How to Submit KBS Guest Reports — A Step-by-Step Guide for 2026
KBS guest reporting is a daily legal obligation for every accommodation business, from hotels to small guesthouses. Manual workflows are error-prone, and the fines add up fast. This guide walks through the correct process as it stands in 2026, step by step.
- KBS reports must be submitted within 24 hours — late submissions carry a real per-guest fine
- It doesn't matter whether you run a hotel, motel, guesthouse, apart-hotel, or boutique property — you're covered by the law
- Foreign guest names must be transliterated into the Latin alphabet
- Guests must be shown a KVKK privacy notice, and their consent must be logged
- Automated export (via your PMS) eliminates manual data-entry errors entirely
What Is KBS?
KBS (Kimlik Bildirme Sistemi — the Identity/Guest ID Notification System) is run by Turkey's General Directorate of Security (Emniyet Genel Müdürlüğü). Every accommodation business in Turkey is legally required to report guests into this system within 24 hours of check-in. The obligation comes from Law No. 1774 on Identity Notification; failing to report, or reporting late, is subject to legal penalties.
Legal Deadline and Penalties
Reports must be filed within 24 hours of a guest's check-in. In practice, most properties batch-submit at day's end (e.g., 23:59). Failing to report, or reporting late, results in a serious fine per guest. Incomplete or inaccurate reports are penalized too.
Manual Reporting Steps
- Full name (exactly as it appears on the ID)
- Date of birth (DD/MM/YYYY)
- National ID number or passport number
- Nationality (Turkish/foreign)
- Check-in date and time
- Check-out date
- Room number
- KVKK privacy notice shown + consent recorded
You then enter this information into the KBS portal by hand at day's end. For a day with 30 guests, that takes about 45 minutes on average — and the risk of transcription errors is high.
Transliterating Foreign Guest Names
Names for Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Arabic guests need to be converted into the Latin alphabet — the KBS system doesn't accept non-Latin characters. Correct transliteration should follow proper Unicode/ICU conventions.
| Original | Wrong | Correct |
|---|---|---|
| 王明 | Wang Ming (Chinese) | Wang Ming |
| 山田太郎 | Yamada Taro (Japanese) | Yamada Taro |
| محمد أحمد | Muhammed Ahmed | Muhammed Ahmed |
| Иван Петров | Ivan Petrov (Cyrillic) | Ivan Petrov |
KVKK Compliance
KBS reporting means sharing guests' personal data with the authorities. Under KVKK (Turkey's data protection law), guests must be shown a privacy notice, their consent must be obtained, and that consent must be logged. The privacy notice should cover:
- What data is collected (identity, contact details)
- Why it's processed (a legal obligation)
- Who it's shared with (the police)
- How long it's retained
- The guest's rights (deletion, correction, objection)
Eliminate Errors with Automated Export
If you're running a modern PMS (Property Management System), the details captured on the guest check-in form map automatically onto the KBS schema. At day's end, you export a file in the government's required format with a single click and upload it to the KBS portal — turning a 45-minute manual task into 30 seconds.
- Guest checks in: ID details are entered into the PMS (on mobile or at the front desk)
- The PMS automatically maps the data onto the KBS schema — including Latin transliteration
- At day's end, click 'Reports → KBS Export'
- Download the file in the government's required format
- Upload it to the KBS portal — the report is complete
Common Mistakes
Mistake 1: Late reporting
During busy season, it's easy to forget the day's-end report. Automatic triggering — where every check-in drops straight into a queue — eliminates this risk.
Mistake 2: Missing ID details
Problems like a missing passport number or a wrongly formatted date of birth are common with manual entry. PMS form validation catches these errors right at check-in.
Mistake 3: Skipping the KVKK disclosure
KBS reporting involves sharing personal data — submitting a report without showing the privacy notice is a KVKK violation. Make the disclosure a standard part of your check-in form.
Automate your KBS reporting in one click
From the guest check-in form all the way to the KBS export — the whole workflow is included in HotelPilot's Standard plan.