Why ChatGPT gets opening hours wrong, and how to catch it
The model answers from text it read months ago, and hours change by season, weekday and holiday. Here's what goes wrong and the quick way to check.
Aino team, 9 min read
Aino publishes this guide and is building a trip planning app of its own, launching in winter 2027. Every other app here is described from its own site and store listings, with prices dated.
Quick answer. ChatGPT gets opening hours wrong because it answers from text it was trained on, which stops at a cutoff date, and opening hours change by season, weekday and holiday. Unless it searches the web for that one answer, it's guessing from old pages. To catch it: open the place on Google Maps and read the hours for your exact weekday, open the official site for seasonal hours and last entry, and phone or email small operators for dates months away. Three minutes per place.
- Training data has a cutoff. OpenAI lists a knowledge cutoff for each model in its developer docs, for example 30 April 2026 for one current model (as of October 2026).
- No live data unless it searches. A plain answer is a memory of a web page, not a lookup.
- Hours move. Seasonal, weekday and holiday hours all differ, and the model often knows only one of them.
- Check Google Maps for the weekday, the official site for the season, and the phone for anything far out.
Does ChatGPT know if a place is closed?
Not the way a person who works there knows. A language model learns from a large pile of text up to a cutoff date, then answers from what it remembers. OpenAI publishes a knowledge cutoff for each of its models in its developer documentation. As of 13 October 2026, the current models listed there have cutoffs in April and May 2026 (OpenAI developer docs).
So if a café changed its hours in June, or closed for good in July, a model trained to April has no idea. It will describe the café as it last saw it, in the same confident tone it uses for everything.
Newer versions of ChatGPT can search the web. Web search in ChatGPT rolled out between October and December 2024 so that answers could include up to date information (Wikipedia, ChatGPT). That helps, with two catches. The model decides when to search, and it doesn't always do so for a single line in a long itinerary. And when it does search, it reads one or two pages, which may themselves be stale.
Google says the same thing about its own assistant. The Gemini Apps privacy notice states that large language model products, Gemini included, "can hallucinate and present inaccurate information as factual" (Google, Gemini Apps Privacy Hub).
Why are opening hours harder than places?
A place is one fact. Opening hours are many facts that change. Take Arktikum, the science museum in Rovaniemi. From March to November it's closed on Mondays and open 10 to 18 the rest of the week. From December to February it's open every day 10 to 18. On 24 December it's closed. Ticket sales stop 30 minutes before closing (Arktikum, as of October 2026).
That's four different true answers to "when is Arktikum open", depending on the date. A model that read a summer guide gives you the summer answer in January. It isn't lying. It just doesn't know which month you asked about, unless you told it, and even then it may not have the winter page in its memory.
Holidays add another layer. On Google, holiday hours are entered separately by the business as "special hours", and Google shows them only on those days (Google Business Profile Help). If the owner never entered them, even Google has only the regular hours. ChatGPT, working from older text, has less than that.
Then there are places that are really many places. Santa Claus Village in Rovaniemi is made up of more than 50 separate businesses, each with its own hours, and most extend them from late November to early January (Santa Claus Village FAQ). "Santa Claus Village is open 10 to 17" is the kind of sentence a model writes when it needs one number and has fifty.
ChatGPT says the restaurant is open. Three ways it can be closed
When people search "chatgpt restaurant closed", they usually mean one of three different problems. Each needs a different check.
Closed for good. The place shut after the model's training data was written. In the May 2024 test by SEO Travel, 24% of ChatGPT itineraries recommended a restaurant, café or attraction that had closed, temporarily or permanently (Travolution). Google Maps marks these "Permanently closed", so the one minute search catches it.
Closed that day. Open in general, shut on your weekday or on a public holiday. This is the most common one, and the model is bad at it because weekday closures are buried in the small print of a listing. The same test found 52% of itineraries put at least one visit outside opening hours.
Closed that season. A terrace restaurant that runs May to September, a museum on winter hours, a building shut for years of renovation. The Pergamonmuseum in Berlin is closed for renovation until 4 June 2027, with some halls shut into the 2030s (visitBerlin). A model that learned from older guidebooks still thinks it's a Tuesday morning stop.
How do you catch a wrong opening time?
You don't need to check everything. Check each place the plan depends on: anything with a fixed slot, anything far from your base, and anything you'd be upset to miss. Three minutes each.
Step 1: Google Maps, for the weekday
Search the place and expand the hours. Read the line for your actual weekday, not today's. Look for "Permanently closed" or "Temporarily closed" at the top of the listing. If your date is near a holiday, look for a holiday note. The hours shown come from the business, so they're usually right for regular weeks, and less often set for holidays.
Step 2: The official site, for the season
Open the operator's own site and find the hours page. This is where seasonal hours, last entry and closure notices live. Arktikum's page lists each season separately with its exceptions, which is exactly the detail a chatbot flattens into one sentence. If the site has a news bar at the top, read it; that's where "closed for renovation until spring" tends to sit.
