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TÜRSAB Schedule for the Assessment of Tourism Consumer Claims (Kütahya Schedule)

Last updated: 25 July 2026

Source: Association of Turkish Travel Agencies (TÜRSAB). This is the full text of the official schedule published by TÜRSAB, provided here for information purposes. This English text is an unofficial translation for the reader’s convenience; in any dispute, the official Turkish text prevails. For the binding and current version, refer to TÜRSAB’s official publications.

PART 1 — INTRODUCTION

Purpose and Nature

1. The TÜRSAB Schedule for the Assessment of Tourism Consumer Claims (the “Schedule”) is a reference source used to assess consumers’ refund claims where the services promised, or that ought to have been provided, in the travel agency services offered to consumers by travel agencies are disrupted or performed incompletely.

1.1. The Schedule shall be used for services marketed to the consumer under a single price and referred to as a “package tour” by virtue of these features — that is, a travel agency product comprising at least two of the following: transport, accommodation, city or area tours, hosting, chaperoning, meet-and-greet, and rent-a-car services.

1.2. The Schedule shall also be used where any single service within a travel agency’s activity is provided individually.

1.3. Where tourism products such as accommodation or entertainment are offered to the consumer independently by their producers, the Schedule may be applied by analogy. However, in such cases it cannot be claimed that a result was obtained “under the Schedule” in resolving the dispute.

1.4. The purpose of participating in travel agency services may be sightseeing and leisure, but it may also be based on a commercial, religious, educational, health-related, meeting-related, sporting, or cultural reason. These circumstances do not prevent the application of the Schedule.

Limits of the Field of Application

2. The Schedule applies to the assessment of travel agency services purchased by the consumer in respect of journeys that have taken place.

2.1. The Schedule cannot be used for claims relating to travel agency services that did not take place, were not attended, or were cancelled.

2.2. These Schedule provisions do not apply to services abandoned mid-way on the basis of an alleged deficiency that does not change the essential nature of the product relative to the purpose for which the consumer purchased the service and where the deficiency, according to this Schedule, is below 50%.

Parties to the Schedule

3. The Schedule applies to the assessment of claims arising from events in which the provider and seller of the product is a travel agency and the other party is the one who purchases the product and benefits from the service (the consumer).

3.1. Where the service is purchased on behalf of another, and the person purchasing the service differs from the person taking part in it, the status of consumer belongs to the person who benefits from the service.

3.2. If the person benefiting from the service is not of legal age and capacity, a parent or guardian may exercise the right to apply on that person’s behalf.

Competent Body

4. Whether consumer claims are submitted directly to the travel agency, to TÜRSAB, or to another authority does not affect the application of the Schedule provisions in assessing the claim.

4.1. The TÜRSAB Arbitration Board or the Consumer Commissions take these Schedule provisions as the basis when assessing consumer claims submitted to them.

4.2. For the Consumer Arbitration Committees (Tüketici Sorunları Hakem Heyetleri) or the Consumer Courts, this Schedule is a reference source to be consulted when assessing consumer claims, since it gives concrete form to sectoral custom and practice.

The Schedule and Compensation Lawsuits

5. These Schedule provisions cannot be applied to claims for pecuniary and non-pecuniary damages relating to the consumer’s withdrawal from the trip because the trip did not take place, the whole trip became pointless in terms of its purpose, or it lacked its essential elements, or to the cancellation of the trip by the product owner.

Method of Proof

6. A deficiency claim is taken into consideration where the elements promised to the consumer through advertising, brochures, and other promotional means and through the contract, or the elements that ought to be present under legislation and common custom, are missing.

6.1. If the element subject to the deficiency claim is not one that ought to be present under legislation and common custom, it must be proven by written or printed document that this element was promised to the consumer.

6.2. A deficiency claim is proven by documents such as photographs and/or by a report drawn up bearing the signature of a relevant party other than the consumers.

Holders of the Right to Claim

7. A deficiency claim may be raised by the persons who are unable to receive the services they were to receive and use because of that deficiency.

