DDS Web Solutions
Practice Operations

How a dental group keeps holiday hours, closures, and one-off hour changes matched at every office

15 min

The short answer

For a dental group of about 3 to 50 or more offices, keep one holiday and closure calendar, owned by one named role, with one row per office per date. Set special hours on each Business Profile before the date. Google's special-hours page says it is a good idea to confirm official holidays even when those hours match the regular schedule. Make the office page text and the hours markup say the same thing. Schedule ads and call assets for the hours the office can actually answer, and tell the phone plan who is covering a reduced-hours day. After the date, check the row and remove special hours that no longer apply. Use Temporarily closed only when the closure is the longer kind that page describes. None of the pages below publish a lead time in days for a dental group.

This guide is for a marketing lead who needs a holiday, a one-day closure, or another short hour change to match at every door. It covers the calendar, the profile control, the office page, the ad schedule, and the phone note. Who may edit a profile is in Google Business Profile governance. The map of the other group jobs is marketing a multi-location practice or DSO. A move to a new address, two offices combined into one, or one office closed for good, while the rest of the group stays open, is in moving, merging, or closing an office.

Special hours, temporarily closed, or a regular-hours change

Pick the control from the page that describes it. Do not merge the two closure lengths into one number. How to set special hours says you can set them when the business temporarily adjusts its hours or remains closed for up to 6 days in a row. Mark your business as closed says a closure of 7 days or less uses special hours, and a closure of more than 7 days, an off-season closure, or an indefinite closure uses Temporarily closed. If the closure is 7 days, open both pages and follow the live wording.

Special hours, short change

Google's special-hours page says to use them when hours change for a brief period, such as a holiday, a special event, or another exception, so the regular hours stay in place. That page says you can set them when the business temporarily adjusts hours or stays closed for up to 6 days in a row.

Special hours, the other cutoff

The page on marking a business closed says a closure of 7 days or less uses special hours. It does not use the phrase "up to 6 days." Keep the two sentences apart. For a closure of 7 days, read both live pages before you pick a control.

Temporarily closed

The closed-business page says to use Temporarily closed when the business is closed for more than 7 days, for the off-season, or indefinitely. On broad queries, it says temporarily closed businesses can rank after open ones. It says that effect depends on the category, the query type, and how many matching businesses are closed. A one-day holiday is not this status.

Main hours

The edit-profile page says to set the business's main hours, or mark it closed, so customers know the ongoing schedule. Holidays and other temporary periods on that page go to special hours. A permanent schedule change is an edit to main hours, not a stack of special-hour rows.

More hours

The same edit-profile page says to set more hours when different features have different hours. The representation guidelines say more hours should, in general, be a subset of the primary hours. This is not a second holiday calendar.

The special-hours page also says you can schedule hours for holidays, special events, and other exceptional circumstances, and that confirming official holidays is a good idea even when the hours are the same as the regular hours. Several sets of hours can sit on one date. One set cannot be longer than 24 hours. If the hours cross midnight, split them: one set that ends the first day, and one set that starts at midnight on the second day. On that page, the regular hours for the second day are ignored in favor of the special hours you entered for it, so the second set has to say the hours you actually want, not a fragment that assumes the regular schedule will fill in.

Edit your Business Profile is where main hours, special hours, and more hours are separated. Guidelines for representing your business say to provide the regular customer-facing hours. The office lists the hours patients can reach it. The same guidelines say current seasonal hours may be used as the regular hours, and that special hours may be set for particular days such as holidays, temporary closures, or events. More hours, for a department or another feature, are generally a subset of the primary hours. The guidelines also say some kinds of businesses should not provide hours.

Many offices at once

Three offices and fifty offices use the same columns. A larger group has more rows. Bulk location management says a business with 10 or more locations can add, verify, and manage them in bulk, and that a business group is how management is shared with more than one user. The hours file itself is still one row per location. Who holds the owner seat is the governance guide, not a shortcut around the calendar.

For profiles that already exist, the special-hours page says the upload can contain only the store code column and the special hours column. The date format it describes is a calendar date, then the hours, in 24-hour form or with AM and PM. The letter x means the location is closed all day. Create a bulk upload spreadsheet says each location needs a unique store code, and that a temporary hours change can be entered as special hours. It also says an end time of midnight can be written as 00:00 or as 24:00.

Store code

The unique code already stored for that location. The spreadsheet page says each location needs its own code before you upload.

Special hours

The date and the hours, in the form the special-hours page describes: a date, then the hours, with x for an all-day closure. Separate sets with a comma. More than one set can sit on the same date.

Every other column

Leave it out of this file. The special-hours page says empty columns, or headings with nothing under them, erase the information already stored in those columns.

