Setting public holiday hours on Google before Australian customers turn up

Short answer: use special hours for one-off dates — Australia Day, Anzac Day, King's Birthday, Melbourne Cup Day in Victoria, and any other state-specific public holiday — and leave your regular hours alone for a normal trading week. Set the dates well ahead, because Australia's public holidays don't line up neatly across states, and a wrong hours listing is exactly the kind of thing that ends up in a one-star review.

If a customer drives to your Adelaide shopfront on a state public holiday because Google still shows your normal Tuesday hours, that's a lost sale and a frustrated customer, not just a technical error.

Regular hours vs special hours

• Regular hours describe your normal trading week. Only change them when your actual pattern changes.
• Special hours override regular hours for a specific date — a public holiday, a stocktake day, longer hours for an event.
• Temporarily closed is a separate, longer-term status. Only use it if you're genuinely shut for an extended period.

Setting special hours, step by step

1. Open your Business Profile and go to edit hours.
2. Find Special hours and add the date.
3. Enter that date's hours, or mark it closed.
4. Save, then check how it looks on your phone.

A yearly calendar for Australian businesses

Because Melbourne Cup Day only applies in Victoria and several other dates shift by state, build a calendar rather than relying on memory:

• New Year's Day
• Australia Day
• Good Friday and Easter Monday
• Anzac Day
• King's Birthday (date varies by state)
• Melbourne Cup Day (Victoria only)
• Christmas Day and Boxing Day
• Any other state-specific public holiday that applies to where you trade

Check the exact dates for your state rather than assuming they match a business in another city — a Perth business and a Sydney business won't always share a public holiday calendar.

Checklist

• Special hours set for every closure in the next three months
• State-specific public holidays checked, not assumed
• Regular hours still match reality
• Phone message and website agree with the Google listing
• A post published if the change actually affects customers

Where Local SEO AI helps

The business profile workspace keeps hours alongside your other details, and reports & actions lists upcoming checks so holiday hours become a task rather than something you remember at the last minute. Pair a hours change with a short update using the weekly posting routine. Updates to Google require the live connection, which is awaiting Google's approval.