How to Show Temporary Business Hours on Your Website

Add a dated text notice beside the hours customers already read, stating the location, temporary opening times and when normal hours resume. Publish it, check the live page on a phone, and assign someone to remove or revise it after the exception. You do not need a new widget or paid subscription for a simple text edit on a site you control.

Start with a message that cannot become stale “today”

For example: “Town Centre café — Thursday 1 October: open 10:30–15:00. Friday 2 October: normal hours, 10:30–19:00.” Replace this example with the correct dates, local times and confirmed schedule. If reopening is unknown, say so and provide a review date rather than promising a reopening time.

Keep the normal week labeled as normal hours. Place the exception beside it, so readers do not have to decide between two apparently current schedules. For a permanent weekly change, update the regular schedule instead of leaving a temporary banner indefinitely.

Choose a simple publishing route

• WordPress block editor: edit the existing location/contact page, insert a Paragraph block near the hours, and enter the notice. Preview the page, then save/publish the update using your editor’s controls. Check the live page, not only the editor preview.
• Squarespace: open the Announcement bar panel, enable it, enter the message, and save. The official guide says it is available on Core, Plus and Advanced plans and appears across the site except cover pages. If it is unavailable, use an ordinary page text edit. For multiple locations, a sitewide message must name the affected branch and link to its details.
• A custom site or another builder: change the text in the existing hours section or ask the person with publishing access to make that precise edit. A plain HTML paragraph works; no client-side countdown is necessary.

Site permissions, theme controls and plan features differ. Avoid installing a new plugin in a rush when an existing text field meets the need.

Check visibility and expiry

Open the actual page customers reach from Maps, then the contact page, footer, booking page and other copies of the schedule. Confirm the notice is readable on mobile and as text, rather than only in an image. If the public version still shows old content, check your site’s publishing/cache controls or ask its maintainer.

A text notice has no automatic expiry unless your publishing tool supplies one and you configure it. Record the removal date and person responsible. Afterward, remove the exception and check the regular hours again. If your site already outputs machine-readable opening hours, ask its maintainer to keep that information consistent too; adding a banner alone does not do that.

Then update the listings separately

Use the Google dated-hours guide and, where relevant, the Facebook Page guide. The website is one destination, not proof that those platforms changed. This repeated work is the reason to consider a focused hours workflow after the urgent manual fix is done.