8 December is a Tuesday. If you are closed that day and haven't said so anywhere, someone will search for your business, Google will tell them «open», and they will walk up to a pulled-down shutter. They don't come back. To change your holiday hours on Google Maps takes three minutes; the problem is that nobody remembers until a customer complains. This is the list so it doesn't happen to you: where to change it, which dates are coming, and why your website has to say the same as Google.

Opening hours are the first thing to break

Of everything a business publishes about itself, opening hours are the only thing that goes out of date on its own. An address lasts years. Services change now and then. Hours change every bank holiday, every August, every time you close on a Monday for training or on a Friday afternoon for a wedding.

And they are what people check most. Someone searching «hairdresser near me» or «garage open now» is not comparing prices: they want to know if they can go now. If Google says yes and it isn't true, your business takes the blame, not Google.

We measured it in our own study of Barcelona hair salons: in a sample of 23 salon websites we audited in depth, 12 did not publish their opening hours anywhere on the page. It is a small sample from a single sector, so don't stretch it; but it says something. If the normal hours aren't written down, the holiday hours certainly aren't.

The dates coming up (that your profile doesn't know yet)

According to the BOE (Spain's official gazette) resolution setting the 2026 public holidays, this is what is left of the year:

Monday 2 November: a holiday in several regions, because All Saints' Day falls on a Sunday.
Monday 7 December: a holiday in several regions, because Constitution Day falls on a Sunday.
Tuesday 8 December: the Immaculate Conception, across Spain.
Friday 25 December: Christmas Day, across Spain.

Add your region's own holidays and the two local holidays each town hall sets. Check your region's official calendar, not a blog: there are lists out there with the wrong dates.

Then there are the closures no calendar shows: your August holiday, the long weekend you take, the afternoon you spend on stocktaking. Those are the ones people forget most, because no news bulletin reminds you.

How to change your holiday hours on Google Maps

Google calls them special hours, and they are made for exactly this. Don't touch your regular hours: special hours only apply on the dates you set, and then everything goes back to normal. If you don't have a profile yet, start with how to appear on Google Maps.

Step by step

Open your Business Profile (what used to be called Google My Business) with the account that manages it.
Tap Edit profile, then Hours.
Next to Special hours, tap the pencil.
Google usually suggests the upcoming holidays: tap Review on each one. For a closure of your own, Add a date.
If you are closed, leave Closed ticked. If you open with different hours, untick it and enter the times.
Save.

What Google's help page warns and almost nobody reads

Special hours only show if your regular hours are set to «Open with main hours». No regular hours, no special hours.
Google recommends confirming holidays even when you open as usual. That way the customer sees someone has checked.
If you close for a week or more, the right move is to mark the business temporarily closed, not to fill in single days.
Changes are reviewed «in about 10 minutes», but Google says they sometimes take up to 30 days. Do it with time to spare, not the night before.

Why your website has to say the same thing

Here is what almost nobody knows. Anyone can suggest a change to your profile: a customer, a neighbour, a competitor. If Google thinks you need to review it, it notifies you and you have 4 days to accept or reject it. If you don't reply, Google may publish it anyway if it matches other public information, such as your business website. And in some cases it applies changes without asking you.

In other words: your website is one of the pieces of evidence Google uses to decide which hours are right. If your website says you open on Mondays and you no longer do, you are backing whoever suggested the wrong hours. If you have no website, or your website shows no hours, Google decides with whatever it finds.

The same goes for AI assistants: when someone asks ChatGPT «is that hairdresser open today?», it can only answer with what it finds published. We explain it in what a small business website needs.

The checklist for this quarter

Check that your regular hours on Google are the real ones, split shifts included.
Add 8 and 25 December as special hours now (and 2 November and 7 December if they are holidays in your region).
Look up your town hall's two local holidays and add them.
Write down your own closures: long weekends, holidays, training days.
Make sure the email that gets Google's notices is one you actually read.
Put the same hours on your website, on Instagram and in your booking tool.
Set a fixed reminder: on the 1st of every month, five minutes to look at the month ahead.

If you want to know why a profile nobody touches loses ground, we cover it in Google Business Profile activity.

Doing it yourself: the full sum

Quick, and once. Checking your regular hours and adding the rest of the year's holidays: ten minutes. Do this today, whatever else you have. It is your profile, it is free, and nobody will do it better than you, because only you know which days you close.

Slow. Getting your website to say the same. If someone else built your site, changing the hours means an email, a wait and sometimes an invoice. If you have no website, it is the long weekend you have been putting off for months, or the nephew.

What never ends. Five minutes a month to look at the month ahead, plus every unplanned closure, plus suggested-edit notices that expire in four days. It is not much. That is why it gets forgotten. And the day it gets forgotten is the day someone finds the shutter down.

What we do

At wiweb your page has an opening-hours widget that says whether you are open or closed right now, on Madrid time, and you change it by writing it: «on Friday I close at three». You see the change before it goes live; nothing is published without your approval.

For bank holidays, wi tells you about the next one and asks with two buttons: «I'm open» or «I'm closed». If you close, that day your page says closed and the «opens on…» line jumps to the next day you open. We already have Spain's 2026 holidays plus Catalonia's and Barcelona's; we will add the other regional and local calendars as we go.

All of that is in the Free plan: create your page free, no card, on yourbusiness.wiweb.me. With Free + domain (€9/month) it goes on your own domain without our branding. Pro (€24/month, or €20/month paid yearly) adds a weekly check of your website, of Google and of the AI assistants, with the fixes applied by us. It is all on pricing.

What we don't do: change your Google profile for you today. We are connecting it to wiweb, but until that is ready, the Google step above is yours. And no plan promises you the top spot: what we do promise is that when someone finds you, what they read is true.

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FAQ

Does changing holiday hours remove my regular hours?

No. Special hours only apply on the dates you add. The next day, Google goes back to showing your usual hours without you doing anything.

What do I do if I close for all of August?

If you close for a week or more, Google's help page recommends marking the business temporarily closed instead of adding single days. Remember to reopen it when you are back: that step is yours too.

Someone changed my hours on Google and it wasn't me. Is that normal?

Yes: anyone can suggest changes. If Google notifies you, you have 4 days to reject it; if you don't reply, it may publish it if it matches what your website says. Check the notification email and correct your hours from your profile.

How long does the change take to show?

Usually about 10 minutes, according to Google, although review sometimes takes up to 30 days. That is why it is worth adding holidays weeks ahead.

Bank holidays, August and the Monday you close: how to change your holiday hours on Google Maps before it costs you customers