I’ve seen a number of places on the map that have a scheduled opening date. These listings might include most or all of the other information that a guide can add to any new listing. On my end, however, the opening date can be set only in the past, not in the future. Is the option to add a scheduled opening date available only to business owners? To admins? Or is there something else I’m missing?
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Hi @DaveCook
It is clear that users should not add a place when there are more than 2 weeks to opening and there is not even possible to select a far future opening date on Google Maps.
But business owners can define a future opening date up to 90 days.
And for (still) very rare cases, Google’s automated system may read data from other resources and show some phrases about the usage or opening date of a business.
If you put the link to some examples, we can check the situation better.
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Hi @DaveCook
I agree with @Amiran that setting a future opening date is only available to the owners of the businesses.
I don’t think we can do it even one day before (and certainly not 14 days), @Amiran . Or maybe I misunderstood your point.
Cheers
Morten
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At least this was applicable from the old days of Map Maker when I read about it in some official resources, and I didn’t see any changes about this till now. But from what you told, now I have doubts about the situation to be applicable 
. Let’s share any guidelines we find in this case.
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See
Cheers
Morten
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Yes @MortenCopenhagen this is about what business owners can do as I mentioned.
But about when we as users can add prior to the opening…
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You can’t find any because we can’t set a future opening date. 
I think it makes sense.
Cheers
Morten
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I can’t find it now because the support center of Maps changed/moved several times during these years.
Anyway, the last thing is applicable and I like to find the last exact statement in this case. This will help me with future suggestions.
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Fortunately, one record was available on the Web Archive about what I told.
This is last thing I knew. Still, I’m in searching for any changes/new official statements in this case.
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Very old stuff. If you start searching Maps Support forum and Connect this has been discussed several times. And as I recall the answers are all the same: only owners of claimed businesses can set a future opening date.
All the best
Morten
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@MortenCopenhagen , @Amiran , thank you both for your replies. Yes, I’d imagined that only a business owner could add a scheduled opening date. Here in New York City, it’s a notation that I don’t recall seeing before this year.
What I have seen, especially in the past couple of years, are news businesses added to the map, and listed as open, before they have opened. Most such places include little business detail, and it’s likely that local guides are adding them for the sake of the points, and listing them as open because no better option is available.
When I come across such a listing, I suggest an edit – temporarily closed – but to me this isn’t a fully satisfactory response.
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You mentioned marking unopened d businesses as temporarily closed is a not fully satisfactory solution. I agree.
You could use “Does not exist here” which if approved will wipe the place from the database.
But I would need to consider the circumstances carefully before doing so.
Cheers
Morten
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Hi @DaveCook
Do you mean that the opening date is visible on the map for such places and shows a future date? Or do you mean that some users added places that are not still open, on the map? A link to one/some examples is appreciated.
Not only Local Guides can add/edit places and not all users (Local Guides and others) are too accurate to pay attention to such things. If a place is famous enough in an area, even before the opening date, you will see some users added it to the map.
But they add them without setting the Opening Date on the map and the map shows it like an ordinary open place. These kinds of places are very rare on the map. I see this situation mostly about well-known places, and also about real estate agent users (spammers) who add not-open buildings to sell long before the opening!
In such cases, personally, I check the real opening date and photos/reviews on that POI. If the place is well-known and the opening date is in the near future and/or it has valuable reviews/photos, I also mark it as “temporarily closed” because this could prevent adding repetitive points on the map, and also keeps the info like photos on the map.
But if it is not well-known and hasn’t valuable reviews/photos (like 3D models only) and the opening date is too far, I mark it as “doesn’t exist” or “misleading” based on the case.
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In a simple search here on Connect, I reached my old post that no one answered 
Anyway, after a while those amazing 5 years changed to today when we’re adding/editing a place. So, I consider this selection ability as a current official guideline in this case, like what you said at first we can’t “even 1 day before”. Thanks for reminding this.
To clarify, I mean that some users added places that are not still open to the map. I don’t have an example readily at hand, but typically this involves a business (such as a restaurant, bakery, food market, or the like, my particular area of interest) that has received attention in the local press. Often the added place includes apparently accurate information, such as the address, telephone, website, and even photos, but it also includes the inaccurate information that the business is already open to the public.
In the absence of an option, for non-business-owners like me, to mark such places as not yet open or scheduled to open, I almost always mark them as temporarily closed. I do this both to preserve the apparently accurate information already posted and to lessen the chance that someone will add a duplicate place to the map. I don’t recall that I’ve ever needed to reopen such a place; someone always seems to beat me to it.
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Thanks @DaveCook
I got the point. You’re also mentioning what I told above and I also expressed my solution for that.
Although, I agree with you that it would be good if we have a special option for such situations to help AI understand it, too.
You can request this as an idea in another post, with clear expressions. In-app feedback will be good, too.
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