How to set Diwali and festival hours on Google

Festival weeks are when people search the most and check the least. Someone looking for sweets on Dhanteras evening opens Google Maps, sees "Open until 9 pm", and drives over. If you closed at 7 that day, you have lost a sale and gained a one-star review that says "Google said open, shutter was down".

Your regular hours cannot describe a festival. Special hours can.

What special hours are

Special hours are hours for one date that replace your normal hours for that date only. Open till midnight on Diwali, closed on Bhai Dooj, half day on Christmas: each is a special-hours entry. The next day, your normal hours come back by themselves. Nothing to undo.

Without them, Google shows your normal hours. Around public holidays it may also show customers a note that your hours might differ, which makes them doubt the listing and call a competitor who looks certain.

How to set them

On a phone (Google Maps app)

1. Open Google Maps and tap your profile picture, then Your Business Profile.
2. Tap Edit profile, then Hours.
3. Choose Special hours (or Add special hours).
4. Pick the date, then set the hours or mark it Closed.
5. Save. Repeat for each date.

On a computer (Google Search)

1. Search for your business name on Google while signed in with the account that manages it. Your profile's management panel appears at the top.
2. Choose Edit profile, then Hours, then Special hours.
3. Add each date and save.

Google often suggests upcoming holidays for you to confirm. Confirm the ones you are keeping normal hours on too: a confirmed "normal hours" is still a confirmed answer.

Which dates to set

Think about the whole festival, not just the main day. For Diwali that usually means:

• Dhanteras - many shops open early and close late.
• Choti Diwali and Diwali - restaurants and sweet shops stay open late; clinics, offices and many services close early or shut.
• Govardhan Puja and Bhai Dooj - the days most businesses forget, and the ones customers get caught out by.

The same applies to Chhath, Christmas and New Year's Eve, Eid, Pongal and Sankranti, Holi, Durga Puja and Onam. If you close for a regional festival your customers may not all observe, that is exactly the day to set.

Mistakes to avoid

Marking the business "temporarily closed" for a short break. Temporarily closed is for closures of weeks, like a renovation. Use special hours for a few days off. Customers read "temporarily closed" as "might not reopen".

Editing your regular hours instead. If you change your normal Monday hours for one festival Monday, you have to remember to change them back. Most people do not, and the profile is wrong for months.

Setting hours on Google and nowhere else. Customers also see your hours on Justdial, Zomato or Swiggy, Facebook, your website and directories like Sunaam's. If they disagree, people trust none of them. Our guide to keeping your details consistent covers why this matters.

Then tell people

Special hours answer "are you open?". They do not tell anyone why to come. A Google post does: "Open till midnight on Diwali, fresh kaju katli all day, gift boxes from Rs 250." Posts appear on your profile where people deciding between you and the shop next door will read them. More ideas in what to post on your Google Business Profile.

Then put the same line on your WhatsApp status and on a sign at the counter.

A two-minute checklist

• Special hours set for every day your hours change, including the days after.
• Regular hours untouched.
• The same hours on your other listings.
• One Google post saying what is special about the festival at your place.
• Not sure everything else on your profile is right? Run the free Google Business Profile checker.

Sunaam lets you change your Google hours and publish Google posts from one place, and drafts festival posts in your customers' language for you to approve, so your listing is right on the days people check it most.