Step 3: Phone or email, for dates far out
If you're planning for a date three months away, neither Google nor the website has decided yet. A small operator, a family restaurant or a seasonal attraction will often answer a one line email the same day. Ask for the hours on your exact date and whether you need to book. Keep the reply; it's the only version of the hours you can hold someone to.
How to ask ChatGPT so it gets hours less wrong
You can't make it certain, but you can make it honest. Three habits help.
Give it the date and the weekday in the prompt: "Friday 15 January 2027". A model that knows it's a Friday in January has a better chance of picking winter and weekday hours from what it remembers.
Ask it to search and to show its work: "Search the web for the current opening hours and tell me the page and the date it was updated." If it can't give a source, treat the hours as unknown.
Ask it to mark what it isn't sure about. "List any opening hours you have not verified" produces a short list you can check yourself. Nothing on that list should go into the plan unchecked.
Opening hour errors at a glance
| What goes wrong | Why the model does it | How to catch it |
|---|---|---|
| Place closed for good | Closed after the training cutoff | Google Maps listing shows "Permanently closed" |
| Wrong weekday | Weekday closures are small print the model skips | Hours block for your weekday on Google Maps |
| Wrong season | It learned one season's hours | Official site, hours page by season |
| Holiday hours | Set separately by the business, rarely in training text | Holiday note on Google Maps; email the operator |
| Typical hours instead of real ones | No exact figure, so it writes 9 to 5 | Any real listing; be suspicious of round numbers |
| Missed last entry | Listings often say closing time only | Official site; ask at booking |
What this looks like in Rovaniemi in winter
Rovaniemi is a good test because the hours shift so much between seasons. Ask a chatbot for a December day and the draft often opens with a 9 o'clock museum. Arktikum opens at 10, every day in winter, so the first hour is lost before you leave the hotel.
Santa Claus Village goes the other way. The draft may close it at 17:00, when in fact many of its businesses stay open later through the Christmas season (Santa Claus Village FAQ). That's an evening slot the draft doesn't know it has, which matters when the sun sets around 13:25 on 15 December (sunrise-sunset.org).
And the one hours question that no listing answers: whether the 10 o'clock husky safari still has seats. Visit Rovaniemi warns that many activities sell out early from December to March and recommends booking ahead (Visit Rovaniemi, as of October 2026). Our three day Rovaniemi itinerary has the verified hours and drive times, and this ten minute checklist covers the other things to verify in an AI draft.
Frequently asked questions
Does ChatGPT know if a place is closed?
Not reliably. Unless it searches the web for that specific answer, it works from training text with a cutoff date, so it can describe a restaurant that closed last year as if it were open. Even with search, it reads one page that may be out of date. Check the listing on Google Maps and the official site for your exact date.
Why does ChatGPT give wrong opening hours?
Three reasons stack up. Its knowledge stops at a cutoff date. Opening hours change with the season, the weekday and public holidays, so a true sentence in one month is false in another. And when it has no exact figure, it writes the most typical one, such as 9 to 5, which many places don't keep.
Can I make ChatGPT check opening hours?
Ask it to search the web and to give you the source and the date of the page it used. That helps, but it is still one web page read by a model. Treat it as a lead and confirm on Google Maps or the operator's site for your weekday.
What is the fastest way to check opening hours?
Google Maps for the weekday hours and any special holiday hours, then the official site for seasonal hours and last entry. For a date months away, or a small operator, a quick email or call settles it. About three minutes per place.
Does Gemini get opening hours wrong too?
Yes, the same limits apply to any chatbot. Google's own Gemini privacy notice says the app can present inaccurate information as factual. When a reporter planned a March trip with Gemini, the draft missed seasonal restaurant hours, according to a summary of her test.
Sources
- OpenAI, developer documentation, models (knowledge cutoff per model), accessed 13 October 2026
- Wikipedia, ChatGPT (web search rollout, October to December 2024), accessed 13 October 2026
- Google, Gemini Apps Privacy Hub, accessed 13 October 2026
- Arktikum, opening hours, accessed 13 October 2026
- Google Business Profile Help, how to set special hours, accessed 13 October 2026
- Santa Claus Village, FAQ, accessed 13 October 2026
- Travolution, report on the SEO Travel test of ChatGPT itineraries (May 2024), accessed 13 October 2026
- visitBerlin, Pergamonmuseum, accessed 13 October 2026
- Let's Data Science, summary of Dawn Gilbertson's Gemini itinerary test for the Wall Street Journal (March 2026), accessed 13 October 2026
- Sunrise-sunset.org, Rovaniemi December 2026, accessed 13 October 2026
- Visit Rovaniemi, activities, accessed 13 October 2026
