Show holiday hours wherever a guest might look before ordering: on the relevant location page, near the ordering button, and at the start of the ordering flow. Give the exact date, location, affected services, and return to normal hours. Keep regular hours visible, but make the exception hard to miss.
Then check that the order flow agrees with the notice. A message saying “pickup until 3 p.m.” does not change the slots the system offers. Someone must update and verify the ordering schedule separately.
List every public hours surface
Start with a short inventory of the places a guest can see before committing to an order. Follow the path on a phone as well as a desktop. A guest may arrive directly at a location page from a search result, or go straight to an ordering link without seeing your homepage.
- Homepage: A short notice can direct guests to the affected location and its full hours.
- Location pages: Put the dated exception beside regular hours for each affected restaurant. Do not assume every location follows the same schedule.
- Ordering entry points: Check the page containing the order button and the first screen guests see after selecting it.
- Menu and contact pages: Update any repeated hours or add a clear link to the location page.
- Other public listings: Check search listings and social profiles where you manage hours. Ask your provider how those updates are made and whether they need to be entered separately.
For each surface, record who can edit it and how quickly a change becomes visible. If an agency controls the website but a manager controls ordering, give both the same approved schedule. A holiday notice is easy to miss when responsibility is split.
Do not rely on a single banner if it disappears on mobile or is hidden after a guest dismisses it. Put the essential information in text near the hours or ordering choice too. Text should remain understandable without a graphic or a color cue.
If you are changing your site as well as its hours, the restaurant website creation guide covers broader setup decisions. For this task, the priority is a short list of pages and links that need the same answer.
Write the exception with dates and services
Guests need to know more than “holiday hours may vary.” Name the location, the date, and each service that differs from its usual schedule. If dining room, pickup, and delivery hours are different, list them separately. Say when regular hours resume rather than leaving guests to guess whether the notice is still current.
Hypothetical example: A restaurant has one location, normal hours of 11 a.m. to 9 p.m., and a shorter schedule on December 24, 2026. The dining room and pickup close at 3 p.m.; delivery is unavailable that day. Regular hours resume December 25. A useful notice would read:
“Downtown location: On December 24, we are open for dining and pickup from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Delivery is unavailable. Regular hours resume December 25.”
Place that notice next to the regular schedule, not in place of it. A guest planning for December 26 still needs the ordinary hours. If the kitchen stops accepting orders before the dining room closes, state the last ordering time separately. Do not use a closing time as a promise that every pickup slot will remain available until then.
The following worksheet shows how the same hypothetical change can be recorded before publication. The expiry date is a staff reminder to review and remove the exception; it is not a substitute for the guest-facing return date.
| Item | Normal | December 24 exception | Review |
|---|---|---|---|
| Downtown dining | 11 a.m.–9 p.m. | 11 a.m.–3 p.m. | Remove notice December 25 |
| Downtown pickup | 11 a.m.–9 p.m. | 11 a.m.–3 p.m. | Check available slots and remove notice December 25 |
| Downtown delivery | 11 a.m.–9 p.m. | Unavailable | Confirm normal schedule December 25 |
Add the name of the person responsible for each change in your working copy. For several locations, make one row per location and service rather than using a chain-wide shorthand. If a schedule spans midnight, include both dates and make clear which day each time belongs to.
Compare the notice with the ordering path
The website answers “When are you open?” The ordering flow answers “Can I place this order for this time?” Both matter, but they are not the same setting. A visible notice can be correct while the order system still offers an unavailable delivery option or a pickup time after closing.
Before the exception begins, have the person responsible for online ordering review the schedule for the affected location and services. Then make a simulated check that cannot create a real order, payment, guest message, or courier dispatch. Use a safe preview or test environment if your provider offers one; otherwise, ask how to inspect the available slots without submitting an order.
- Open the location page and read the notice as a guest would. Check the date, service names, and return to regular hours.
- Follow the order link and select the affected location. Check whether the same information is visible before a guest has to choose a time.
- Inspect pickup availability on the exception date. Look at the first and last offered slots and compare them with the published pickup window and any stated order cutoff.
- Inspect delivery availability separately. If delivery is unavailable, confirm that guests cannot select a delivery slot for that date.
- Inspect a date after the exception. Make sure the regular schedule is represented and the holiday message does not imply the shorter hours still apply.
Record what you saw and who checked it. If the notice and slots disagree, correct the schedule or the message before relying on either one. Repeat the check after the correction. Pay attention to scheduled orders placed in advance: a guest may choose the holiday date days before the exception starts.
A simulation checks what the interface shows without triggering real activity. If you also choose to run a live service pilot, treat it as a separate, deliberately authorized operational exercise. Agree on the participants and consequences first; do not turn a practice check into an accidental charge or dispatch.
Ask your provider what guests see when no slots remain, how advance-order dates use special hours, and whether an hours change needs to be entered separately for each service. Those answers matter more than an attractive banner if guests reach an option they cannot actually use.
Remove the notice and restore the routine
Before publishing, assign one person to review the exception and another person as backup. Put the review date on the same calendar the team uses for schedule changes. The owner should know where the notice appears, who can remove it, and who can change ordering availability.
On the review date, first confirm the restaurant is ready to resume its regular schedule. Then remove or update the dated notice on every listed surface. Check the location page and ordering entry point again on a phone. Confirm that the ordering schedule has returned to the intended hours for each service; removing website text alone does not do that work.
Keep a short record of the completed change: the exception date, affected location and services, pages updated, ordering schedule checked, and person who closed it out. This gives the next manager a starting point without leaving last year’s holiday message on the site.
For the next holiday, copy the checklist, not the old notice. Dates, service windows, and delivery arrangements may have changed. If your team cannot edit a page directly, arrange the update and removal with its owner early enough to check both changes.
Next step: List your location page and ordering entry point, then check who can edit each one. Review the Fleksa restaurant website page and ask for a demonstration of how your team would publish and remove a dated hours notice if it fits your restaurant.
Frequently asked questions
Should I replace regular hours with holiday hours?
Usually, keep regular hours visible and add a dated exception beside them. Guests planning for another day still need the normal schedule, and the exception should say when it ends.
Is a homepage notice enough?
Not if guests can enter through a location page or ordering link. Put the essential exception near the relevant location hours and check the start of the ordering flow as well.
What if pickup and delivery have different holiday hours?
List each service separately, including any unavailable service and any earlier order cutoff. Check the corresponding ordering availability rather than assuming the website notice changes it.
