How to announce a temporary closure on your website without losing customers
Whether it's a refit, a family emergency or the August break, a closure handled well costs you a few weeks, not your regulars. Keep the site up. Put a notice with exact dates at the top, stop bookings for the closed period, invite people to hear when you reopen, and on reopening day restore the version from before the closure.
Don't take the site down
Unpublishing the site during a closure is the instinct and the mistake. Regulars who check find nothing and assume you've gone for good, search engines may drop pages, and the people who'd happily wait have nowhere to leave their email. A clear notice on a working site does all the jobs a blank page can't.
What the notice should say
- The dates, with the day of the week: "Closed from Monday 3 February, reopening Saturday 22 February." If the end date is uncertain, say "reopening in late February" and update it when you know.
- The reason, in one line if you want to give one. "For a kitchen refit" invites curiosity; "for personal reasons" is enough when it's private.
- What still works: gift vouchers, online orders, phone messages, email replies within two days.
- What happens to existing bookings: "If you've booked during these dates, we've been in touch; if you haven't heard from us, please email."
- How to hear when you reopen: a sign-up.
The closure, step by step
- Contact everyone already booked in the closed period, from your own phone or email, before the notice goes up. Check the saved bookings in the project, and your connector's sheet or channel if you use one.
- Note the current version of the site in version history. That's your reopening site.
- Add the notice with a change request: "add a notice at the top of the home page: closed for refurbishment from 3 to 21 February, reopening 22 February".
- Pause bookings. The booking calendar always offers the coming days and accepts dates up to 120 days ahead, so it would keep taking bookings for days you're shut. Remove it for the closure ("remove the booking calendar and say bookings reopen on 10 February"). If you're closed only briefly, you can leave it and decline bookings that fall in the gap, but removing it is clearer.
- Add a sign-up for reopening news ("add a newsletter sign-up: hear when we reopen"). With Kit or Mailchimp connected, sign-ups join your list; Mailchimp asks them to confirm first.
- Update hours elsewhere: Google Business Profile, map listings and booking directories. These are outside Anticode and are where many people check first.
- Run the release checklist, publish, and read the home page on a phone.
Reopening day
Restore the version you noted before the closure and publish it. The calendar, the hours and the everyday home page come back together, and the closure version stays in history if you need it again. If you changed anything else during the closure, such as new prices after the refit, make those changes after the restore. Then email the reopening list from your email tool, since Anticode doesn't email subscribers, and update the outside listings back to normal hours.
What goes wrong
| Problem | Fix |
|---|---|
| Bookings arrive for closed dates | The calendar wasn't removed. Remove it, contact those people, and offer alternatives |
| Search results still show normal hours | Update Google Business Profile; the website alone doesn't change map listings |
| The reopening date slips | Update the notice the day you know, and tell the list |
| The notice is still up a week after reopening | Put the restore in your diary with the reopening date |
How you know it was handled well
Nobody turned up to a locked door because of the website. Everyone with a booking heard from you. The reopening list has names on it. On the first day back, bookings resume through the calendar, and the visits by source in your dashboard pick up as people see the news.
Limits
There's no setting to pause the booking calendar for certain dates, no scheduled publishing for the notice or the reopening, and no emails to customers or subscribers from Anticode. Bookings have no calendar sync, so blocking time in your own diary doesn't reach the site. See updating opening hours, seasonal website refreshes and the booking calendar.
Questions people ask
Should I take my website down while we're closed?
No. Keep it up with a dated notice, so regulars know you're coming back and can sign up to hear when.
How do I stop online bookings during a closure?
Remove the booking calendar with a change request for the closure, and restore it by restoring the earlier version when you reopen.
What's the quickest way to announce a temporary closure on your website?
One change request adding a notice with the dates at the top of the home page, then publish.