How to Add Or Change Special Holiday Hours On Google, Yelp, Etc.

There’s enough going on at a business during the holidays. Not only are stores getting slammed, but employees, managers, CEOs, and owners alike are looking forward to some R&R and making new holiday memories.

Who wants to worry about updating temporary holiday hours on online listing platforms like Google, Facebook, and Yelp? As long as you stick a sign on the door, that should be enough, right?

Absolutely not! Skipping the small task of updating holiday hours online often leads to lost sales and customer trust. In fact, a recent survey from BrightLocal shows that 73% of consumers lose trust in a company if their listing information is incorrect—and holidays are no exception.

Just imagine a potential customer ready to pick up the perfect gift at your retail shop, or grab a quick bite at your restaurant on their way to a holiday party. They timed their trip to work within your hours listed on Google My Business or Yelp only to find your storefront closed upon arrival.

That’s not good for the customer experience, or for your bottom line.

Thankfully, updating or setting special holiday hours is a breeze. Let’s dig into how to adjust your online listings on the most popular online business listing platforms. Plus, get some insights on new technology that’ll make changing your hours online nearly instant!

TIP: Even if you are operating during your normal hours for a big holiday like Thanksgiving, Christmas, or New Year’s Day, we recommend that you still set your listings up as special hours. Otherwise, users will see a warning about potentially incorrect hours. By highlighting your normal hours as special hours, you can avoid this confusion.

Set Holiday Hours on Google

Google has made it easy to update your special holiday hours. You can set special hours in advance without disrupting your normal hour listings.

How to Set your Google My Business Special Hours:

1. Sign in to your Google My Business account.
2. If you have multiple locations, open the location you’d like to manage.
3. Click the Special Hours section.
4. Click Confirm Hours next to an upcoming holiday. Or click Add New Date to choose a different date.
5. Enter the temporary opening and closing times for that day.
   • Slide the circle to Closed to indicate that the location is closed all day.
   • If you’re open 24 hours, click Opens At and select 24 Hours from the dropdown menu that appears.
   • If you enter closing hours past midnight, double-check that you’ve set them properly. It’s easy to accidentally choose the incorrect date.
6. When you’ve finished entering all of your special hours, click Apply. These holiday hours will appear to customers on Google only for the designated days.

Set Holiday Hours on Yelp

Yelp also allows you to set up special business hours for the holidays. When you set special hours on Yelp, your hours will be posted with a notice letting customers know these are temporary hours—not your standard hours.

How to adjust your hours on Yelp:

1. Login to the Yelp for Business app.
2. Go to Business Information and select Special Hours.
3. Mark your business as Closed for the day or Open during your preferred window of time.
4. Yelp’s Special Hours are set on a day-by-day basis. Add each day where your operating hours will be different from the regularly listed hours.

Set Holiday Hours on Facebook

Unlike Google My Business or Yelp, Facebook has yet to allow users to set up holiday hours independent of their regular hours. Still, they do make it easy for users to adjust regular hours at any time.

To ensure potential customers see the change, Facebook recommends that you add a post to your timelines notifying followers of your updated hours. You can pin the post to the top of your page during the holidays.

How to adjust your hours on Facebook:

1. Click About on the left side of your page.
2. Click Edit Page Info.
3. Click the Hours tab at the top.
4. Add your hours and click Save Changes.

If you don’t see an Hours section, you may need to change your Page’s category.

Set Holiday Hours on Bing

Setting holiday hours in Bing is simple. When setting special hours in Bing, your listing will be highlighted in green to notify customers of your temporary opening and closing times.

How to adjust your hours on Bing:

1. Login to bingplaces.com.
2. Click on your Business Name.
3. Select the Edit button next to your business name.
4. Click the Next until you get to the section that displays your current hours.
5. Click the Checkbox next to: “Yes, I want to provide working hours for special days”
6. Add your temporary holiday hours.
7. If your business is closed, check the box for Closed.
8. Click Next to update additional special hours on other dates.
9. Click Submit when you are finished.

Set Special Hours for Multiple Locations At Once

If you’re a small, local business with only a handful (or less) of storefronts, setting special hours won’t take long.

But what if you’re in operations or marketing at a mid-size or enterprise-level multi-location organization with dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of locations? Manually updating special holiday hours on each listings platform could take hours—even days!

Honestly, unless you have a great listing management platform, there isn’t a strong option for making bulk changes to your business hours for holidays and in general.

Currently, Google has the closest tool for bulk holiday hours updates. Google My Business users can add special hours by uploading a spreadsheet, but it’s still a time-consuming process. Additionally, it can take several days for Google to officially approve your changes.

And if those hours need to be adjusted again after the initial upload, you’ll have to do the entire process again. This can lead to a gap with inaccurate online business listing information—a mistake that can cost your business valuable holiday sales.

There is also a higher risk of disappointed customers leaving negative online reviews and damaging your online brand reputation. Too many inaccuracies can even lead to a business’s listing becoming unverified.

Quick Updates with Listings Management Software

Needless to say, managing local business listings across multiple platforms and locations is time-consuming and overwhelming. But just because online listing sites don’t offer much assistance here, plenty of fantastic services are.

With a robust listing management service like Chatmeter, quickly updating your hours and other listing details across locations becomes a breeze. In minutes, users can bulk update your special hours for thousands of listings down to 15-minute increments. These services also allow for changes across every major listing site all at once.

With a few clicks, push out your new or special hours to Google, Yelp, Facebook, Bing, etc. for every business location. It’s a win for you and for your customers’ experience.

Yes! Posting Accurate Hours Online Really Matters.

Some consumer trends come and go—but reliance on accurate online listings is here to stay. No matter the time of year, if they can’t find you or your correct holiday hours, you’re almost certainly losing revenue.

In fact, studies show that two-thirds of consumers who use local search on mobile are looking to make a purchase the same day. That means consumers are on-the-go, eager to buy, and they’re flexible. With a single click, they can easily locate a more accurate and trustworthy competitor.

Thankfully, businesses now have access to incredible tools and software designed to keep online listings accurate and people walking through your doors all season long.