Read the empty-cell notes as two different instructions. The special-hours page says empty columns, or headings with no information beneath them, erase what is already stored. The spreadsheet page, in its regular-hours examples, lists an empty cell as one way to show a day closed, next to the letter X. Do not use a blank column to mean "closed" on a special-hours upload. If the sheet is also creating a new business, the special-hours page says you will be alerted about missing required headings. That is a different file from an hours-only update.

Temporarily closed for many profiles is a different path. The closed-business page says to sign in to Business Profile Manager, select the businesses, open Actions, and choose Mark as temporarily closed or Mark as permanently closed. Use that path when the row on the calendar says Temporarily closed. Do not use it to stamp a one-day holiday onto a dozen offices.

Holiday list by state

About holidays on Google is organized by country. On the holidays listed there, a warning may appear on the Business Profile that hours might differ. The page says to set special hours in advance so customers know the holiday hours. Some entries in the United States section name specific states. One example on the live page, which you should re-read because the list changes, is a 2026 row for Civil Rights Day that names Arizona and New Hampshire. Other rows name other states.

A group with offices in more than one state checks the rows that name each office's state, then writes the decision on that office's calendar row. The same holiday can be a closure at one door and a regular day at another. The warning on the profile is a reason to set special hours, including when the hours do not change. It is not a list of days the group is required to close. Confirm every date on the live page before you publish it.

Office holiday hours planner

Plan holiday and special hours for every office, then copy the rows your team will enter.

Paste one office per line and one calendar row per line. Special hours cover a closure of up to 6 days in a row, and a closure longer than 7 days uses Temporarily closed. For exactly 7 days, read Special hours, temporarily closed, or a regular-hours change before you pick. Reduced hours, and a holiday that keeps the regular schedule, also use special hours.

Store codes and blank columns are covered in Many offices at once, and Who owns the calendar explains why each office gets its own row for every date. State is optional. Holiday list by state is a starter list, so edit it for the days your offices close. The sample uses made-up offices (oak-park, pine-hill, elm-street) and store codes such as OP-01.

If this browser allows it, a draft is saved on this device after you type. Nothing is sent to a server. Do not paste patient names, phone numbers, emails, or other patient data.

One office per line, up to 200. Format: office slug | store code | state. State is optional and uses two letters.

One row per line, up to 200. Format: date | office slug or * | hours. Date is YYYY-MM-DD. * means every office on the list. Hours are closed, regular, or one or more sets HH:MM-HH:MM separated by commas. regular means a holiday with the usual hours, still confirmed.

Optional. Used only for the past-date check. Leave blank to use this device's local date.

Summary

Example, not your offices. Today is 2026-11-10. 2 offices listed. 3 calendar rows after expanding *. 3 office-dates with a control. 1 finding.

Example

The rows below are an example, not your offices. oak-park and pine-hill are placeholder slugs. OP-01 and PH-02 are placeholder store codes. The example uses Today 2026-11-10. What you paste replaces these tables.

Calendar

Example per-office holiday calendar. Not your offices. Columns are office slug, store code, date, hours, control, and note.
Office slug Store code Date Hours Control Note
oak-park OP-01 2026-12-25 closed Special hours Closed run of 1 day. The special-hours page says up to 6 days in a row.
oak-park OP-01 2026-12-26 09:00-13:00 Special hours Reduced hours.
pine-hill PH-02 2026-12-25 closed Special hours Closed run of 1 day. The special-hours page says up to 6 days in a row.

Findings

Example findings. Not your offices. Each row names the guide section that explains it.
Input line What was found Guide section
Date 2026-12-26 pine-hill has no row for 2026-12-26. The guide keeps one row per office per date, including a holiday whose hours match the regular schedule. Who owns the calendar

Same pass

Role names already on Who owns the calendar. Names only.

  • Special hours. Profile editor, Page editor, Ads editor, Phone plan owner

This CSV is a calendar export for your own sheet.

The office page

The sentence on the page and the markup have to agree. If Office A is closed on a date, the sentence says closed that day, and the markup says closed that day. Local business structured data uses openingHoursSpecification. Leaving off validFrom and validThrough means the hours apply year-round. Using both defines a seasonal range. A closed day in that documentation sets opens to 00:00 and closes to 00:00. An open 24-hour day sets opens to 00:00 and closes to 23:59. Those two pairs are not interchangeable.

specialOpeningHoursSpecification overrides the general hours that come from openingHoursSpecification or openingHours. The value is an OpeningHoursSpecification. That type says the place is open if opens is specified, and closed otherwise, and that a closes time earlier than opens spans the next day. It also carries validFrom and validThrough. Search Central's late-night example uses one specification that crosses midnight, such as an open time in the evening and a close time after midnight. The Business Profile special-hours page tells you to split that same night at midnight in the spreadsheet. Follow each instruction on its own surface. Do not paste the spreadsheet split into the markup and assume it means the same thing.

