Monitoring is becoming increasingly important for the condition assessment of structures, as it allows continuous assessment. The aim is to identify changes in the condition of the structure that cannot be detected by purely visual inspection. In this paper, a typical measurement system used in practice is investigated under laboratory conditions with regard to its temperature dependence. A method for temperature compensation of laser distance measurements is presented and a Bayesian model updating is applied, with which a temperature compensation function over time can be determined semi-automatically. It is shown that the temperature-dependent transfer function should first be generated at the structure in order to perform a reliable temperature compensation. Furthermore, the application of Bayesian Model Updating shows a reliable fit of the temperature-dependent transfer function over time, so that the engineer is provided with a helpful tool for semi-automated temperature compensation in the case of time-variant behavior.