Substitution Discount

8. If the element subject to the deficiency claim has been obtained from another business by the product owner and provided to the consumer without additional burden or inconvenience to the consumer, the total refund is reduced by 50%.

Concepts

9. The concepts in the Schedule and certain tourism terms mean the following:

PART 2 — PRINCIPLES OF ASSESSMENT AND APPLICATION

Notification of Deficiency and Defect

10. If the alleged deficiency or defect is not reported to the travel agency or establishment official during the trip together with a request for its remedy, the refund amount is reduced by 50%.

Discretionary Authority

11. The competent decision-making authority examining the refund claim has the power to increase the total refund rate by 25%.

Method of Calculation

12. In determining the refund rate, the percentage is calculated: on the service fee where a travel agency service is provided individually; on the transport fee for transport-related deficiencies in package tours; and on the amount other than the transport fee for deficiencies unrelated to transport.

12.1. If the transport fee within the package price cannot be determined for international or domestic tours, 30% of the package price is calculated as the transport fee.

12.2. In packages where transport or other services are offered at a separate price, the deficiency for each service is calculated on the fee for that service.

12.3. For a package consisting of interconnected services, the deficiencies calculated separately for each service are added together.

12.4. The total refund amount cannot exceed the package price.

Effect of Special Circumstances

13. The refund rates are the same for everyone and every event in the calculation. Special circumstances are reflected in the result within the framework of the principles set out in this Schedule.

13.1. Where the consumer has informed the travel agency at the time of reservation about personal characteristics such as diabetes or physical disability, and these characteristics have been recorded in the contract by the travel agency, and the trip has nonetheless been warranted to the consumer, then for deficiencies in the warranted matters the consumer has the right to abandon the tour for just cause, and the Schedule calculation is increased by 50%.

13.2. Where accommodation and other services are divided (such as an Anatolia tour or a Northern Europe tour) and deficiencies occur in part of the services, and this deficiency does not exceed 10% in total, the refund claim is not taken into account.

13.3. Where transport covers at least 30% of the duration within the package tour, disruption in transport is determined by calculation on the total package price.

13.4. For travel agency services sold in foreign currency, in the refund rates the amount is calculated on the currency subject to the sale.

13.5. Deficiency claims that do not conform to the deficiency classification in the calculation section, and where the deficiency cannot be applied by analogy to this classification, are not taken into account.

Abandonment of the Travel Agency Service

14. If the deficiency or defect relating to the consumer’s claim is in an amount requiring a refund of 50% or more of the travel agency service, the consumer is entitled not to use the service or to abandon it mid-way. Where the travel agency service is abandoned, compensation on the consumer’s claim is calculated according to this Schedule and the refund amount is increased by 20%. In tours justifiably abandoned mid-way, the return fare is paid to the consumer separately. Under the Consumer Protection Law, if the consumer’s termination of the contract cannot be regarded as justified under the circumstances, a price reduction alone applies.

Offer of Substitute Service

15. Even if the consumer has abandoned or completed the service due to a deficiency or defect, the travel agency may, instead of a refund, offer an additional service, a new trip, or a discount to be applied on a new trip. The consumer is free to accept or reject this. The discount to be offered for a deficiency cannot be less than the refund rate foreseen in the Schedule for that deficiency.

15.1. If the travel agency’s offer of an additional trip is accepted by the consumer, refund or compensation claims relating to the same event are deemed waived.

15.2. The services to be offered to the consumer as compensation in the form of an additional trip cannot be less than the services offered to other consumers taking part in the same trip.

15.3. If, in response to the consumer’s deficiency or defect claim, the additional services or the services provided in place of the deficient or defective service, or the discount, are accepted by the consumer during the trip, the consumer is deemed to have waived the deficiency claim.

15.4. An offer of an additional service, a new tour, or a price reduction on a new tour does not bind the travel agency if the offer is rejected and does not constitute evidence against it.

Rights of Recourse

16. The consumer raising a deficiency claim may apply, regardless of who caused the deficiency, to the travel agency from which the product was purchased or which sold the travel agency service, or directly to the business providing the defective service.

