72 + hours before
100%
Full refund to original card
Any reason. No questions. Refund request submitted before the 72-hour cut-off = full amount back, including booking fees.
Rechtliches · Rückerstattungsrichtlinie · Version 2.1
Refunds, reschedules, and the four windows that decide.
Plain rules: how much you get back depends on how close to your visit date you cancel. We don't hide cut-offs in fine print — they're in the four cards below, and the same rules apply to every ticket type. Reschedules are free up to 48 hours before; refunds run through Stripe and land on your card in five business days or less.
The four windows
Your refund amount is a function of one variable: how many hours before your visit you cancel.
Alle times are measured against your booked entry slot in Istanbul local time. One exception: force-majeure closures (earthquake, official mosque closure, strike) — those are always a full refund regardless of when they happen. See clause 05.
24 – 72 hours before
50%
Partial refund to card
Half the ticket price back. Alternatively, swap the whole amount for a date-change — reschedules inside this window cost nothing.
0 – 24 hours before
0%
Credit toward another date
No cash refund, but 100% of the paid amount becomes credit usable within 12 months on any Istanbul Tourist Information ticket.
After the slot passes
—
No refund, no credit
A ticket that isn't used becomes void at the end of your booked entry window. We can't reverse a no-show — the inventory was held for you.
What this refund policy covers.
This policy applies to the Hagia Sophia adult ticket (Product 8, audio guide bundled) and the 5 Istanbul combo cards that include Hagia Sophia (Classic / Combo / Saver / Premium / Deluxe — Products 1 / 22 / 29 / 2 / 3). Skip-the-line access is included by default; we do not sell separately priced add-ons or child/student/senior fares.
This policy does not cover tickets purchased from third-party resellers, from guides at the venue, or at an official Ministry of Culture counter. Those are governed by the seller's own refund terms. We only handle what we sold.
Consumer law: if you're booking from inside the EU, the Consumer Rights Directive's 14-day cooling-off period does not apply to timed leisure and tourism services. This is a legal carve-out — not a policy of ours. Our windows above are more generous than the directive requires.
How to request a refund.
Four steps. We aim for under five minutes of your time from start to finish.
Step 01
Find your booking
Your booking reference is in the confirmation email — six characters, starts with HS-. Can't find it? E-Mail support and include the cardholder's name.
Step 02
Check the window
Count the hours between now and your booked entry slot. That number decides which tier above applies to you.
Step 03
Submit the request
Reply to the confirmation email with "refund request" in the subject, or fill the form on the contact page. No reason required.
Step 04
Get confirmation
A human reviews every request within eight business hours. You'll get a confirmation email with the refund amount and the estimated landing date.
What is, and what isn't, refundable.
Most of our refund disputes trace back to one of two assumptions. So here is the split, as clearly as we can write it.
- Ticket face value and booking fees, within the window tiers above.
- Add-ons (audio guide, skip-the-line) at the same tier as the ticket they attach to.
- The full amount if the venue closes for an official reason (mosque closure, force majeure).
- The full amount if we fail to deliver confirmation within 60 minutes of a successful payment.
- The full amount if a duplicate charge is found — processed in under 24 hours, regardless of window.
- No-shows after the entry slot has passed, regardless of reason.
- Transport, hotel, or onward travel costs tied to a cancelled visit — we don't sell those.
- Foreign-exchange margin between your bank and ours (typically 0.5 – 1.5%).
- Third-party tickets — tours, packages, anything sold by resellers we don't operate.
- Tickets that have been partially used (e.g. you entered and left within the window).
The free reschedule window.
If your plans change but you still want to visit, a reschedule is almost always the better option than a refund. Reschedules are free of charge up to 48 hours before your booked entry slot, and they cover the same ticket types and add-ons. Same booking reference, new date.
Inside 48 hours, you can still reschedule — the cost is a handled case-by-case via support, deducted from the original payment. The new date must fall within six months of the original booking.
Reschedules aren't limited in number: if you need to shift twice, that's fine, provided each shift meets the window. We don't penalise repeat changes; we assume life happens.
When the venue is the reason.
Hagia Sophia is a working mosque owned by the Turkish Ministry of Culture. Occasionally, the venue closes with no warning — official ceremony, security incident, weather damage, or an emergency maintenance decision. None of those are under our control.
When the venue closes and your booked slot falls within the closure window, you get a full refund regardless of how close to entry time it happens. The 72/24-hour tiers don't apply. We detect the closure from the official Ministry feed, proactively refund every affected booking, and send a confirmation email within two hours of the announcement.
You do not need to request anything. If you haven't heard from us by the time the closure is announced publicly, email support and we'll accelerate your case — but in practice we're usually faster than the news.
A note on chargebacks.
A chargeback is when you ask your card issuer to reverse a charge. It's a valid consumer protection — and we honour it — but it is a slower, more expensive route than simply asking us for a refund.
Our refund takes up to five business days. A chargeback takes 30 – 90 days, involves paperwork, and Stripe charges us a dispute fee whether we win the case or not. If the chargeback is unjustified (for example, a ticket that was used then disputed), we submit evidence and the charge may be reinstated to your card, plus the dispute fee.
The short version: talk to us first. If we're wrong about the window or we missed a legitimate refund, we will correct it on the same day.
What happens after we approve a refund.
The timeline from "request received" to "money on your card" runs in three phases — ours, Stripe's, and your bank's. Most of the wait is the last one.
0 – 8 hours
Review. A human support agent reads your request, checks the window, confirms the amount, and approves. You get a confirmation email with the exact amount and estimated landing date.
8 – 24 hours
Submission to Stripe. The refund is submitted to Stripe's refund API. Stripe acknowledges within seconds; the status moves to processing.
1 – 3 business days
Stripe settles. Stripe deducts the amount from our account and forwards the instruction to your card network (Visa / Mastercard / Amex).
3 – 5 business days
Your bank posts it. This is the step that varies the most. Most European banks post the refund in two business days; some US banks take five. Non-bank cards (virtual cards, prepaid) can take seven.
Day 10+
If still missing. E-Mail support. We'll send you the Stripe refund receipt (with ARN / reference number) which your bank can use to locate the transaction immediately.
Need to request a refund
Write to us first — before your bank, before a review.
The fastest refund path is a direct email with your booking reference in the subject. We process refund requests seven days a week and target an eight-hour first response on business days.
Refund requests
refunds@istanbul-tourist-information.com