Google will add ‘Holiday Opening Times’ to business listings over Christmas season

Whenever you open up the Maps app and click that little drop-down to see hours for the week, you’ll now see a designated section for these special hours. Google knows your pain and it’s why they’re now adding holiday hours to business listings in both Search and Google Maps. When users search for a store within seven days of a certain holiday, users will be able to see whether or not stores have special schedules for that holiday.

Ever trekked all the way to your favorite restaurant just to realize it’s closed for the holidays?

Specific holiday hours for businesses will be shown alongside normal store hours for the businesses that have store times available online.

“We’ve got you covered pretty much everywhere you search and anywhere you go”, according to Google’s blog post.

“If you search for a business and the holiday hours aren’t listed, you’ll see a warning message alerting you that the actual hours may be different because of the holiday”.

I’m definitely not the only one that has been asking for this feature for years.

Additionally, you can also use the “Open Now” filter to not include results for places that are currently closed, and since holiday hours are available globally, this will come in handy when you’re roaming the streets of Vienna on Christmas Eve searching for a cozy spot for a few hot cocoa.