Services producer price index: reading H-ÜFE for accommodation and food services

H-ÜFE (Hizmet Üretici Fiyat Endeksi) is TÜİK's monthly services producer price index. It tracks the prices service producers in Türkiye receive, excluding VAT, across six service sections. Its accommodation and food services line combines hotel rooms with restaurants, so it is a sector reference, not your hotel's own rate.

Two figures land on the same desk for the same month: one for hotel prices in the consumer index, one for accommodation and food services in the producer index. They disagree, and both are correct. Knowing which one you are quoting decides whether the sentence survives the meeting. This article explains what the services producer price index in Türkiye measures, what its accommodation line contains, and how to use it in a price conversation without overreaching.

What is Türkiye's services producer price index (H-ÜFE)?#

H-ÜFE is TÜİK's monthly index of the prices service producers in Türkiye receive for what they sell. It is a producer index, so it is built from the seller's side of the invoice, not the buyer's.

The producer price is defined precisely: the selling price excluding VAT and similar taxes. A hotel's published room rate and the price the index records are therefore not the same number by construction. The guest's price includes tax; the index deliberately strips it out.

The scope by buyer is broad. Sales to businesses, to consumers and abroad are all covered, so a B-to-B contract rate and a walk-in guest both belong to the same index family (TÜİK, H-ÜFE metadata, 2026). The scope by sector is set by the CPA 2.1 classification, which organises products by activity: sections H (transport and storage), I (accommodation and food services), J, L, M and N. Because the index is organised by what is sold, not by company name, a hotel's restaurant sales are classified by product, not by the fact that a hotel produced them.

The method is a Laspeyres index with a 2017=100 base, weights taken from the national accounts and the Annual Turnover Survey by Product Detail, and the local unit as the statistical unit (TÜİK, H-ÜFE metadata, 2026). A Laspeyres index, in plain words, holds a fixed basket of products and weights steady between revisions. When the index moves, that means prices moved for a basket whose contents did not change. The basket and weights are re-based and re-weighted periodically, which is why the section weights changed between 2025 and 2026.

Publication is monthly, usually near the end of the following month. April 2026 data came out on 4 June 2026, and September 2026 data on 28 October 2026 (TÜİK, H-ÜFE release calendar, 2026).

All rows from TÜİK, H-ÜFE metadata, 2026.

Whose price is being measured#

The index measures the invoice the producer issues, not the price the final payer hands over at the desk. For a hotel, that includes rates sold to agencies under contract, rates sold directly to guests, and rates billed to corporate clients. The one thing it excludes by definition is VAT and similar taxes, which is why the index is the wrong instrument for describing what a guest pays.

What the base year and the weights do#

The 2017=100 base means the average of 2017 equals 100, and every later figure is expressed relative to it. The weights decide how much each section moves the headline: section I, accommodation and food services, carried 19.56% of the index in 2026, up from 17.30% in 2025 (TÜİK, H-ÜFE weight file, 2026). A large move in this line moves the headline more today than it did a year earlier, which matters when someone quotes the headline as if it described your sector alone.

Does the accommodation and food services line cover hotels on their own?#

No. The line reported in the bulletin is section I as a whole, accommodation and food services together, so a hotel's restaurant and a standalone restaurant both sit inside the same figure as its rooms.

In 2026 the section is priced through 15 CPA products, drawn from 452 enterprises and 2,021 prices (TÜİK, H-ÜFE basket and scope files, 2026). The composition splits into six CPA 55 accommodation products and nine CPA 56 food and beverage products. One accommodation product is a useful concrete anchor: 55.10.10, "room or unit accommodation services for visitors, with daily housekeeping". That wording is the closest the index gets to a hotel room, and it is still a product description, not a rate.

There is an honest reporting limit. The bulletin text reports only the six sections. TÜİK also publishes a table by CPA section and division, which is where accommodation (55) and food and beverage (56) separate; check the current table before quoting a division-level figure. The weight matters for interpretation too: at 19.56% of the index in 2026, against 17.30% in 2025, this line carries more of the headline than it did a year earlier (TÜİK, H-ÜFE weight file, 2026).

Six accommodation products, nine food and beverage products#

The practical consequence of the combined basket is that a hotel reading only the section line cannot tell whether a movement came from rooms, from restaurants, or from both. The honest sentence is "accommodation and food services producer prices rose by this much", not "hotel room prices rose by this much". The division table separates 55 from 56, but even division 55 is an average across accommodation products, not a room rate.

Where to find accommodation on its own#

Go to the bulletin's table by CPA sections and divisions rather than the summary text. Confirm the table's latest revision before quoting it, because the division-level figures are published alongside, not instead of, the section figures. If a news story quotes only one number for "hotels", it is almost always the combined section.

H-ÜFE or the consumer index: which one measures hotel prices?#

They answer two different questions. The consumer index measures what households pay; H-ÜFE measures what service producers receive. Neither is wrong, and neither is your rate.

The populations differ. The consumer index follows a household consumption basket, while H-ÜFE follows the seller's invoice and includes sales to businesses and abroad that never pass through a household basket (TÜİK, H-ÜFE metadata, 2026). The tax treatment differs too: H-ÜFE excludes VAT and similar taxes, so part of any gap between the two figures is definitional before any economics is involved.

A divergence between the two is therefore normal, not an error. Different baskets, different weights, different samples and different buyer mixes produce different numbers for the same month. The decision rule is simple: if the sentence is about what a guest pays, use the consumer index; if it is about what the business receives for its services, use H-ÜFE; if it is about your own hotel, use neither without your own figures. For the consumer side, see our companion piece on what the accommodation index in Türkiye's inflation data measures.

