Hours Are Going Away for Your Google Business Profile

This is due to a recent change in Google’s policy regarding businesses listed as an apartment building. Even if your hours are not affected now, they will be in the near future.

We understand the importance of your Google Business Profile and its impact on local SEO. That’s why we are working together with our partner Reputation.com to keep you up to date on the latest information and recommendations regarding this major change.

See below for the latest information regarding this policy update and what the recommended options are. We will be keeping this post updated with the latest information and recommendations from Google. If you have questions regarding your Google Business Profile listing, reach out to your customer success representative or support. Our team will be happy to help you navigate through this major change.

Summary:

Google has recently changed how Google Maps displays apartment building operating hours. Going forward, apartment buildings should not show business hours, since they are in theory open 24 hours. 

• Change Description: 
  Historically, Google has allowed “apartment building” listings to update their business hours freely, so that the management of the building can flag when the building is open for visits. Google has recently changed this behavior. According to Google, “apartment building” listings are not expected to be able to update their operating hours anymore. 

• According to Google: 
  “Per policy, hotels, apartment buildings and other lodging cannot have business hours as they are considered businesses with no set opening or closing times. Therefore, we are unable to update the business hours, and the hours must be removed from your other apartment listing(s)”
• Google has updated their guidelines here, you can find it under “Business Hours”.

• Options available:
  
  
• Recommended option: Change the Google listing primary category to "apartment complex" and set "apartment building" as the secondary category. This will allow you to update your hours while still keeping the "apartment building" category.

• Secondary option: Change the Google listing primary category from “apartment building” to one of the following. This will not only impact Google, but also the other directories (Facebook, Bing, Apple, etc.).
• Apartment rental agency
• Property management company
• Condominium rental agency
  
  At this time, we do not recommend this option as it could have a significant impact on your local SEO and appearance in the local pack. See FAQ for more details. 

• Tertiary Option: Create a second listing for your leasing office. At this time, we do not recommend this option due to the risk of the leasing office being flagged as a duplicate listing. We are hoping Google will release the “Department” feature for the Apartment category, but as of today, this option is not available. 

FAQ:

• When did Google roll this change out?
• We don’t know the exact timing. Google has removed the ability for most listings but not all.
  
  
• Do we know the ramifications of changing the listing category related to SEO?
• Changing the category directly impacts what keywords Google considers a business most relevant for. So yes, there are ramifications.
  
  
• Is it fair to think that if you change your category to Apartment Rental Agency and if someone searches “apartments near me” your property may not show up? 
• Yes, that could happen. We would recommend keeping the category the same and using Posts and Q&A to try and put hour information on there.
  
  
• Are categories like "apartments" and "apartment complex" impacted by this change, or is the update specifically related to the "apartment building" category? 
• Initially, only "apartment building" listings seemed to be affected. However, apartment complexes are just as likely to be affected moving forward. There is no guarantee that a listing is not going to be affected if switched to another category. We don't know exactly what Google is rolling out in terms of changes, other than what they’ve publicly shared.
  

*Updated December 17, 2021