16.1. The travel agency that compensates the consumer for the deficiency or defect has recourse for this loss against the transport business, accommodation establishment, or other businesses from which the deficiency originated.

16.2. The ultimate party responsible for payments made in respect of consumer claims arising because services do not have the characteristics they ought to have under legislation is the business that produced the deficient service. However, if the producing business notified the travel agency that sold the service of this deficiency in time, responsibility lies with the travel agency.

16.3. A promised service does not bind a business that did not undertake to provide those services.

PART 3 — CALCULATION TABLE

Accommodation Services

17. For the following deficiencies and defects in accommodation services, the specified reduction rates are applied to the accommodation fee.

17.1. Where accommodation is provided in an establishment of a lower standard than that of the accommodation establishment subject to the contract; the price difference between the accommodation establishments + 10%,

17.2. Accommodation in a place different from the accommodation establishment subject to the contract; 10% for a distance from 2 km up to 10 km, 25% for a distance exceeding 10 km,

17.3. The accommodation establishment being at a distance different from that stated to centres relevant to the purpose of the trip (such as beach or bazaar);

17.4. In the same accommodation establishment, but a room type different from the one specified in the contract being offered to the consumer;

17.5. The room-bed feature differing from that specified in the contract;

17.6. Where the room-bed feature differs for one night, the accommodation reduction is calculated by dividing by the number of days.

17.7. The technical and furnishing features of the rooms being contrary to mandatory elements or to the qualities specified in the contract;

17.8. Deficiency in the common areas and features of the accommodation establishment;

Food and Entertainment

18. For deficiencies relating to food and entertainment services, the following refund rates are applied:

18.1. Where promised in an advertisement, promotion, or the contract, the absence of an entertainment venue and facility (disco, nightclub, animation) 5% per deficiency, maximum 10%,

18.2. For each meal in food and drink services that cannot be taken within the hours set at the establishments, 10% of the daily accommodation fee,

18.3. Where there is no sales unit meeting customers’ needs in apart-hotels outside settlement centres, 15%,

Environmental Features

19. For deficiencies arising from the environmental features of the establishments, the following refund rates are applied:

19.1. Construction activity within the accommodation establishment 30%,

19.2. No usable road between the accommodation establishment and its annexes, or between it and places in city and public use 15%,

19.3. An open waste area of a disturbing size within 50 m of the accommodation establishment 5%,

19.4. A continuous and intense noise source within the accommodation establishment 5%,

Tour Services

20. In the event of a deficiency in tour services, the following refund rates are applied:

20.1. Where promised in an advertisement, promotion, or the contract, the panoramic city tour not being carried out 5%,

20.2. The absence of a tour leader on tours for Turkish citizens within the country;

20.3.1. On international tours, where, due to a change in the tour route, a museum or archaeological site specified in the tour programme is not visited, not entered, not toured, or only partially toured, the archaeological site entrance fee + 10%,

20.3.2. On domestic tours, where, due to a change in the tour route, an archaeological site specified in the tour programme is not visited, not entered, not toured, or only partially toured, the archaeological site entrance fee + 5%,

20.4. Deficiency in the promised service or technical equipment on the transport vehicle during the trip 5%,

20.5. Where the nature of the road transport vehicle is contrary to the contract, 50% of the transport fee,

20.6. Poor behaviour of the guide, tour leader, driver, and service staff 5%,

Transport Services

21. For deficiencies in transport services in road transport, the following refund rates are applied:

21.1. Departure time being delayed by more than 6 hours and up to 8 hours 5%,

21.2. Departure time being delayed by more than 8 hours, the amount of one day’s fee on a package price/day basis,

21.3. Where promised in an advertisement, promotion, or the contract, if the transfer is not carried out, the taxi fare for the transfer distance.

22. For deficiencies in transport services in air transport, the following compensation methods are applied.

22.1. On scheduled flights,

22.2. On charter flights, changes occurring 24 hours before the flight must be notified to the passenger. For delays and changes occurring later, the rules relating to scheduled flights apply.

For international flights, one must be at the airport 2 hours before, and for domestic flights 1 hour before; the consumer cannot make any refund or compensation claim due to their own lateness.