Complaints-Turkish Tours

Turkey has thousands of hotels, restaurants, tour operators, travel agencies and other travel businesses. Each year most of them provide good to excellent service to millions upon millions of travelers both Turkish and foreign, which is why Turkey is now among the top ten travel destinations in the world.

But of course no place on earth is perfect, and there are bound to be a few services, companies and people that do not measure up to expectations. Here's how to handle them:

1. You may wish to choose a travel agency from among those that I know and trust. Whatever you do, be sure to use a registered TÜRSAB travel agency or tour operator. More...

2. Contact the main office of the agency or operator right away, as soon as possible after you experience the bad service. Perhaps the agency can fix the problem right away. For example, if you are dissatisfied with the guide, the vehicle or the accommodations on a guided tour after the first day or two, call the main office, explain the problem, and give them the opportunity to satisfy you. Yes, it's a bummer that your trip did not go exactly as you had envisioned it, but travel is rarely perfect.

3. If you are not satisfied with the company's response, you can send a report of the incident to TÜRSAB, the Association of Turkish Travel Agencies, and/or TUROB, the Touristic Hotel & Investors Association, and ask for their help in rectification.

Association of Turkish Travel Agencies
Dikilitaş Aşık Kerem Sokak No: 55-1
Beşiktaş 80690 Istanbul, Turkey
Tel: +90 (212) 259 84 04
Fax: +90 (212) 259 06 56, 236 39 78
tursab@tursab.org.tr
foreignrelations@tursab.org.tr

Touristic Hotels & Investors Association
Cumhuriyet Cad. Pak Apt. Kat 6 D: 12
Harbiye (Divan Oteli Yanı)
34437 Şişli - Istanbul, Turkey
Tel: +90 (212) 296 08 80 (pbx)
Fax: +90 (212) 343 84 36
info@turob.com

4. You can also contact the Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism:

TC Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı
Atatürk Bulvarı No:29
06050 Opera, Ankara - Turkey
kultur@kultur.gov.tr
Tel: +90 (312) 309 08 50
Fax: +90 (312) 312 43 59

Be patient: receiving a response from these large and somewhat bureaucratic organizations may take awhile.

5. In extreme cases, you may want to contact your credit card company and file a complaint, especially if you have already paid by credit card for services you never received.

If you have received some services and these are not in dispute, tell this to your credit card company so that the dispute can be limited to just the services in question. Your credit card company will carry out an investigation and may help you and the company come to a settlement.

(Keep in mind that credit card companies receive complaints from both companies and individual travelers, and may rely on complaint histories and other records in coming to a decision.)

By the way, your nation's consulate and/or embassy can probably NOT do too much to help you with a local complaint unless it involves criminal behavior or a serious threat to your health or well-being.

—Tom Brosnahan