Google has finally added holiday hours to Google Maps

After many years of people trusting Google Maps far too much and accidentally driving across town to a store that ended up being closed, Google has finally added the ability for companies to designate holiday hours on Google Maps. Whenever you open up the Maps app and click that little drop-down to see hours for the week, you’ll now see a designated section for these special hours. And if a company hasn’t provided these, you’ll see a warning suggesting that the normal hours might not be right…

Google’s official Maps blog has it:

Ever trekked all the way to your favorite restaurant just to realize it’s closed for the holidays? Well, we have. Now Google Maps and Google Search will help you avoid that common holiday mistake. We’ve added holiday hours to Maps and Search, so when you search for a business and a major holiday is within the next seven days, you’ll see whether the business has a special holiday schedule. Not only will you avoid showing up to find the doors locked, but you’ll save time by not having to call the business or check the website for hours.

I’m definitely not the only one that has been asking for this feature for years. Google Maps’ hours information is probably one of the number one reasons I use the app, and it proves useful for most of the year. But on days that aren’t normal business days, I’ve been caught trying to open a locked door on more than one occasion. Over time, I’ve learned to always check before I go. Hopefully, with this new feature, holiday hours will be just as accurate and useful and the normal ones are.