How should a business publish holiday opening hours?

Definition: A business publishes holiday opening hours as dated exceptions in Google Business Profile and on its website. Special hours cover brief changes while preserving the profile's regular hours.

Key facts

• As of 17 October 2026, Google's special hours documentation recommends confirming official holiday hours even when they match regular hours.
• Google's structured data policies require current information and markup that represents visible page content.
• Google's LocalBusiness documentation uses validFrom and validThrough to limit seasonal opening hours to a date range.

How are special hours entered in Business Profile?

In Google's special hours instructions, the route begins with Edit profile, then Hours. The Special hours control accepts a date and opening and closing times, or a Closed selection. The business saves the change after entering the exception.

The same instructions require Open with main hours for special hours to appear. Special hours cover closures of up to 6 consecutive days; a closure lasting 7 days or longer, or an unknown duration, uses Temporarily closed.

What should appear on the website?

Structured data is a standardized format for describing page content. Google's structured data policies require that description to represent the page accurately and remain up to date. Information described in markup must also be visible to readers.

A practical consistency check compares the location page with the saved profile exception: the affected location, calendar dates, opening and closing times, and any full-day closure. The visible holiday notice and any structured opening-hours data should describe the same exception. If regular hours remain on the page, the notice should clearly identify the dates to which the holiday schedule applies. This publishing workflow applies Google's requirements for current, representative content to holiday hours.

How can seasonal hours be represented in markup?

Google's LocalBusiness documentation describes openingHoursSpecification, a property containing structured opening hours. Its seasonal-hours example sets both opens and closes to 00:00 for a winter closure and supplies start and end dates:

"openingHoursSpecification": {
  "@type": "OpeningHoursSpecification",
  "opens": "00:00",
  "closes": "00:00",
  "validFrom": "2015-12-23",
  "validThrough": "2016-01-05"
}

This is Google's historical example, reproduced as a property fragment for an existing business object. The dates need replacing with the actual closure period. In the same documentation, omitting validFrom and validThrough makes hours valid year-round.

Google recommends checking markup with the Rich Results Test, fixing critical errors, and using URL Inspection to examine how Google sees the published page.

Related terms

• Google Business Profile
• LocalBusiness structured data
• OpeningHoursSpecification structured data
• Structured data

FAQ

Should I confirm holiday hours if nothing changes?

Yes. Google's special hours guidance recommends confirming official holiday hours even when your regular schedule applies.

How do I check the website after updating it?

Compare your visible holiday notice with its markup. Google's LocalBusiness guidance recommends the Rich Results Test for markup validation and URL Inspection for checking the published page.

Sources

1. Google Business Profile Help, "How to set Special hours", undated
2. Google Search Central, "General structured data guidelines", updated 10 July 2026
3. Google Search Central, "Local business (LocalBusiness) structured data", updated 8 September 2026

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