The daily guest list: what the Tax Procedure Law asks of lodging businesses

In Türkiye, Article 240(C) of the Tax Procedure Law (Law No. 213) requires hotels, motels, pensions and similar lodging places to prepare a daily guest list: a serially numbered document, kept at the business, showing the taxpayer's details, each guest's name and surname with room number and room rate, and the date of issue.

At night audit, three records have to agree about the same night: the daily guest list, the guest's folio and the invoice. If your hotel can produce the folio and the invoice on demand but not last month's daily lists in sequence, with the room rates written on them, the gap is in the list, not in the billing. After reading this article you will know what Article 240(C) asks for, how the list differs from KBS, what the law says about keeping it on a computer, how it affects payment recording devices at your outlets, and how to reconcile it every night.

What does Article 240 ask of a lodging business?#

Article 240(C) of the Tax Procedure Law (Vergi Usul Kanunu, Law No. 213) requires hotels, motels, pensions and similar lodging places to prepare daily guest lists with consecutive serial and sequence numbers, following their room, section and bed plan, and to keep them at the business. This is the consolidated text on the Presidency's Legislation Information System (mevzuat.gov.tr, 7 November 2026).

Article 240 covers transport businesses and lodging places, and it names simple-method taxpayers (basit usul) explicitly, so a small pension is inside the rule, not outside it. The list has exactly three content groups in the text: the taxpayer's name and surname, trade name if any, and address; the guest's name and surname with the room rate, with room numbers written; and the date of issue.

Numbering is part of the duty, not a house habit. Consecutive serial and sequence numbers are what make a missing day visible to anyone who opens the file. The list follows the room, section and bed plan, which means it is organised by room in the property's own order, not alphabetically by guest or by arrival date.

The text says the lists are kept at the business. That is a place requirement: the document lives where the rooms are, ready to be shown. What the text does not set is a format, a signature rule or a software rule. Do not invent one; confirm your own case with your accountant.

The purpose is plain: the list ties a named person to a room and a rate on a date, which is what lets a room rate be checked later.

Is the daily guest list the same as KBS?#

No. The daily guest list is a tax document about the stay and the room rate. KBS (Kimlik Bildirme Sistemi, the guest identity notification) is a separate notification about who the guest is, prepared and sent from the check-in flow.

The two records answer different questions. The list answers who stayed in which room at what rate on which date; KBS answers who this person is. The list carries the room rate and the room number; the identity notification is about identity, not price. The list stays at the business; the KBS notification leaves the hotel from the check-in flow. Retention also differs: five years for the list under Article 253. A KBS retention period was not verified, so we do not state one here.

The practical consequence: a guest can be correctly notified in KBS and still be missing from the daily list, and the reverse. One system doing both does not merge the two duties.

A third and fourth record sit alongside them: the guest's folio (misafir hesabı), which carries what the guest owes, and the invoice, which is the fiscal document for the sale. The list is not a substitute for either, and neither is a substitute for the list. For more on the identity side, see KBS explained: guest identity notification for hotels in Türkiye.

How should the list be numbered and filled in?#

One dated sheet per day, numbered as a series, with the room number written next to each guest's name and rate. The law asks for consecutive serial and sequence numbers and for the room numbers to be written, and both exist so that a gap can be seen.

Serial and sequence are two different counters: one for the document series, one for the order inside it. Both run consecutively, so a removed or skipped sheet shows. Write the date of issue on the sheet itself, not only in a folder label.

Follow the property's room and bed plan, so a person holding the plan can walk the list room by room. Write the room number even when the guest's name makes the room obvious; the room number is what links the list to the folio. For a group, each guest appears under the room they occupy. A rooming list sent by the agency is not the daily guest list.

On corrections: the texts read for this article set the fields and the numbering but not a correction method. Do not destroy, rewrite or renumber a sheet; note the correction and ask your accountant how your tax office expects it handled.

Can a hotel keep the daily guest list on a computer?#

The texts we could read do not settle it. No rule was found that allows or forbids keeping the daily guest list electronically, so the safe course today is a printed, numbered sheet kept at the business.

What was searched: the Tax Procedure Law general communiqués published on the Revenue Administration portal, current and repealed, none of which addresses an electronic guest list; and no Revenue Administration ruling under the Tax Procedure Law or the Expenditure Taxes Law that mentions a computer or electronic guest list. The general communiqués and rulings reviewed did not address an electronic guest list, and no primary text was found either way. Do not build a practice on this absence.

