Why Your Profile Needs a Holiday Plan
You have spent months building up your Google Business Profile. Reviews are coming in, your ranking is climbing, and enquiries are steady. Then August hits, you book two weeks off, and suddenly your profile is telling potential customers something that is not true. that you are open and available when you are actually on a beach in Tenerife.
This is a scenario we see constantly with tradespeople across North Wales. A plumber in Rhyl takes a fortnight off and comes back to three missed calls and a one-star review from someone who felt ignored. A builder in Wrexham closes for Christmas but forgets to update anything, and a homeowner drives to a site address that is locked up.
Getting your Google Business Profile right before you go on holiday is not complicated. But getting it wrong can undo weeks of good work. Here is exactly what to do, what not to do, and what happens to your ranking while you are away.
35% of businesses forget to update their GBP hours for bank holidays
Incorrect holiday hours lead to 22% more negative reviews
Temporary Closed vs Special Hours: Know the Difference
Google gives you two options when your availability changes, and picking the wrong one can genuinely hurt your business.
Temporarily Closed is the nuclear option. When you mark your business as temporarily closed, Google shows a clear label on your profile saying exactly that. It tells searchers you are shut. For a service area business, which most tradespeople are, this sends a strong signal. During the period you are marked as closed, Google may reduce your visibility in local results. There is evidence from multiple local search ranking factor studies that temporarily closed businesses lose map pack positions and can take days or even weeks to recover fully after reopening.
Special Hours is the better choice for planned holidays. Instead of telling Google you are closed entirely, you set specific dates with adjusted hours, or mark those individual dates as closed. This tells Google and your customers that this is a planned, temporary change rather than a business closure. Your profile stays active, your ranking signals stay largely intact, and customers can see exactly when you will be back.
To set special hours, open your Google Business Profile, go to the Hours section, and look for "Add special hours." Enter each date you will be away and mark it as closed, or set reduced hours if someone else will be handling calls. If you are taking two weeks off, yes, you need to enter each day individually. It takes five minutes and it is worth every second.
Nothing earns a one-star review faster than a customer turning up to find you closed when Google says you're open.
What Actually Happens to Your Ranking When You Pause
This is the question every tradesperson asks, and the honest answer is: it depends on how you handle it.
If you use special hours correctly, the impact is minimal. Google understands that businesses have holidays. Your reviews, your citations, your website, your photos. all of those signals remain active. You might see a very slight dip in visibility during the days you are marked as closed, but it bounces back quickly once your hours return to normal.
If you mark yourself as temporarily closed, the impact is more noticeable. We have seen businesses in Llandudno and Colwyn Bay drop out of the map pack entirely during a temporary closure, and it took them a week or more to climb back after reopening. For a two-week holiday, that could mean three weeks or more of reduced visibility.
If you do nothing at all, leave your profile showing normal hours while you are away, the risk is different but equally damaging. Customers call, you do not answer, they leave negative reviews or simply move on to a competitor. Your response rate drops, which Google does track. And every missed enquiry is lost revenue you cannot get back.
The clear winner is special hours. Use them every single time.
Preparing Your Profile Before You Go
A good holiday routine for your GBP takes about fifteen minutes before you leave. Here is the checklist we recommend to every tradesperson we work with:
One week before:
Set your special hours for every day you will be away. Double-check the dates. getting one wrong means showing as open when you are not, or closed when you are back.
Update your business description to mention your return date if you want to be extra clear. Something like "Back taking bookings from 15 August" at the top of your description works well. Remove it when you return.
Schedule a couple of Google Posts to publish while you are away. A post saying "We are on annual leave until [date]. get in touch to book for when we return" keeps your profile active and sets expectations. Google rewards profiles that post regularly, so having something go live while you are away maintains that activity signal.
The day before:
Turn on an auto-response for your Google Business Profile messages if you have messaging enabled. Something simple: "Thanks for getting in touch. We are currently on annual leave and will be back on [date]. We will reply to your message as soon as we return." This prevents the frustration of unanswered messages and protects your response rate.
Update your voicemail with a similar message. Mention your return date and suggest they leave a message or text.
If you have a website, and you absolutely should, as your website directly impacts your GBP ranking, add a small banner or notice about your holiday dates.
When you get back:
Remove the special hours (or they will clear automatically if the dates have passed). Update your business description back to normal. Reply to every message and missed call within twenty-four hours. Post a "We are back" Google Post to signal activity.
Update your special hours for all bank holidays at the start of each year. Add a Google Post explaining your holiday schedule so customers know what to expect.
Should You Ask Someone Else to Cover?
If you work with a partner, an employee, or another trusted tradesperson, having someone monitor your profile while you are away is ideal. They do not need access to your GBP. they just need to answer the phone and respond to messages.
For a heating engineer or gas engineer, this is particularly important during winter holidays. Emergency calls come in regardless of your schedule, and having someone available, even if it is just to triage and book for your return, keeps your reputation intact.
If you are a sole trader with nobody to cover, that is fine. The auto-response and voicemail approach works well. Just make sure people know when to expect a reply.
The Mistake That Costs Rankings
The single worst thing you can do is mark your business as permanently closed. It sounds obvious, but we have seen it happen. A roofer in North Wales once accidentally selected "Permanently closed" instead of "Temporarily closed" and it took nearly a month to fully recover his map pack position after correcting it.
If you are ever unsure about any setting on your profile, run a free audit with us before making changes. It takes two minutes to check and could save you weeks of lost visibility.
Plan Ahead and Protect What You Have Built
Your Google Business Profile works for you around the clock. Reviews build trust while you sleep. Your categories and services tell Google what you do even when you are not working. Posts keep your profile fresh.
All of that keeps ticking along nicely through a planned holiday. as long as you set it up properly before you go. Special hours, auto-responses, a couple of scheduled posts, and a clear return date. That is all it takes.
Enjoy your holiday. Your profile will be fine.