How to Handle Holiday Opening Hours on Your Website

Few things frustrate a customer more than driving to a shop or phoning an office that turns out to be closed, after your website said it was open. Around bank holidays and Christmas this happens constantly, and it is entirely avoidable.

The fix is to treat opening hours as information that lives in more than one place and keep all the copies in step. This guide covers where they appear and how to manage seasonal changes cleanly.

Know everywhere your hours appear

Your opening hours typically show in at least three places: your website, your Google Business Profile, and often a directory listing or social media page. Customers check whichever they land on first, so all of them need to agree.

Google in particular is influential. When someone searches your business name, the hours shown in the panel on the right come from your Google Business Profile, not your website. If you only update the website, Google may still tell people you are open.

Set special hours in advance

Google lets you set “special hours” for specific dates such as Christmas Day, Boxing Day and the New Year period. Setting these ahead of time means the right information shows automatically on the day, with no last-minute scramble.

On your own website, a short notice on the homepage or contact page handles the rest. Keep it factual: the dates you are closed, when you reopen, and how to reach you for anything urgent.

Build a repeatable routine

Bank holidays come round every year, so make this a checklist you reuse rather than reinvent each time. A simple note in your calendar a week before each holiday to review and update your hours is enough.

If you are on a website care plan, ask your provider to handle seasonal hour changes for you. It is a small job that is easy to forget, and forgetting it is exactly what costs you trade.