificate (işletme belgesi) from the Ministry of Culture and Tourism before anyone carries out travel agency activity in Türkiye. The Travel Agencies Regulation, published in the Official Gazette on 5 October 2007, bars people and organisations that are not agencies from providing the reserved services to consumers for a fee (Article 5(1)(a)). The six services, translated into what they look like at a front desk, are set out below.

Article 32 of the law requires every agency to be a member of TÜRSAB, the Association of Turkish Travel Agencies, so membership is a second, independent check on any certificate. Enforcement is local: under Article 29, the highest local civil administrator immediately stops anyone operating as an agency without a certificate, and Article 30 provides an administrative fine. The law provides for administrative fines, which are subject to annual revaluation. Confirm the current penalty amounts and your specific liability with a legal adviser.

Can a hotel sell its own trips without an agency certificate?#

Sometimes. Article 6(1)(b) of the Regulation carves out an accommodation, hospitality, entertainment or transport business that markets, reserves and sells its own products, where and as its own rules allow.

The carve-out is about ownership of the product, not about who stands behind the desk. The hotel's own spa treatment, its own restaurant table, and its own shuttle in its own vehicle with its own driver are its own products. A third party's boat with a third party's guide is not the hotel's product, however the hotel describes it. Reselling it at a markup is the reserved activity of selling another agency's products, which needs that agency's authorisation and an agency certificate.

The second trap is assembly. Taking a minibus, a museum ticket and a lunch, wrapping them into one price and selling that to a guest moves the hotel toward the Regulation's definition of a tour. Transfers are on the reserved list too, so a paid airport run arranged with an outside operator needs the same care as a tour; the choice between the hotel's own vehicles, a partner and the guest's own arrangement is set out in airport transfers for hotel guests.

The line is not always obvious in practice, and reasonable people read it differently. When a case is close, ask the Ministry's provincial directorate or a lawyer before the season starts, not after a complaint.

How should a hotel work with a certified agency at the desk?#

As a host and a landlord, not as the seller: the agency holds the certificate, issues the guest's document, takes the money and answers the complaint.

Put the arrangement in writing before the first sale. The agreement should say what the hotel provides (space, a page in the welcome folder or guest app, a mention at check-in) and what the agency provides (certificate copy, insurance, a named contact, response times). The wider terms of such contracts, from certificates to payment, are covered in agreements with travel agencies in Türkiye.

Decide who sells. If hotel staff take money for the trip, the guest will read the hotel as the seller, and the hotel inherits the complaint. If the agency's own staff sell, the roles stay clean. Decide who collects: money reaching the agency's account is the simplest structure; if the hotel collects, the accounting and documentation change. Decide who issues the guest's document: the agency issues it for the trip, and the hotel's own bill should never describe a third party's excursion as if the hotel delivered it.

Write the exit clause as carefully as the opening one: notice period, what happens when the certificate lapses mid-season, and who removes the material from the desk that day. Agree the complaint route in advance: who the guest calls, who the hotel calls, and how quickly. A guest with a problem at 22:00 needs a name, not a general inbox.

How do you check that an agency's certificate is real?#

Two checks: the Ministry operating certificate itself, and TÜRSAB membership, which the law requires of every agency.

TÜRSAB runs a member search on its website, with a "Seyahat Acentası Sorgula" (look up a travel agency) box under the "Acenta Sicil" (agency register) menu. Start there with the exact company name on the contract, using the TÜRSAB agency search (opens in a new tab). Read the two other pages on the same menu before you sign: the list of agencies whose operating certificate was cancelled, and the list of agencies reported to the Ministry for administrative action.

Ask for the certificate document and compare the legal name on it with the name on the contract, the name on the poster and the name on the guest's receipt. A mismatch between those names is the first thing to look for. Re-check at renewal and once mid-season, because a certificate can be cancelled while your posters are still on the wall. Keep the check on file with the date and who performed it; if a guest complains later, the file shows what the hotel verified and when.

Who is the seller in the guest's eyes, and who answers when something goes wrong?#

The guest names whoever took the money and handed over the ticket, so the material at the desk must name the agency before the guest decides.

Make the seller visible: agency name and certificate reference on the poster, the QR code page, the welcome-folder insert and any message the front office sends. Give staff one sentence and let them use it every time: this trip is run and sold by the agency, and here is who to call. Improvised wording is where hotels get into trouble.

Complaints belong to the seller. The hotel's job is to pass the complaint on quickly, keep its own record, and not defend a service it did not deliver. Consumer law questions about a service that was not as promised are covered in defective service under consumer law in Türkiye. Agree the accident routine in writing: who is called first, who accompanies the guest, who contacts the agency's insurer, who speaks to the family. A guest hurt on a trip sold from your desk will come back to your desk.

Keep a simple log: date, tour, agency, guide, vehicle, room number, what the guest was told. Complaints often arrive weeks later, and the log is the only memory the hotel has.

How should the commission be recorded on the bill?#

Ask your accountant before the first invoice, because the treatment follows one question: who takes the guest's money.

In shape one, the agency collects from the guest and pays the hotel for space or for the referral. The hotel issues a document for what it receives, and the guest sees the agency as the seller. In shape two, the hotel collects the full price and settles with the agency afterwards. The guest sees the hotel as the seller, and the hotel's records must show both the money in and the agency's share out. The tax treatment differs between the two shapes, and the rate depends on your own registration and the nature of the payment; this article does not print a rate.

Keep tour money on its own line in the property system so the night audit and the reports do not blend it with room or restaurant revenue. Mixed lines are hard to unwind at year end. There is no standard commission to quote: it is a commercial negotiation shaped by volume, exclusivity, who carries the risk and who provides the staff. The hotel's own offers, such as a spa treatment or a late checkout, are the hotel's own revenue and a separate line entirely.

What do you do with unlicensed tour offers aimed at your guests?#

Keep them off the property and out of your channels, and put the rule in writing so staff do not have to improvise.

Know the routes: a driver at the door, a self-described guide in the lobby, a leaflet left at the pool, a messaging group a staff member joined, a marketplace listing that uses the hotel's name. Write a house rule: no one sells tours on this property without a certificate on file. Brief front office, bell, security and pool staff on it, and repeat the briefing each season.

Remove unapproved leaflets and posters, and do not let staff act as the middleman for a seller the hotel has not checked. When a guest asks for a recommendation, name the certified agencies you work with and say plainly what the hotel can and cannot arrange. If an unlicensed seller keeps appearing, document it and take legal advice: under Law No. 1618, Article 29, the highest local civil administrator is the authority that stops unlicensed agency activity.

Treat reputation as the real exposure. A guest who has a bad day on an unlicensed boat does not separate the seller from the hotel whose lobby the seller stood in.

What to do next#

Start with the contract, not the poster: choose one certified agency, keep its certificate and TÜRSAB record on file, and decide in writing who sells, who collects and who answers when something goes wrong. Then give the desk the one sentence it uses when a guest asks who runs the trip. The law sets the boundary; the agreement and the wording decide how much of the risk lands on the hotel.

If the tours desk is part of a wider plan to sell more to guests, AI Otel's guest app is built: each hotel gets its own guest app, installed from the browser with no app store, and third-party extras such as transfers, tours and local experiences are designed to sit next to the hotel's own offers, a capability that is architected rather than built. Nothing in that design changes who holds the certificate or who answers the complaint; see the guest app page. To discuss how this fits your property, request a briefing.