Two questions, two answers#

The mistake to avoid is quoting one index as if it settled the other question. A producer figure cannot tell you whether guests felt prices rise, and a consumer figure cannot tell you what businesses invoiced, because each is built to answer only its own question.

Monthly or yearly: what do the two changes tell you?#

The annual change compares a month with the same month a year earlier and is the figure to quote in a price conversation. The monthly change compares with the month before and shows direction, which can be negative while the annual figure stays high.

The September 2026 release is a good worked case. Accommodation and food services prices were 28.09% higher than a year earlier and 1.16% lower than the month before, while the index as a whole rose 33.23% on the year and 0.17% on the month (TÜİK, Hizmet Üretici Fiyat Endeksi, Eylül 2026, released 28 October 2026).

A monthly fall does not mean fewer rooms were sold. H-ÜFE is a price index, not a volume index, so a fall says prices received were lower than the previous month, not that occupancy or bookings fell. Volume questions need volume data, such as the Ministry's accommodation statistics.

Base effects also matter. A high annual figure can come from a large move twelve months earlier dropping out of the comparison, so the annual number should be read with the monthly numbers around it. And beware the stale-month trap: a figure quoted in a news story may belong to an earlier bulletin. The June 2026 annual change for this line was 28.24% (TÜİK, Hizmet Üretici Fiyat Endeksi, bulletin of 30 July 2026), which is not the September figure, even though the two look similar.

On seasonality, stay descriptive. The index records prices received in each month, and a monthly move reflects the pricing of the priced products in that month. Do not assert that a monthly fall is caused by the end of the season; the bulletin does not say that.

Reading a monthly fall correctly#

When the monthly figure is negative, the defensible sentence is "prices received in this section were lower than the previous month", full stop. Anything about demand, season or discounting is an interpretation the index does not carry.

The release calendar#

The calendar is predictable enough to plan around: monthly, near the end of the following month (TÜİK, H-ÜFE metadata, 2026). If you are preparing a price conversation, check whether a newer bulletin has come out since the figure you saved.

How do you use H-ÜFE in a price conversation or an indexation clause?#

Use it as a dated, sourced reference for the direction and size of producer price change in accommodation and food services. Never use it as evidence of your own hotel's price level.

For the owner conversation, build the sentence in three parts: the index name, the month and the release date, then the annual change, then what it does not cover. For example: "According to TÜİK's services producer price index, September 2026 bulletin, released 28 October 2026, accommodation and food services producer prices were 28.09% higher than a year earlier; this excludes VAT and combines rooms with restaurants." That structure survives a challenge.

Keep the distinction visible throughout. The index describes prices received across a large sample; your costs, your mix and your channel commissions are a separate argument that needs your own figures. The index can set the sector context, but it cannot carry your case on its own.

For an indexation clause, the checks come first: which index the clause names exactly, which month's figure applies, whether it is the annual or the monthly change, and what happens if a figure is revised. Several TÜİK indices exist and they are not interchangeable. Describe the duty in general terms only, and take the wording to your lawyer and accountant; this article does not interpret a contract and does not give legal or tax advice. Keep an archive: save the bulletin page with its release date for every month you rely on, so a later conversation can be traced to a specific publication. For the currency question that usually follows, see pricing hotel rooms in lira when costs are in lira and guests pay in euros rather than mixing exchange rates into an index discussion.

Explaining a price change to an owner#

The owner cares about your hotel, not about the index. Lead with your own numbers, then use H-ÜFE as the sector backdrop, clearly labelled with its source and date. The index supports the sentence "sector producer prices moved like this"; it does not support "our prices should move like this".

Checks before you sign an indexation clause#

An indexation clause turns a statistical series into a contractual mechanism. A clause that says only "ÜFE" has not told you which index it means, and a revision policy left unstated becomes a dispute later. The checklist above is the minimum; your lawyer and accountant should confirm the wording fits your case.

What does H-ÜFE not tell you about your hotel?#

It does not tell you your rate, your average daily rate, your mix or your currency exposure. It is an average of prices received across a sample, and an average cannot answer a question about one property.

Scale the sample honestly: 2,021 prices across 452 enterprises for the whole section in 2026, which is a broad average and not a benchmark for a single hotel (TÜİK, H-ÜFE scope file, 2026). The average hides the mix: domestic against foreign guests, contract against transient business, rooms against restaurant covers, city against resort. Two hotels can sit on opposite sides of every one of those splits and still share the same published figure.

The euro-selling resort#

Sales abroad are within the index's scope (TÜİK, H-ÜFE metadata, 2026), but the published figure is a lira price index for services, not an exchange-rate measure. It does not show how one hotel's euro contract rates moved, and it should not be used as if it did. For the currency side of that question, reading the real effective exchange rate is the right instrument. For debt, margins and profitability, the index has nothing to say either; that belongs to balance-sheet analysis, covered in our piece on the accommodation sector's debt and profit ratios.

What to do next#

Before the next price meeting, open the latest H-ÜFE bulletin, note the month and the release date, and write the accommodation and food services annual change with three qualifiers attached: it is a producer price, it excludes VAT, and it combines rooms with restaurants. That single habit separates a figure you can defend from a figure you have to withdraw. For the wider market context around these numbers, see https://ai-otel.com/turkiye.