Updating temporary opening hours - delay?

Google Maps tips & tricks
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Is anyone having success when adding temporary opening hours for businesses currently?

Many of the UK supermarkets that usually open for 24 hours are now opening 6am until 10pm but Google seem unwilling to trust me (lvl 9) to add these temporary changes.

Presumably it’s pending checks from fellow local guides / Google themselves but 48 hours later nothing has changed and people are getting annoyed with “Google” for not having the right information.

I was just curious if anyone else is seeing similar.

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@turbotapeworm Hi!

Thanks for your posting here and I can understand what you talking about.

It would be better you read More transparency for your edits on Google Maps and this point -

''The date your edit was submitted

We make a decision on 80% of edits submitted within three days. However, some edits can remain pending for up to 90 days while we collect feedback from the Local Guides community. With the date now visible, it will help you to get an idea of when you can expect your edit to be reviewed.‘’

Another great support regarding your query is Why is my edit status “Pending” or “Not Applied”? where clearly have explained that -

‘‘After you add an edit to Google Maps, it’s reviewed by either local operators, an automated system, or both to ensure the information is accurate and follows our guidelines.’’

I hope you will read this …

Happy Guiding!

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Hi @turbotapeworm , thank you for trying to update the opening hours of the businesses.

BTW, if a business is claimed, it will be really difficult for a Local Guide to change the opening hours. Opening hours in any case are not “temporary”, it means that we cannot provide a data for the ours to change back to the “normal” opening time, even if, living in Italy, I know perfectly what you mean.

In any case, Google My business already invited the businesses effected by closure, or change of the opening hours, to update their listing on Google maps.

Here the communication: Businesses affected by COVID-19: Provide customers with updated info

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Hi @turbotapeworm ,

Thanks for sharing your concern with us and for trying to keep the information on the maps as accurate as possible.

As @ErmesT mentioned to you the business listings on Google Maps are invited to check and update their working hours. I’ve just marked his answer as solution.

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I’m not entirely sure I see the response above, helpful as it is, as a solution to this or a the kind of answer needed for this specific scenario but appreciate you both responding in such a timely fashion.

The point I’m trying to raise is that as a local guide with a solid reputation and history of visiting locations I’m trying to edit (but not being the owner of them) it’s somewhat frustrating to see temporary edits to opening times being left / ignored in a time when these things are important to the wider community.

I have people shouting at each other on local Facebook groups over opening times for supermarkets because Google says 24 hours but then someone tells them they are temporarily open 6am until 10pm or adjusting times based on being part of a vulnerable group and so on.

We have businesses closing up for 2 weeks but their hours still say they are open, a lot of business owners aren’t familiar with things like we are and I want to help them by doing temporary edits for them.

You state in your approved solution that “Opening hours in any case are not “temporary”, it means that we cannot provide a data for the ours to change back to the “normal” opening time, even if, living in Italy, I know perfectly what you mean” - however we have a facility to edit open hours and use the “Add or remove special hours” option to set specific opening times for certain dates.

In the example I tried this on I set the new temporary hours for one week knowing that this was accurate, at the end of that week the hours would go back to the normal ones stored in the listing previously, all automatic. If I then needed to extend the “special hours” based on communications from the business I could do that.

This is COVID-19 / Coronvirus related and changing hour by hour in some locales and I think it’s important that we, as local guides, can try and keep things as accurate as possible as quickly as possible.

Have Google sent out a note to all Google My Business entry owners telling them how to add / update temporary hours as I haven’t received anything recently for my business listing. If I, as a Local Guide, update special hours are Google actively forwarding a message to the owner of the listing to ask them to check and approve them? If not, I ask you why not?

Oddly I’m also seeing a strange influx of Q&A entries from (Owner) asking about temporary hours too, it’s a strange time!

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