The block below is a sample for a placeholder office, closed on one placeholder date. Replace the date with the date on that office's calendar row. Weekly hours stay in openingHoursSpecification. How a location page is built is in location pages for a multi-office website.

{
  "@type": "Dentist",
  "name": "Office A",
  "specialOpeningHoursSpecification": {
    "@type": "OpeningHoursSpecification",
    "validFrom": "2026-12-25",
    "validThrough": "2026-12-25",
    "opens": "00:00",
    "closes": "00:00"
  }
}

A reduced-hours day uses the same property with the opens and closes values patients will see, and the same validFrom and validThrough. A stretch of days, such as a seasonal slowdown, can use a from-date and a through-date the way Search Central shows for seasonal hours. If that stretch is longer than the short window on the special-hours page, the profile control may be Temporarily closed instead. The page and the profile still have to tell the same story.

Ads, call assets, and the phone plan

About ad scheduling says you can choose the hours or days of the week when ads show. The default it describes is All day, meaning ads are eligible throughout each calendar day. If nobody searches on the scheduled day or hour, the ads do not show. The same page says that when you use an ad schedule, the campaign paces toward a monthly spend of 30.4 times the average daily budget, no matter how many days the campaign is active that month. It also describes bid adjustments by day and time. Shared budgets and per-office call counts are in DSO Google Ads budgets and call attribution.

About call assets says a number can be set to appear only when the business can accept calls, and that you can schedule the asset for certain days and hours, for example only while the business is answering. About assets says supported assets can be scheduled for specific times of day or for a start date and an end date. The example on that page is a call asset limited to the hours the business can take calls. A holiday closure is a start and an end on that asset, plus the days and hours, written on the same calendar row as the profile.

Patient calls are a separate plan. Office phones, a central team, or a hybrid is where the group decides who answers. On a reduced-hours day, the coverage note names the path for that office: the desk, the central team, or overflow. The greeting matches the hours on the profile. A caller should not hear a regular-hours script while the profile says closed.

Calls and texts from Google

Automated calls and texts from Google says Google might use an automated call, text, or WhatsApp message to confirm details such as operating hours or whether certain services are available. The page calls this a standard process that does not affect account standing. Information you provide, including photos and posts, can be added to the Business Profile. Updates that result from these calls are reviewed and marked Pending, and the page says the review might take up to 5 business days. Name a person at each office who answers the verified phone and who has read that page before they confirm a holiday.

The same page says that if a call or text looks suspicious, do not respond, click links, or provide information, and it points onward to how to identify a legitimate call, text, or WhatsApp message. Use that page for the check.A confirmation given on that call still has to match the calendar row. If the pending update does not match the row, edit the profile. Do not wait on the review window and hope the hours correct themselves.

Who owns the calendar

One named role owns the sheet. Other people edit the surfaces. The lead time is whatever the group writes down. Google's pages below do not publish a number of days before a holiday by which a dental group must finish.

Calendar owner

One sheet for the group. One row per office per date, including a holiday whose hours match the regular schedule. The row names the control: special hours, temporarily closed, or a main-hours edit.

By when. Before anyone edits a profile, on the lead time the group writes on the sheet.

Proof. An export of the sheet that a marketing lead can open without the firm.

After the date. The row stays. It records what that office actually did. It is not deleted to tidy the year.

Profile editor

Special hours on that office's Business Profile, or Temporarily closed when the closed-business page is the control that fits. Not both for the same one-day holiday.

By when. Before the date, inside the same lead time. Google's holiday page says to set special hours in advance for listed holidays.

Proof. A screenshot or an export of that profile's special hours, filed on the row.

After the date. Special hours left from a prior year are removed. A one-day holiday is not still marked Temporarily closed.

Page editor

The hours sentence on the office page, and the hours markup, so a patient and the markup read the same closure or the same reduced hours.

By when. In the same pass as the profile edit. The page does not wait for a later sprint.

Proof. The live sentence and the markup block, saved with the row.

After the date. The page no longer announces a closure that has ended, unless the sheet still says the office is closed.

Ads editor

The ad schedule for days and hours, and the call-asset schedule, including a start date and an end date when the closure is a range.

By when. In the same pass. The default on the ad scheduling page is All day. A closure is a written exception to that default, not a bid change.

Proof. The ad schedule and the asset schedule, saved with the row.

After the date. A call asset is not still limited to a date that has passed, and a closed day is not still pausing ads after the office has reopened.

Phone plan owner

Who answers that office on the date, including a reduced-hours day. The coverage choices sit in the central call guide.

