Setting AI phone holiday hours for your restaurant

Start with the exact message a caller needs. Do not make people guess whether you are open for pickup, delivery, or dine-in.

Use a simple structure:

1. Say the holiday or special date.
2. Say whether you are open or closed.
3. If open, say the hours.
4. If closed, say when you reopen.
5. If callers can still place pickup orders by phone at another time, say that clearly.

Example script line: "Thanks for calling Mama Rosa’s. We’re closed today for the holiday and will reopen tomorrow at 11 a.m."

If you are open with shorter hours, keep it short: "Thanks for calling Tony’s Pizza. We’re open today from 12 to 8 p.m. for pickup and delivery."

A good holiday greeting should answer the first question before the caller asks it. That matters because a lot of holiday calls are about one thing only: are you open right now? If your phone host can also answer address, parking, and menu questions, that helps reduce extra calls, but the holiday hours message still needs to be the first thing people hear. You can also keep a small backup note for the counter staff so everyone says the same thing.

Do not rewrite your regular hours just because of one holiday. Keep your normal schedule intact, then add a special holiday message or temporary closure for the specific date.

A practical workflow:

• Leave your standard hours alone.
• Add the holiday date and special message.
• Double-check the reopening date and time.
• Test the greeting from an outside phone.
• Remove or end the holiday message once business returns to normal.

Worked example: say your regular hours are 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. every day. For Thanksgiving, you close at 4 p.m. and reopen Friday at 11 a.m. Your caller-facing message should say that, not just "short hours." Keep the reopening time exact so the next caller does not have to ask twice.

If you use ROAL, the owner can paste the restaurant website, Google Maps link, or Name, City at /try, and ROAL reads public hours and address information from what is already posted. That is helpful for setup, but holiday changes still belong in your operating routine. A short owner checklist works best:

• Update the special hours.
• Confirm the phone greeting.
• Tell the shift lead.
• Test one live call.

This is the kind of task that takes five minutes when it is written down and an hour when it is handled from memory.

When you are closed, the message should be calm, direct, and useful. Do not overtalk it. Closed callers usually want one of three things: hours, a future order, or a message to staff.

A strong closed-day message can sound like this: "Thanks for calling Bella’s Deli. We’re closed for the holiday and reopen Friday at 10 a.m. If you need to leave a catering request or a message for the manager, please stay on the line."

That last sentence matters because some calls should still reach staff. ROAL can hand catering, complaints, allergy-sensitive questions, and manager requests to staff with a summary, which is helpful when a holiday caller has a special need. For a deli, pizza shop, or family restaurant, this keeps the phone from becoming a dead end.

Use this quick closed-message checklist:

• State that you are closed.
• Give the reopen time.
• Offer a path for urgent staff requests.
• Keep it under 20 to 25 seconds.
• Do not promise service you cannot provide.

If a caller asks about the menu while you are closed, a phone host should still be able to answer basic questions from the live menu and public pages. But if the request is tricky, like a custom catering order or a late holiday exception, it should go to staff with a summary instead of guessing.

Holiday hours are only part of the setup. You also need to decide where the call goes when the line is busy or unanswered.

Common options in the US include forwarding all calls, forwarding unanswered calls, or forwarding busy calls. The exact codes depend on your carrier or phone system, so always confirm with them and test with a real call. As a rough reference, many landlines and some carriers use 72 to forward all calls and 73 to turn it off. On some GSM carriers, *21number# forwards all calls and ##21# turns it off; *61number# forwards unanswered calls and *67number# forwards busy calls. Verizon Wireless commonly uses 72 / 73, and *71 for busy/no-answer forwarding. Business VoIP systems usually set forwarding in the web portal.

Use this decision table:

For owners, the practical rule is simple: the forwarding setup should match the day. On a holiday lunch rush, you may want the phone host to catch overflow. On a closed day, you may want all calls routed to the holiday message. Then test one call from a cell phone and one from a landline if you have both available.

Holiday hours should make it easy for callers to place a valid order, not just hear a recording.

A phone host should only take orders during the hours you actually want them. If you are closing early, it should quote a ready time that fits the schedule. If an item is sold out, it should not offer it. If the caller asks about payment, it should not take card numbers over the phone; payment happens at pickup or however the restaurant already takes it.

Example you can swap for your own numbers:

• Your kitchen closes at 8 p.m.
• Your last pickup slot is 7:30 p.m.
• Your average order is $28.
• On a holiday, you may want the host to stop accepting new pickup orders after 7:15 p.m. so the kitchen can finish on time.

A useful phone line is: "We can take that for 7:30 pickup. If you want anything added, please tell me now and I’ll note it for the kitchen."

This is where a clean ticket matters. ROAL sends a clean ticket to the kitchen screen, which helps the kitchen see items, sizes, modifiers, and notes without having to re-listen to the call. If you already run a busy takeout counter, that can save a lot of holiday back-and-forth. It also helps when callers speak another language, because the host speaks the caller’s language and confirms the order back before ending the call.

For a small shop, the best plan is not complicated. It is repeatable. One person should own the hours update, one person should know where the calls go, and the kitchen should know the cutoff time.

Use this simple holiday workflow:

1. Decide open, closed, or limited hours.
2. Update the holiday message.
3. Confirm forwarding with your carrier or phone system.
4. Tell staff the cutoff for pickup and delivery.
5. Test a real call before service starts.

If you want a simple script for the counter, use this: "We’re on holiday hours today. Pickup ends at 7:30, and the phone will say our closing time if you call after that."

Owners who use ROAL can keep the normal menu, hours, and address in one place, then make holiday changes in their operating routine as needed. The dashboard also gives you call history with transcripts and recordings, which is useful when someone says, "I called earlier and was told something different."

For owners comparing tools, the main question is cost. Many AI phone tools charge a fixed monthly fee per location even when no orders come in, and human answering services usually bill per minute or per call. ROAL uses per completed phone order pricing, with no monthly fee, no setup fee, and no per-minute fee. That makes holiday surges easier to think through because you are not paying for idle time in the same way.