Holiday Hours Messages for Service Businesses (Examples)

Holidays are tricky for service businesses. The office closes, but people still lock themselves out on Thanksgiving, pipes still freeze over New Year's, and a car still dies on the Fourth of July. If your holiday messages are vague or out of date, callers either don't know what to do or assume you're open when you're not.

This guide gives you holiday messages for each place customers will look: your phone greeting, an automatic text, your website and your Google Business Profile. The examples use a locksmith, a trade where holiday lockouts are common, but they adapt to any service business.

Decide your holiday plan before you write anything

A holiday message is only as clear as the plan behind it. For each holiday, decide:

1. Are you open, closed, or on emergency-only?
2. What counts as an emergency on that day? (Whatever you decide, tell callers: if a child or pet is locked in a car, call 911 first.) For a locksmith: a lockout with a child or pet inside, a home that can't be secured after a break-in, a car lockout in an unsafe spot. A rekey or a new deadbolt can wait.
3. Who's on call, and how do callers reach them?
4. What does a holiday call cost? If you charge a holiday rate, callers should hear that before you dispatch.
5. When do regular hours resume?

Write the answers down and share them with everyone who answers the phone. Then write the messages.

The four parts of a good holiday message

Every version below follows the same structure:

1. Who you are (business name)
2. What's different (closed / limited hours / emergency only, with dates)
3. What to do in an emergency (and what to do if it's dangerous)
4. When you'll be back (exact day and time)

If a message is missing any of these, callers will have questions you're not there to answer.

Voicemail greetings

Closed, with emergency service:

"Thanks for calling [Company]. Our office is closed for [Thanksgiving] on [Thursday, November 26]. If you're locked out and need help today, press 1 or call [on-call number] and our on-call locksmith will call you back. Holiday service rates apply. For anything else, leave your name and number and we'll call you back on [Friday morning]. If you're in danger, or a child or pet is locked in a car, call 911 first."

Closed, no emergency service:

"Thanks for calling [Company]. We're closed for [the holiday] from [date] through [date] and back on [day] at [time]. Leave your name, number and what you need, and we'll call you back when we reopen. If this is an emergency, please call 911 or another local service. Happy holidays."

Saying plainly that you aren't taking emergency calls is kinder than letting someone wait all day for a callback that won't come.

Reduced hours:

"Thanks for calling [Company]. On [Christmas Eve] we're open until [2 p.m.]. If you're calling after that, leave a message and we'll call back on [December 26] — or for an urgent lockout, press 1 to reach our on-call locksmith."

Keep greetings under about 30 seconds. Put the most important instruction (emergency or danger) early, since callers may hang up early. The business voicemail greeting generator can help you produce several versions at once.

Auto-reply texts

If your phone system texts back missed calls, change the text for the holiday too. Otherwise it may promise "we'll call you back within the hour" on a day nobody's working.

Emergency service available:

Hi, this is [Company]. We're closed today for [holiday], but we do handle emergency lockouts. Reply LOCKOUT with your location (ZIP or cross streets) and our on-call tech will call you. Holiday rates apply. Back to regular hours [day].

Closed:

Hi, this is [Company]. We're closed for [holiday] and back on [day] at [time]. Reply with what you need and we'll call you then. If anyone is in danger, call 911.

For more templates, see our missed-call text-back templates.

Website banner

One line at the top of your homepage, with the dates:

Holiday hours: Closed [Dec 25] and [Jan 1]. Emergency lockout service available — call [number]. Regular hours resume [Dec 26].

Remember to remove it afterward. A Christmas banner still up in February tells visitors nobody's minding the site.

Google Business Profile special hours

Many customers check your hours on Google Maps rather than your website, so update this one first. Google calls them "special hours." Based on Google's help article, the process is:

1. Open your Business Profile and choose Edit profile, then Hours.
2. Next to Special hours, select the edit option.
3. Pick the date (Google often suggests upcoming holidays) and either mark it Closed or enter the hours you'll be open.
4. Save.

Two details from the same article that trip people up:

• Special hours only show if your regular hours are set to "Open with main hours."
• A single set of special hours can't run more than 24 hours. If you're covering overnight, split it into two entries on either side of midnight.

If you're closed but taking emergency calls, it's usually clearer to list yourself as closed and explain emergency service in a Google post and in your greeting, rather than listing hours you aren't actually staffing.

Examples for specific holidays

The structure stays the same; the details change.

Thanksgiving (locksmith, emergency only):

"[Company] is closed for Thanksgiving. Locked out? Our on-call locksmith is available for emergency lockouts today — press 1 or call [number]. Holiday rates apply. Regular hours resume Friday at 8 a.m."

Christmas Eve and Day (closed both days):

"We're closed December 24 and 25 so our team can be with their families. We're back December 26 at 8 a.m. For emergencies, please call 911 or another local service. Merry Christmas from all of us at [Company]."

New Year's (reduced hours):

"On December 31 we're open until 3 p.m. We're closed January 1 and back January 2 at 8 a.m. For urgent lockouts on New Year's Day, press 1."

Fourth of July:

"[Company] is closed [Saturday], July 4. Our on-call tech is available for emergency lockouts — press 1. Back to regular hours Monday."

The free holiday hours message generator creates matching versions for voicemail, text and your website from one set of answers, so all your channels say the same thing.

A pre-holiday checklist

A week before each holiday:

• Plan decided: open, closed or emergency-only, and who's on call
• Holiday rate decided and written into the on-call script
• Google special hours updated
• Voicemail greeting recorded
• Auto-reply text updated
• Website banner posted
• Reminder set to switch everything back afterward

The day after:

• Greeting, text and banner back to normal
• Holiday calls returned, in the order received
• Notes on what to change next year

When holiday calls need an answer, not a recording

A recording can't tell you whether a caller is a child-locked-in-the-car emergency or someone asking about rekeying next week. If you'd rather the holiday calls get answered without anyone sitting by the phone, DIPAZE's AI receptionist picks up after about 15 seconds of ringing, in English, Spanish or Portuguese. It asks what's going on, gets the ZIP code or city and one locksmith-specific question, and texts you a summary so you can decide whether to go out. It doesn't quote prices. If someone is in danger, it tells them to call 911. Plans start at $29/month with a 28-day free trial. See AI receptionist for locksmiths.

Sources

• Google Business Profile Help: Set special hours