By when. In the same pass, so the person who answers has the hours before the morning starts.

Proof. The coverage note for that office and that date.

After the date. The note matches who answered. The closed date is an exception line on the per-office report.

Closed dates belong on the per-office marketing report as exceptions, not as a quiet dip in calls. The report already has a place for hours that changed at a named office. A holiday is that kind of line. Access for the person who edits the profile stays with the group, as the governance guide describes.

Red flags

These are checks on a calendar or on a proposal. They do not name or rank any firm.

  1. 1. Special hours from last year are still on the profile.

    A date that has passed is not a current holiday. The after-date check removes it. Leaving it in place tells the next person the calendar was never closed out.

  2. 2. A one-day holiday is set to Temporarily closed.

    The closed-business page reserves that status for more than 7 days, the off-season, or an indefinite closure. A single holiday uses special hours. The special-hours page is the one that also covers a short closure, and it words the length as up to 6 days in a row.

  3. 3. The office page says open and the profile says closed.

    Patients can meet either surface first. The visible sentence and the markup have to name the same hours as the profile for that date.

  4. 4. A call asset shows during hours the office cannot answer.

    The call-asset page says you can limit the number to times the business can accept calls, and you can schedule it by days and hours. A closure that never reaches that schedule leaves the asset on the default.

  5. 5. The bulk file has empty columns.

    The special-hours page says empty columns, or headings with no information under them, erase existing information. An hours update for profiles that already exist needs the store code and the special hours, and nothing blank beside them.

  6. 6. One office has the holiday and the others do not.

    The calendar is one row per office per date. A holiday set on Office A and forgotten on Office B is a missing row, not a local choice, unless the sheet says that office stays on its regular hours and the profile was confirmed.

Questions for an agency

Put the same questions in the RFP. A useful answer names a sheet, a profile export, or a person at the group. A weak answer describes holiday coverage without saying which file or which control. These are procurement questions. They are not legal advice and not a template. A wider scorecard, without a league table, is in how to choose a DSO dental marketing company.

1. Who owns the holiday calendar, and where does the sheet live?

A useful answer names

A named role at the group, one file the group can export, and one row per office per date. The group sets its own lead time.

Ask a follow-up if you hear

"We update hours when someone notices," or a sheet that only the firm can open.

2. For a short closure, which control do you use, and what do you do on day 7?

A useful answer names

Special hours for a brief change, with the special-hours page's "up to 6 days in a row" kept separate from the closed-business page's "7 days or less." Temporarily closed for more than 7 days, the off-season, or an indefinite closure. A 7-day closure is checked on both live pages.

Ask a follow-up if you hear

One number presented as Google's only rule, or Temporarily closed used for a one-day holiday.

3. How do you update many existing profiles without erasing other fields?

A useful answer names

A file that contains the store code and the special hours. No empty columns. No headings with nothing under them. Overnight hours split at midnight, with no set longer than 24 hours.

Ask a follow-up if you hear

A full spreadsheet download re-uploaded with blank cells, or one hours string pasted across every office.

4. How do the office page and the markup stay in agreement?

A useful answer names

The sentence patients read, then openingHoursSpecification for the weekly hours, and specialOpeningHoursSpecification for the exception. A closed day follows the local-business example: opens 00:00 and closes 00:00. The sample date is replaced with the date on that office's row.

Ask a follow-up if you hear

Markup with no matching sentence, or a closed day written as open 24 hours (00:00 to 23:59).

5. How are ads and call assets limited while the office is closed?

A useful answer names

An ad schedule for the days and hours ads may show, and a call asset scheduled for days and hours the office can accept calls, with a start date and an end date when the asset page is used. The 30.4 monthly pacing note on the ad scheduling page is left as Google's note. No new bid is part of the answer.

Ask a follow-up if you hear

A bid change offered as the way to observe a holiday, or a call asset left on All day with no schedule.

6. Who answers Google if it calls or texts about hours, and who answers patients that day?

A useful answer names

A named person at that office for the automated call, text, or WhatsApp message described on Google's page, and a coverage note that points at the central call guide for patient calls. The closed date is an exception on the per-office report.

Ask a follow-up if you hear

"The call center will handle Google," with no name, or a patient-call plan that still greets callers with regular hours.

Checklist

Twelve checks before you treat the holiday as done. Ticks stay in this browser only.

Holiday hours checklist

12 items

What DDS Web Solutions builds

DDS Web Solutions builds practice websites. Our team has been building websites since 2014, and we have served 100+ practices. Offices are in Sacramento and San Mateo. The products are Smyly, SmileTrak, and ToothRank. The planning page is DSO and multi-location marketing.

Sources

Wording on these pages can change, so confirm the live page. This is marketing guidance, not legal advice.

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