Opening & Closing Times

Your booking calendar follows the hours you set here, so it is worth setting these up before you open bookings to customers.

Go to your Business Details hub and select Opening & Closing Times.

The Business Details hub. Opening & Closing Times is one of six sections.

The Opening & Closing Schedules screen, showing standard hours and special dates.

You will see your current schedules listed. Standard Opening Hours is your default weekly pattern, this is what applies day to day. Any other schedule, a bank holiday, Christmas Day, a one-off closure, only applies on the dates you have given it, and overrides your standard hours for that period. For example, opening on a Bank Holiday Monday even though you are normally closed on Mondays.

Editing an existing schedule

Select the pencil icon next to it, adjust the details, then Save.

Creating a new schedule

Select Add in the top right, then fill in:

The Create New Schedule form.

• Description: a name for this schedule, so you can tell entries apart, for example "Christmas Hours," "Easter Sunday," or "Closed for refurbishment."

• This schedule is for a closure: works the same way as an opening schedule, but defines a period you are closed rather than open. Use this if you need to shut for a stretch, a weekend off or refurbishment, rather than editing your standard hours day by day.

• This is a seasonal schedule or a yearly-recurring schedule of some sort: tick this if it should come back every year on the same dates rather than apply once, for example always closed Christmas Day. This switches the date fields below to a repeating month and day pattern instead of a fixed year.

• Each day, Mon to Sun: enter your open and close time separated by a dash or the word "to," for example 09:30-23:00. Leave a day blank, or type "closed," for days you are not open. Select Copy next to a day to open a quick copy tool, then choose which other day or days to copy those hours to, handy when several days share the same hours.

• Valid From / Valid Until: the date range this schedule applies to. Only used on non-standard schedules, your Standard schedule leaves these blank since it is always your fallback.

Select Save to add it, or Cancel to back out. Existing schedules can be deleted from the edit screen.

Bank Holidays

A Bank Holiday changes your normal pattern for that one day, and what you need to set up depends on whether you are usually open or closed on that day of the week.

• Normally closed that day, but opening for the Bank Holiday: create a new Opening & Closing schedule for the date, following the steps above, and add a Sitting for those hours too. Sittings only run on the days their own schedule covers, so without one there is nothing for customers to book into, even once the calendar shows you as open.

• Normally open that day, just running shorter hours: only a new Opening & Closing schedule is needed, using the reduced hours for that date. Your existing Sitting for that day already covers bookings, so no separate Sitting is required.

Example: a pub usually closed on Mondays opening for a Bank Holiday Monday needs both a new schedule and a new Sitting. A pub usually open on Mondays but closing early for the Bank Holiday only needs the new schedule.