Every year the same thing happens. The team agrees on the holiday schedule in a chat, a note goes on the door in the last week and a handful of clients still arrive on a closed day or book a slot that nobody can serve.
None of this is about bad planning. It happens because the real hours live in people’s heads, while the calendar and online booking keep showing a normal week.
This guide shows how to set holiday opening hours so the calendar, your team and your clients all agree, with enough notice that you keep the bookings rather than lose them.
Decide your holiday opening hours first
Before you touch the calendar, write the plan on one page. For every location, list the last normal working day before the break, the days you are closed, the days with shorter hours and the first normal day afterwards.
Then check the plan against reality: who is actually working on each short day, which services you will still offer and whether any location opens on a different pattern from the others. A plan written down once is easier to defend than ten decisions made over ten messages.
Close the days in the calendar, not on the door
A note on the door only reaches people who are already outside. The calendar reaches everyone who is about to book.
For whole days or longer breaks, block the time for the location, so no new booking can be made inside that period. For one person who is away, block only that specialist, so the rest of the team can keep taking clients. Add a short reason and a colour, so the team recognises the break at a glance.
This is the same approach as keeping the calendar on track when staff take vacation, applied to the whole business at once.
Set shorter hours instead of closing everything
Many businesses are not closed over the holidays, they simply work less. A morning-only day on 24 December or a late start on 2 January is easy to forget, and the usual hours will keep offering afternoon slots.
Block the hours you are not working, rather than rewriting your regular schedule. The regular schedule then stays correct for January, and the exception disappears on its own after the date. Reserve changes to the permanent hours for when your opening pattern really changes.
Deal with the bookings already in the closure
New bookings are the easy part. The harder part is the clients who booked months ago for a day you have now decided to close.
- Open the calendar for the closed period and list every booking in it.
- Contact each client yourself, by phone or message, before any general announcement.
- Offer the closest alternatives, one before the break and one after it.
- Move the booking to the new time, or cancel it if the client prefers not to rebook, and leave the history clear.
Do this as soon as you have decided on the closure. Five clients are easy to call in October and very difficult in the week before Christmas.
Make online booking match your real hours
If clients can still see free slots for days you are closed, they will book them, and you will be calling them back. Check that your online booking shows the same hours as the calendar, from your website, your public profile and any other channel clients use.
Also look at how far ahead clients can book. A client who looks at the calendar in early November should be able to book a visit in the first week of January, but not a slot inside your closure. If you take many bookings from your website, online booking through your website is a good next read.
Tell clients before they try to book
Hours that only exist in the calendar are still a surprise for the client who finds out at checkout. Tell your clients in three places.
- A message to your client list a few weeks before the break, with the last day, the first day back and how to book in advance.
- A reminder with the appointment for everyone who already has a visit near the break, so they know it is confirmed.
- A short line where clients book, such as your website, your online booking page or your public profile.
Keep the tone helpful. The message is not “we are closed”, it is “here is how to book before we go and when we are back”.
Use the quiet days to bring clients back
A closure is also a reason to get in touch. Clients who have not visited for a while will read a message about last available dates more carefully than a general promotion.
Invite them to book before the break, or give them a reason to book the first week back, when the calendar often looks empty. If you want help finding those clients, our guide to client retention without guesswork covers the approach.
A holiday opening hours checklist
- Write the holiday plan on one page for every location, with the closed days and the shorter days.
- Confirm who works on each short day and which services you will offer.
- Block the closed days and the hours you do not work in the calendar, by location or by specialist.
- List the bookings that fall inside the closure and contact each client with two alternatives.
- Check that online booking shows the same hours and does not offer slots in the closure.
- Send a message to your clients with the last day, the first day back and how to book ahead.
- Make sure appointment reminders go out for visits close to the break.
- Review the calendar again a week before the first closed day.
- After the break, check that the first week back shows the regular hours again.
How Reservation.Studio Business helps
In Reservation.Studio Business the calendar is where your hours live. You set the regular working hours for each location and your team, and block the exceptions, such as a whole closed day, a few hours or a single specialist, with a reason and a colour that the whole team sees. Blocked time takes priority over the regular schedule, so those slots stop appearing for new bookings, including online.
From the same place you see the bookings that fall inside a closure, move them to a new time, and reach your clients with messages and reminders so they hear about the changes from you. Services, team and availability work together with reminders and notifications, so you do not have to repeat the plan in five places.
If you want to see how your holiday schedule would look in the calendar before the busy weeks begin, book a demo and we will walk through it with your own locations and team.