Close the office on public holidays

When public holidays or company shutdown days occur, meeting rooms and desks should not be reserved. Configuring holidays on a booking hours schedule closes the space for the entire date, overriding standard weekday operating hours.

1. Open the Holidays page

Holidays are configured within the schedule editor, alongside standard weekly timetables.

1. In the admin console, navigate to Booking hours.
2. Select the schedule you want to modify and click Edit.
3. In the editor’s left navigation rail, click Holidays (the second page, between Settings and Suggested time slots).

The page contains two sections: Public calendar (for auto-syncing national calendars) and Manual input (for custom dates or imported .ics files). You can use either or both together.

2. Sync a national public holiday calendar

1. Under Public calendar, select the countries whose official national holidays apply to this office location.
2. Click Select public calendar and load.

Imported dates appear in the Auto-synced public holidays list with a Synced badge. The system periodically refreshes these feeds to capture upcoming years and official calendar changes automatically.

Note that national sync feeds only include official nationwide public holidays. Regional bank holidays or industry-specific observances should be added via manual input.

3. Import company holidays from an .ics file

For corporate shutdowns, extra company holidays, or regional observances not included in national calendars:

1. Switch to the Manual input tab.
2. Click Import (.ics) and upload your calendar file.
3. Select the language of the event titles, then choose whether to Merge with existing dates or Overwrite existing manual entries.

Importing an .ics file modifies only your manual date list; it does not alter auto-synced national feeds.

4. Add custom dates manually

To add individual closure dates directly:

1. On the Manual input tab, enter the date.
2. Enter the Holiday name for each supported display language.
3. Click add to save the date.

5. Enforce holiday closures in your booking policy

Adding holidays to a schedule defines when the space is closed, but your booking policy determines whether users can book outside of standard operating hours:

1. In Booking policy, select the policy governing these resources.
2. Ensure Allow booking out of business hours is turned off.

If out-of-hours booking is permitted, the hardware panel displays that the office is closed for a holiday, but users will still be able to create reservations.

6. Verify holiday closures

To test your setup:

1. Attempt to book a room or desk on a configured holiday date.
2. The system should reject the reservation with a notification stating that the requested time is outside business hours.
3. Check the room panel display: on configured holidays, the panel displays the holiday name rather than standard daily status.

Holiday dates are evaluated based on the schedule’s configured time zone.

Additional considerations

• Half-day closures: Holidays apply to the entire 24-hour day. If your office closes only in the afternoon (for example, on Christmas Eve), adjust the specific day’s hours on the weekly timetable rather than marking it as a holiday.
• Multiple schedules: Booking hours, visitor check-in hours, and service desk hours maintain independent schedules and holiday lists.
• Suggested time slots: Fixed time slot rules automatically omit holiday dates.
• Holiday quota pricing: Quota policies support distinct holiday rates. If your organization charges different quota credits on holidays, configure those rates in your quota policy.