·Adiamo Studio
How to publish restaurant hours guests can trust
Put dine-in hours where guests can see them, mark holiday closures before the day arrives, and keep the website and Google on the same clock so nobody finds a closed door.
Answer first
Publish the hours a guest can sit down and eat, not the hours the kitchen prep starts or the hours delivery happens to run. Put them on the website and on Google as the same weekly pattern, including a split service if you close between lunch and dinner. For a holiday or a private event, set a special closure before the day, on both places. A guest who arrives to a dark door does not book the next time.
Wrong hours are a service failure that happens before anyone is seated. The guest checked the site, or they checked Maps, believed one of them, and stood outside a closed shutter. The apology does not fix the walk.
This guide is how to choose which hours to publish, how to handle lunch-and-dinner splits and holidays, and how to keep the website and the Google listing from drifting. The listing side of that relationship is in why your Google Maps listing is not enough.
How published hours differ from kitchen hours
A restaurant has several clocks: when staff arrive, when the pass opens, when the last seating is, when the door locks, when takeaway stops. Guests need one of those, stated clearly. Google’s own guidelines say a restaurant should use the hours when diners can sit down and eat; takeout or delivery hours are a fallback or a separate “more hours” entry, not a substitute for dine-in. That is in Guidelines for representing your business on Google.
| Clock | Who it is for | Publish it as |
|---|---|---|
| Prep and close-down | The team | Do not publish |
| Dine-in, first to last seating | The guest deciding to come | Main hours, on the site and on Google |
| Kitchen closed between services | Anyone who might arrive at 15:30 | A split: lunch hours, then dinner hours |
| Takeaway or delivery only | People who are not sitting down | A labeled extra, not the main hours |
| Bar open later than the kitchen | People who only want a drink | Say so in words, or they will expect food |
| Private buyout | Everyone else | Closed, as a special day |
Main hours
When a guest can sit down
Split service
Two ranges, not one long lie
Special day
Holiday or buyout, set early
When to use regular hours, special hours, or a closure
Use regular hours
- The weekly pattern is stable: closed Monday, lunch and dinner the rest.
- A seasonal change lasts for months — switch the regular hours, do not stack special days.
- The bar and the dining room share one door and one service.
Use a special day or a temporary close
- A public holiday, a private event, or a short break of a few days.
- You are open, but not at the usual times — Christmas Eve lunch only, for example.
- You are shut for a week or more, or for the off-season. That is a temporary closure, not six special days in a row.
Google distinguishes these on purpose. Special hours cover a short change, including a closure of up to six days in a row. A closure of seven days or more, or an unknown return, is marked temporarily closed. The steps are in Edit your business hours and How to set special hours. Your website should say the same thing in a sentence a guest can read, not only inside Google’s hours module.
How to publish hours that survive a holiday
Pattern
The normal week, with splits
Exceptions
Holidays and buyouts dated
Site
Visible without a tap
Main hours plus special hours
Check
Same week something changes
- 1
Write the normal week as the guest sits
For each day, the time the first guest can be seated and the time the last seating ends. If you close in the afternoon, publish two ranges. One range from noon to 22:00 is a lie when the door is locked at 14:30.
- 2
Name the closed days in words
“Closed Monday” in a sentence, not only as a gap in a table. People scan. A missing Monday is easy to misread as “hours not listed.”
- 3
List the next exception where the hours are
A holiday, a buyout, a staff day. Put the date next to the weekly hours, on the page, before the week arrives. Do not rely on an Instagram story that disappears.
- 4
Set the same facts on Google
Main hours for the week. Special hours for the exception. Temporarily closed if you are shut for a week or for the season. If Maps is how most people discover you, this is not optional. The site still needs the sentence, because not every guest starts on Maps.
- 5
Say what the hours are not
If the kitchen stops at 21:30 and the door stays open later, write that. If Tuesday lunch is groups only, write that. Guests who guess will call during service, which is the problem described in WhatsApp and email reservations that actually get answered.
- 6
Change both places the week the pattern changes
A new seasonal menu and a new closing day are the same kind of edit. The checklist already says to update hours and Google together. Put a name on the person who does it. “Someone will remember” is how August hours survive into November.
Where each fact should appear
| Fact | On the website | On Google |
|---|---|---|
| Weekly dine-in | Visible in the visit block, not only in the footer | Main hours |
| Afternoon break | Two ranges, labeled lunch and dinner | Two sets of hours on that day |
| Closed weekday | A sentence | That day unchecked |
| Next holiday | Date plus open or closed, next to the weekly hours | Special hours for that date |
| Closed a week or more | A sentence with the return date if you know it | Temporarily closed |
| Takeaway after the kitchen stops seating | Labeled as takeaway, not as dining | More hours, if you use them |
| Last seating | Say it if it is earlier than the close | Do not hide it inside a later close time |
If you add structured data, OpeningHoursSpecification is the vocabulary for a day’s open and close, and Google’s local business structured data explains how a page can describe hours alongside the address. Use it so the page and the listing tell the same story. It does not correct a listing you forgot to update, and it does not rank you for being precise.
When published hours fail
- The site and Maps disagree. Guests believe whichever they saw last, then blame you for the other one.
- One range hides a break. You are closed at 16:00 and the page says 12:00–22:00.
- The holiday is announced on Instagram only. The guest who used the site, or Google, still comes.
- “Hours may vary.” That sentence tells people you do not know your own door. Publish the week you actually run.
- Kitchen hours published as dining hours. Staff are in at 09:00. Guests are not seated at 09:00.
- A long closure left as regular hours. The season ended and the listing still says you are open daily.
What correct hours do not do
They do not fill the room. They stop a specific, expensive failure: someone arriving when you cannot serve them. They do not replace a reservation path, a menu, or a phone that is answered. They do not need a paragraph of explanation for a normal Tuesday. And marking special hours on Google does not, by itself, update the sentence on your website. You still change both.
Frequently asked questions
Should I publish kitchen hours or dining hours?
Dining hours: when a guest can sit and eat. Google’s guidelines for restaurants say the same thing. If takeaway runs later, label it as takeaway so nobody expects a table.
How do I show a break between lunch and dinner?
Two ranges for that day, on the site and on Google. A single range that covers the hours you are closed will produce guests at the shutter.
What about a public holiday?
Decide open or closed before the week of the holiday. Put the date on the website next to the regular hours, and set special hours on Google for that date. Confirming a holiday even when you are open at the usual times is better than leaving people to guess.
We are closed for two weeks. What do I set?
A closure of a week or more is a temporary closure on Google, not a string of special hours. Write the dates on the website, including the day you reopen if you know it.
The hours on my site and on Maps do not match. Which do guests believe?
Whichever they saw. Treat a mismatch as broken until both say the same times. Do not wait for the next menu reprint.
Does Adiamo copy hours from Google?
A draft can start from the hours on your listing. You still read them against the door before you publish, and you still update the site when you change special hours on Google.