Penalty provisions about documents that must be issued as electronic documents are penalty language, not permission for this list. A hotel system can prepare the data (guest, room, rate, date) and print the sheet; the printed sheet is the form the text describes. Do not assume that permission to issue e-Fatura or e-Arşiv extends to the guest list. Different document, different rule. Confirm the applicable penalty provision with an accountant.

Before dropping paper, ask your accountant and your tax office in writing, and keep the answer with the file.

How does the list affect fiscal devices at reception and in the outlets?#

It can decide whether a payment taken at reception needs a payment recording device (ÖKC, yazar kasa). A 2018 Revenue Administration ruling ties that question to whether the guest is on the daily guest list.

The ruling is one case, not a general regulation. The Revenue Administration's Balıkesir Tax Office Directorate answered a hotel that uses new-generation payment recording devices (YN ÖKC) in its restaurant, bar and other sales points, on 10 January 2018, No. 58889402-105[2017/127-1086]-4004 (GİB, Balıkesir Vergi Dairesi Başkanlığı, özelge, 10.01.2018 (opens in a new tab)). Quote it as a ruling on those facts.

What it says: hotels, motels and pensions have no obligation to use a YN ÖKC for collections relating to services given exclusively to guests registered on the daily guest list, provided the documents required by the Tax Procedure Law are issued. A separate YN ÖKC is required at each collection point, such as a cafeteria, restaurant or bar, that serves customers who are not on the daily guest list. If those customers pay at reception, a YN ÖKC must also be used at reception for those payments. Where an invoice is issued for a sale at a point using a YN ÖKC, an invoice information slip (fatura bilgi fişi) is issued from the device under the Revenue Administration's technical guide.

The ruling rests on section A/5 of Law No. 3100 General Communiqué No. 49, which leaves lodging places serving exclusively the guests on their daily list outside the device requirement when they issue invoices or retail receipts, and on VUK General Communiqué No. 426.

The operational consequence: an incomplete list turns a walk-in restaurant guest into a payment at reception that needs a device. The list is therefore a device question, not only a paperwork question. For the wider picture, see ÖKC in hotel outlets: fiscal devices, room charges and invoices.

How do you reconcile the list, the folio and the invoice?#

One number in three places: the room rate written on the daily list, the charge posted to the guest's folio and the line on the invoice should agree, and night audit is the moment to check it.

Night audit (gün sonu) closes the business day. Compare the occupied rooms on the list against the rooms with posted charges before the day closes, not at month end. Room moves matter here: the list shows the room the guest is in, the folio carries the history. A move that never reaches the list leaves a room that looks empty on paper.

Complimentary and house-use rooms still occupy a room. Decide how you show them and keep it the same every night. For agency bookings, the guest's name is still the guest's name on the list; the agency is the payer on the folio and the invoice, not the occupant of the room. A rate change mid-stay has to tell the same story in all three places, or the list will contradict the invoice for the same night.

The invoice is the fiscal document for the sale; the list is not a substitute for it, and the invoice does not replace the list. When an invoice is cancelled and reissued, the folio, the list and the new document must still describe the same stay. For the invoicing side, see e-Fatura vs e-Arşiv: invoicing guests and agencies in Türkiye and cancelling a hotel invoice and reissuing it with the right name.

How long must you keep the list, and where?#

Five years, counted from the start of the calendar year after the year the list relates to, and kept at the business. Article 253 of Law No. 213 sets the five-year period for books and documents, counted from the start of the calendar year following the year they relate to (mevzuat.gov.tr, Law No. 213, consolidated text (opens in a new tab)).

For example, a list dated 15 March 2026 falls under a period that starts on 1 January 2027 and runs five years, so it is kept to the end of 2031. Confirm the arithmetic for your own documents with your accountant. Article 240(C) says the lists are kept at the business, so the storage place is part of the duty, not an administrative preference.

A numbered series that cannot be produced is the same as a missing one. Store the sheets so that a given date can be found in minutes. Destroy only after the period ends, and record what was destroyed and when. Retention of other records, such as KBS notifications or personal data under KVKK (the personal data protection law), is a separate question with separate rules; do not fold them into this one. For a wider framework, see how long a hotel should keep guest records.

What to do next#

Take the last seven daily lists, put them next to the occupied-room report, the folios and the invoices for the same nights, and look for the night where the three disagree. That single check tells you whether your front office has a paperwork problem or a rate problem. Then take the result to your accountant and settle two questions with them in writing: how your property produces the list, and how it is corrected when something is wrong.