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Someone calls at seven to ask whether you are still open, because their phone says you closed at four. That is how an owner learns the listing is wrong. The fix is a short routine built on Google's own rules. While you are open, set regular hours for the season you are in. For a holiday or an event, add special hours for that one date. When you close for the off-season, mark the profile "Temporarily closed". The week before you reopen, mark it open again and set the new season's regular hours. Two calendar reminders carry it.
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Why the hours drift the same way every year
A seasonal business changes hours twice: once when the weather turns and once when it turns back. The spring change gets made, because you are setting things up anyway. The autumn change slips, because autumn is when you are tired.
So the drift has a direction: summer hours still showing in November, rather than winter hours showing in June. Changing the hours on Google means remembering an office task at the exact moment you have the least room for one.
Take an ice cream stand in Crystal Beach. The window closes after Thanksgiving, the sign comes down, and the listing keeps saying "Open, noon to 9 p.m." straight through to May. Nobody flipped it.
Changing the hours on Google means remembering an office task at the exact moment you have the least room for one.
Three settings, and what each one is for
Your profile has three ways to say when you are open, and Google's help pages say which fits which situation.
Regular hours are the weekly pattern: open at nine, close at five, closed Mondays. They repeat every week until you change them. Google's guidelines put it plainly: "During the season your business is open, set your regular hours of operation."
Special hours attach to a single date and override the weekly pattern for that day only. Google's help page says they are for "days when you have unusual hours, such as holidays or special events", and for a closure of "6 days in a row or fewer". Victoria Day, Canada Day, the Tuesday you shut for a plumber: those are special hours.
Temporarily closed is the setting for the off-season. Google's wording is direct: if your business is "closed for more than 7 days, closed for the off-season, or closed indefinitely", use "Temporarily closed". The profile then shows a "Temporarily closed" label on Maps and Search. That label is what a family from St. Catharines wants to see before they drive to a patio in Niagara-on-the-Lake in January.
Google's two pages do not quite agree on the cut-off. The hours page says special hours for "6 days in a row or fewer"; the page on closing says "If your business is closed for 7 days or less, use set Special hours." So a closure of a week or less is special hours, and anything longer gets the label.
There is a fourth, smaller setting. More hours is where you record a service that keeps different times from the front door. Google's examples are "senior hours, or delivery and takeout hours"; a kitchen that closes at eight in a bar open until eleven is the local version. If the listing only shows the bar's hours, the person who arrives at ten expecting dinner writes the review.
| Setting | When to use it | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Regular hours | The season you are in right now | Repeats weekly until you change it |
| Special hours | Holidays, events, a closure of a week or less | One date at a time; overrides that day only |
| Temporarily closed | Closed for more than a week, or for the off-season | Shows a label on Maps and Search until you mark the profile open; can rank after open businesses |
| More hours | A kitchen, takeout, delivery or senior hours with their own times | Sits beside regular hours; the front door keeps its own line |
One more line is worth filling in. Google's guidelines say a business open only part of the year can "indicate that your business is open only for a specific seasonal period in your business description". "Open May long weekend to Thanksgiving" in the description gets read in February, when the hours line says nothing.
Why "Temporarily closed" is the honest setting
The worry is that the label makes a business disappear. Google's page on closures is direct about the trade: "For broad queries, temporarily-closed businesses can rank after open businesses." So a search for "patio near me" in January may list the open places first, which is what the searcher wants anyway. The profile stays on Maps and Search with a "Temporarily closed" label, and Google's guidelines name this as the setting for a seasonal business in its off-season.
Compare the alternative. Leaving the summer hours up all winter tells a stranger you are open when you are not, and the person who finds the gate down does not come back to tell you. The label says "closed for now", which for a garden centre in Ridgeway between Remembrance Day and the first pansies is simply the truth.
The switch-over routine
Two calendar reminders, one a week before you close and one a week before you open. Google's help pages describe closing and reopening as two edits you make yourself, so the reminder is the mechanism. Here is what to change each time.
A week before you close for the season:
- If the last few days run odd hours, enter them as special hours so the weekly pattern does not lie about the final weekend.
- On the day you lock up, open the profile and mark it "Temporarily closed".
- Change the recorded phone greeting and the hours on your own website to match, because customers check all three.
- Write the reopening month into the spring reminder, even if it is a guess.
A week before you open again:
- Mark the profile open. Google's page on reopening gives two routes: "Mark as open" in Business Profile Manager, or edit the hours on the profile and save.
- Set regular hours for the season you are entering. Read them before saving; what was right in 2025 may not be right now.
- Enter the special hours you already know about. A patio in Niagara-on-the-Lake knows the long weekends and the wine festival dates. A garden centre knows the May long weekend.
- Check "More hours" for the kitchen, takeout, or whatever service keeps its own times.
If you stay open in winter on a reduced schedule, skip this routine. A restaurant that drops to Thursday through Sunday from November to March has changed its regular hours; edit that field.
The five-minute phone check
Search your own business name on your phone and read the hours line the way a stranger would. Then check next Sunday and the next statutory holiday, the two days most likely to be wrong. Do this once after each switch-over and once mid-season. If the listing shows a phone number, call it; a summer greeting in January tells you something.
Where this fits
If you are also missing from the map results, the map pack guide walks through the usual causes, and a second listing for the same business is covered in the merging duplicate listings guide. Fort Erie businesses get a sharper version of this because of the border traffic; see the Fort Erie page.
Common questions
Should I set every day to "Closed" for the winter instead of using "Temporarily closed"?
No. Seven days of "Closed" reads as a business that never opens, and it hides the one thing a customer wants to know: that you will be back. The label is the one setting that says "for now".
Can I set my reopening date in advance so the profile switches itself?
Not that Google's help pages describe. There is an "opening date" field, but Google's page for it covers a business that has not opened yet. Nothing on the closure or reopening pages mentions a scheduled reopen, so put the reminder in your calendar and flip it yourself.
I close for one week in January for a family trip. Which setting is that?
For a short trip, enter the closed dates as special hours. Google's page on closing says a closure of 7 days or less is special hours, and anything longer gets the label.
Do wrong hours hurt my ranking?
Google has not published a statement that says so, and I will not claim one. The one ranking line it does publish is about the label, not the hours: temporarily closed businesses can rank after open ones for broad searches. Wrong hours cost you differently. A customer who reads "Closed" at six on a Thursday has no reason to look further.
Sources and last check. Checked against Google's own help pages on 2026-09-21: regular, special and more hours, marking a business temporarily or permanently closed, marking a business reopened, adding an opening date, Business Profile guidelines.
Email hello@niagaraseo.com with your business name a week before your next switch-over and I will read your listing back to you the way a customer sees it, or call 905.682.4642.