Business Hours and Holiday Routing
AI Phone System · Answer and route
Business hours and holiday routing lets your phone system know when you are open, when you are closed, and which days are holidays. Calls follow a different path for each: ring your team while you are open, go to voicemail or the AI Receptionist after hours, follow your holiday plan on the dates you choose. No one has to switch anything by hand.
What it does
You set a schedule and the phone system follows it. Time frames can cover your normal week, specific dates, holidays, or any custom pattern you need. A schedule can apply to the whole company or to a single user. When the clock hits closing time, call handling changes on its own.
That removes the two classic failure points: someone forgets to turn on night mode, or someone forgets to turn it off. Late-night callers stop hearing endless ringing, and morning callers stop hearing the closed message because nobody flipped the phones back.
The payoff is a consistent experience for every caller. Open means a fast answer from your team. Closed means a clear path: leave a message that lands in your email, or talk to the AI Receptionist, which answers in English and Spanish.
How it works in Voxtell
Setup is white glove. Our team sits down with you, maps your hours, your holiday calendar, and any exceptions, then configures the schedules with you. If your Saturday hours differ from your weekday hours, or one person keeps different hours than the rest of the office, we build that in.
Once live, your phones behave differently when you are open, closed, or on holiday, with no manual switching. During open hours, calls can ring your team, your auto attendant, or a call queue. After hours, you choose the path: voicemail to email, or the AI Receptionist, which is included with 100 AI minutes per account each month and speaks English and Spanish.
When your hours change, call us. Our in-house support team in Orlando adjusts the schedules with you, whether that is a new holiday, a seasonal shift, or a one-day closure.
How businesses use it
Restaurants and pizzerias
A pizzeria that closes Mondays and shuts down late at night sets that once. Monday callers and late-night callers reach voicemail or the AI Receptionist instead of ringing into an empty dining room, and on Thanksgiving the holiday schedule takes over automatically.
Pet grooming and retail
Grooming stores like Woof Gang Bakery and Grooming run on store hours. When the shop is open, calls ring the front counter. After close, pet parents can still leave a message or talk to the AI Receptionist instead of hanging up and calling a competitor.
Realty
Real estate offices like The Keyes Company keep office hours, but agents do not. Per-user schedules let the main office line close in the evening while agents who show homes on nights and weekends keep their own hours.
County health
Government offices close on the county holiday calendar, and callers do not always know it. Load the full year of holidays once and every closure routes calls correctly, with no one driving in to switch the phones.
RV resorts
Front desk hours often shift with the season. Custom time frames handle a summer schedule and a winter schedule, and guests who call after the desk closes still reach a clear closed-hours path instead of dead air.
Vehicle wrap shops
The shop floor is loud and the team is on vehicles all day. Calls ring during business hours, then evening and weekend callers go to voicemail to email, so a quote request left on Sunday is in your inbox Monday morning.
Best practices
- Load your entire holiday calendar for the year in one sitting. Our team configures it with you, so you never scramble the night before a closure.
- Give after-hours callers a real destination. Voicemail to email or the AI Receptionist beats endless ringing, and both come with your plan.
- Have your closed-hours message tell callers when you reopen. It cuts repeat calls to a line nobody is staffing.
- Use per-user schedules for people whose hours differ from the storefront, like owners, sales reps, or anyone who works evenings.
- Treat recurring exceptions as schedule entries, not phone-unplugging events. Lunch closures, early Fridays, and staff meetings all fit a custom time frame.
- Review your schedules when seasons change. One call to our Orlando support team and we adjust them with you.
Common questions
Related features
All featuresAI Receptionist
Answers every call 24/7, handles common questions, and routes the rest to a person.
Auto Attendant
A menu that greets callers and sends them to the right team without a receptionist.
Call Routing Rules
Decide exactly where calls go: by team, time, caller, or situation.
See Business Hours and Holiday Routing working for your business
Book a demo and we will set it up around your actual call flow. White glove, from the first hello.