According to a Google help update reported by Search Engine Roundtable on 23 September 2026, owners are notified of some suggested edits to their profile and have four days to accept or reject them, and Google can publish a change that public information supports. For holiday hours, the lesson is practical: if you do not enter the hours yourself, someone else’s version of them may reach the profile first. This guide shows how to set special hours, which cases need which setting, and how to check the result.
The examples follow the end-of-year dates many businesses observe, but holidays differ by country, region and customer base, so confirm the calendar that applies to each location before you publish. Wider profile setup is covered in our complete guide on optimising a Google Business Profile.
What special hours do and why you should set them yourself
Special hours override your regular hours on the dates you choose and leave the regular schedule untouched on every other day. They answer the question a customer asks before travelling: are you open on that day, and until when? Without them, customers may see regular hours for a holiday, and Google can show a notice that hours might differ. A notice does not tell anyone what the hours actually are.
Where to find special hours and how to set one date
Google renames menus from time to time, so follow the names shown on screen rather than a fixed path. The sequence is the same each time.
- Sign in with the Google account that manages the profile, or search for the business name on Google while signed in.
- Open the option to edit the profile and go to the business information, then the hours section.
- Find the special hours option and add the date, for example Friday 25 December.
- Choose whether the business is closed that day or open with different times, and enter the opening and closing times.
- Save, then reopen the profile on a phone and confirm that the date shows what you entered.
Holiday cases and how to set each one
Closed for the whole day
Mark the date as closed. Do this for every day you will be shut, including the days around the main holiday, rather than assuming customers will guess. In 2026, 24 December falls on a Thursday, 25 December on a Friday, 26 December on a Saturday, 31 December on a Thursday and 1 January 2027 on a Friday. Check which of those your country observes.
Open, but with shorter or longer hours
Enter the real opening and closing times for the date. A business that closes early on the day before a holiday, or opens late in the day after, should state exactly that, because a vague profile sends customers to the door at the wrong time.
Two opening periods in one day
If you close for a break and reopen, add both periods instead of one long block. Otherwise the profile suggests you are open through the break.
Several days closed in a row
Enter each date as special hours when you know when you will reopen. Reserve the temporary closure option for a period when the business really will not trade, because it tells customers you are closed without saying when you return.
More than one location
Each profile has its own hours, so every location needs its own entry. Keep a short list of locations and dates and tick each one off after saving.
As an illustration only, a hypothetical bakery that normally opens in the morning and closes in the late afternoon might set 24 December to close at midday, 25 December as closed, and 26 December with its regular opening times if it trades that day. The times in this example are invented to show the pattern.
Check the result and keep customers informed
- Open the profile on a phone and view each holiday date to confirm the hours match what you entered
- Check that the first regular day after the holiday shows the regular hours again
- Match the hours on your website, social pages and phone greeting to the profile
- Publish a short update post that states the holiday schedule in plain words
- Put the dates on a weekly checklist so that edits made by others are caught early
LocalEdge Lite plans four posts and four photos a month, which is enough for a holiday notice, and it shows a GBP Score from 0 to 100 on more than 15 criteria, with no heatmap. Guardian, an optional add-on, checks the profile through Google’s official API every hour and alerts you within the hour when a field such as the hours changes, showing the old and the new value with a Fix Now button. LocalEdge Solo adds heatmap scans for up to five keywords on a grid of up to 21 by 21 points.
Agencies planning holiday hours for many clients can work from a dashboard that lists every client in one place, with PDF reports in the agency’s own colours and logo and scheduled heatmap scans for each client.
Which dates in your own calendar are customers likely to ask about? Write them down, then run the free LocalEdge Lite check to see how your profile stands before you add them. Lite is free and needs no card.
