Feature · Special opening hours
One date, its own hours: special opening times for your restaurant
Your week is settled: lunch Tuesday to Sunday, dinner Wednesday to Saturday. Then December arrives with five dates that are nothing like it. A special day changes those dates, one at a time, and leaves the week you worked out exactly where it was.
A special day changes what can be booked from now on. Bookings already made for that date stay in the diary until you deal with them.
What you set for a date
Closed all day
Nobody can book that date online, and the host stand shows it closed. The kitchen's day off after New Year, the Monday you lose to a boiler.
Open, at different hours
Up to three sets of hours on the one date: a long lunch and nothing after, or an early sitting and a late one with a gap for the turnaround. The last seating is set an hour before each close, so the kitchen is not taking a table at five to.
A name for the staff
“Christmas Eve”, “Private hire — Hendersons”, “Refit”. Guests never see the name; the team does, so nobody on the stand wonders why Thursday looks odd.
Whatever you set for that date replaces the regular week on that date only. The day before and the day after run on your usual services, so there is nothing to put back on the twenty-seventh.
The calendar that needs it, this winter
The dates below come from the UK government's bank holiday list and Citizens Information in Ireland, both read on 16 October 2026. They are the reason this screen exists.
- Ireland's October bank holiday falls on Monday 26 October 2026. If you open on Mondays only for lunch, that Monday may want a dinner.
- St Andrew's Day is a bank holiday in Scotland on Monday 30 November 2026; nowhere else in the UK.
- Christmas Eve is not a bank holiday anywhere in the UK or Ireland, but it is the date most restaurants change: lunch only, or one early dinner sitting.
- Christmas Day is Friday 25 December 2026 — closed for most, a set lunch for some.
- Boxing Day falls on a Saturday in 2026, so in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland the bank holiday moves to Monday 28 December. In Ireland St Stephen's Day is a public holiday on 26 December itself.
- In Scotland, 2 January becomes a bank holiday on Monday 4 January 2027; St Patrick's Day, 17 March 2027, is a bank holiday in Northern Ireland and a public holiday in Ireland.
Good Friday is a bank holiday in the UK but, as Citizens Information points out, not a public holiday in Ireland — worth knowing if you trade on both sides of the border.
Setting Christmas Eve, in four steps
- 1
Look at the diary for the date first
Anyone already booked for the hours you are about to close stays booked. Ring them, or move them to the sitting you are keeping, before you change anything.
- 2
Settings, then Special days
Add a special day, pick 24 December, call it Christmas Eve.
- 3
Choose closed, or open at these hours
Say 12:00 to 16:00 and 17:30 to 21:00. Each range gets its last seating an hour before its close, so the 20:00 table finishes on time.
- 4
Save, and check it from the guest's side
Open your own booking page for that date: only the new times are offered. The host stand shows the same day.
Not every exception is a special day
Three tools look alike from a distance. Use the one that matches what is really happening.
The whole restaurant changes for a date
A special day. Christmas, a bank holiday, a private hire of the entire place, a week shut for a refit (one special day per date).
One room closes
Close that room for the date with a reason — “terrace: private party” — and the rest of the restaurant keeps taking bookings as normal.
An extra service for a season
A December lunch on weekdays, or a summer terrace service, set as a service with dates it runs from and to. It adds to the day rather than replacing it.
Questions about special opening hours
Does closing a date cancel the bookings on it?
No. It stops new bookings for the hours you closed. The guests already in the diary are yours to ring, which is why the first step is to look at the date before you change it.
Can I set a special day for next year already?
Yes. A special day is a date, so you can add next Christmas Eve today and it waits until then. The list shows the special days ahead of you.
We are only hiring out the function room. Is that a special day?
No — close that room for the date, with the reason, and the dining room keeps selling. A special day is for when the whole restaurant keeps different hours.
Will Google show my holiday hours?
Not from Slotora. Your opening hours on Google are set in your own Business Profile; the special day changes what your booking page and host stand offer.
Next December, set once
We e-mail you once, when Slotora for restaurants opens in the UK or Ireland.
Tell me when it opens