Mares Hotel Lease Agreement Transferred to TatilBudur

Parties have reached an agreement for a change of operator at Mares Hotel in Marmaris. According to the KAP announcement dated August 27, 2026, the lease agreement of MP Hotel Management Tourism Construction Investment Inc., which currently operates the facility, will be transferred to TBC Travel Agency and Tourism Inc., which includes the TatilBudur brand, and continues until May 1, 2035.

Upon completion of the transfer, the ownership of the facility will not change. Mares Hotel will remain an asset of Marmaris Altınyunus; the changing parties will be the tenant and the operator. This distinction is important because the development is not a hotel sale, but a transfer of a long-term lease agreement to a new tourism company.

The KAP announcement also indicates that the transaction has not yet been completed unconditionally. To validate the change of tenant, approvals from the Competition Authority and the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry must be obtained. If these approvals are not obtained by March 25, 2027, the contracts will become void.

400 thousand dollars transfer fee, followed by turnover-based rent

The financial structure of the new agreement differs from the classic fixed rent model.

A transfer fee of 400 thousand dollars excluding VAT will be paid to Marmaris Altınyunus. Additionally, for the period between January 1, 2027, and May 1, 2035, an additional rent payment based on the turnover of the relevant year will be made, with a minimum of 400 thousand dollars excluding VAT.

The company also stated that it previously collected a total of 21 million 850 thousand dollars excluding VAT in rent under the existing contract with MP Hotel. The new model will create additional income on top of this previously collected amount. Marmaris Altınyunus expects the transaction to positively contribute to cash flow.

The turnover-based rent mechanism establishes a more direct relationship between hotel performance and the property owner's income. If the facility generates strong sales, Marmaris Altınyus can earn revenue above the fixed base. Conversely, the model requires the performance to be measured and the definition of turnover to be clearly regulated in the contract.

For TatilBudur, it’s not just about selling rooms

The most striking aspect of this transaction from an industry perspective is TatilBudur's position.

TatilBudur has long been active in travel agency and tour operator sectors. According to İş Girişim Sermayesi's first half 2025 activity report, TatilBudur's share reached 99.98%. İş Yatırım's 2025 activity report also confirms that the group gained control over TatilBudur after additional share acquisition in January 2025.

The Mares Hotel transaction creates a different strategic layer in this regard.

A tour operator or OTA-focused company can only sell rooms of other hotels, while it can have higher control over the room inventory in the facility it leases or operates. Pricing, campaigns, packages, flight connections, and sales channels can be managed more coordinately within the same commercial structure.

This can be interpreted as a model of vertical integration in tourism.

Distribution power can turn into an advantage in hotel management

One of TatilBudur's strengths is sales and customer acquisition.

When this capability is directly transferred to hotel operations, several advantages can theoretically arise. The company can direct more traffic from its customer base to the facility, coordinate early booking campaigns more closely with room inventory, and shape different packages directly according to the facility's capacity.

However, distribution power and good hotel management are not the same competency.

Selling rooms does not automatically provide the ability to manage daily operations such as housekeeping, kitchen, technical maintenance, front office, staff planning, guest complaints, food and beverage costs, and facility renovations.

Therefore, TatilBudur's fundamental test in the Mares experience will not only be about generating occupancy. More meaningful indicators will be how the occupancy is achieved in terms of ADR, whether guest satisfaction is maintained, and how operational costs are managed.

Why is the former operator's connection to FTI important?

The current operator of Mares Hotel, MP Hotel, was operating within the accommodation structure of Germany-based FTI Group in Turkey. FTI Group filed for bankruptcy in Germany in 2024. MP Hotel Management in Turkey entered a concordat process in the same year and later announced that it had restructured its financial structure. Tourism Güncel associates the lease agreement transfer with the bankruptcy of the parent group and subsequent strategic downsizing.

This background illustrates why the operator risk is important from the property owner's perspective.

In long-term hotel leases, it is not sufficient to look only at the contract price. The tenant's financial strength, distribution network, parent company risk, and long-term operational capacity also affect the property owner's income security.

The transfer of the contract continuing until 2035 from Marmaris Altınyunus to a new operator means a restructuring of these risks.

Scale management will be critical in the 110-acre resort

KAP sources indicate that Mares Hotel is located on approximately 110 acres of land in the Pamucak area of Marmaris. Sector sources describe the facility as a large-scale resort with 441 rooms.

Operating a facility of this scale requires serious operational capacity alongside sales power.

In a resort where hundreds of rooms are occupied during the high season, not only accommodation but also buffet production, beverage operations, pool and beach areas, technical service, cleaning, security, and staff logistics are managed together.

System changes may also come up in the new operator's initial period. The integration of PMS, purchasing, reporting, revenue management, and sales systems into the TatilBudur structure may create a need for training and adaptation for employees.

Therefore, the success of the tenant change in the field will depend more on the quality of the transition plan than on the agreement made at the center.

Hotel management can expand the customer lifecycle for TatilBudur

The traditional revenue model of travel companies is based on booking commissions and package tour margins.

Having hotel inventory under its control can provide access to more revenue points in the customer lifecycle.

A guest makes a purchase through TatilBudur, manages their reservation through the company's channel, and if they stay at a facility controlled by the same group, a broader data flow can occur from reservation to F&B spending.

This can have high commercial value, but data, pricing, and channel management must be conducted transparently.

For example, positioning TatilBudur's own facility preferentially on the sales screen compared to other hotels may raise the issue of the balance of interests between platform management and hotel ownership/management. There is no data indicating that such an application will occur in the current agreement; however, as vertical integration grows, this will be one of the areas the industry needs to pay attention to.

What could change for Marmaris?

Mares Hotel has long been one of the large-scale resort facilities in Marmaris.

It has not yet been announced whether the product, brand, or investment strategy of the facility will change with the new operator. The KAP notification does not include details regarding renovation budgets, new hotel brands, or employee structures.

Therefore, it is not accurate to speculate at this stage on how the hotel will be repositioned.

Nevertheless, TatilBudur's strong domestic market and package tour distribution capacity may create changes in the facility's source market mix. After the operator change, the shares of direct sales, package sales, and third-party channels will be worth monitoring.

Stafflink's view

In our opinion, the main factor that makes the Mares Hotel agreement interesting is not the replacement of one tenant by another. It is a travel-selling company approaching the production and operational side of the product it sells more directly.

If vertical integration is managed correctly, it can provide TatilBudur with the advantage of controlling distribution costs, developing package products, and managing room inventory more effectively.

However, the success of a tour operator is not the same as the success of resort management.

Success in a large facility like Mares will be measured not only by booking volume but also by revenue per room, F&B profitability, employee turnover rate, guest satisfaction, and the preservation of the physical facility.

Additionally, the transaction is still subject to necessary public approvals. Therefore, the most accurate expression for today is not "TatilBudur has definitively acquired Mares Hotel," but rather "the parties have agreed to transfer the lease agreement to TatilBudur, and the transaction is in the approval process."