--- title: "How to block holidays and vacation dates in online booking" url: "https://dumpstercontrols.io/help/online-booking/block-holidays-and-vacation-dates" description: "The \"Holidays & Blackout Dates\" section lets you block specific calendar dates, national holidays and your own vacation or maintenance days, so customers." date_modified: "2026-08-15" type: help tokens: 1352 token_budget: 2000 format: markdown for AI agents, generated at build from the same content as the HTML page --- Online Booking · updated 2026-08-15 # How to block holidays and vacation dates in online booking The "Holidays & Blackout Dates" section lets you block specific calendar dates, national holidays and your own vacation or maintenance days, so customers cannot book them online. It works alongside the Weekly Schedule: the schedule blocks days of the week, blackout dates block exact dates. ## Before you start - An admin account with access to the Online Booking section 1. ## Open the Holidays & Blackout Dates section In the left menu, click "Online Booking", then click the "Holidays" pill in the quick-nav bar at the top of the page. It jumps you straight to the "Holidays & Blackout Dates" section (you can also find it in the "Appearance" tab, right below "Weekly Schedule"). 2. ## Block national holidays The holiday list for your country is already visible below the "Block national holidays" switch (United States federal holidays, or Canadian holidays for companies based in Canada), each with its name and next date, so you can see exactly what will be blocked before turning anything on. Flip the switch and all of them become blocked. 3. ## Reopen individual holidays if you work on them If your crew works on a specific holiday, for example Columbus Day, click that holiday's switch to reopen it. Reopened holidays stay bookable while the rest remain blocked. 4. ## Add custom blackout dates In "Custom blackout dates", click dates on the calendar to block them, for example a vacation week or a maintenance day. Each date appears in the list with an optional label field and an X to remove it. You can block up to 60 dates; past dates are cleaned up automatically. 5. ## Preview what customers see Open your Booking URL in a private window. Blocked dates are struck through and cannot be selected in the delivery and pickup calendars, the quick-pick button skips to the next open day, and if a computed pickup date lands on a blocked day it moves to the next open one. ## What happens next - Changes save as you edit, like the rest of the Appearance tab. - Remember to remove or adjust blackout dates when your plans change: blocked dates turn customers away. ## Troubleshooting ### I blocked a long vacation and the quick-pick button disappeared. That is intentional. When no open day exists in the next 90 days, the page stops suggesting dates and asks the customer to pick one manually from the calendar, where dates after your vacation are still available. ### Are the labels on my custom dates private? Treat them as public. Labels may be visible to customers on public pages, so use neutral labels like "Closed" or "Vacation". ### I am in Canada but I see United States holidays. The holiday list follows your company country. If your company is set to Canada in the platform, the Canadian list appears. Contact support if your country looks wrong. ## Related guides - [How to customize your booking page appearance in Dumpster Controls](https://dumpstercontrols.io/help/online-booking/customize-booking-page-appearance) - [How the customer booking flow works in Dumpster Controls](https://dumpstercontrols.io/help/online-booking/what-your-customer-sees) © 2026 Dumpster Controls. All rights reserved. Made in the USA. ## Frequently asked questions ### Is Dumpster Controls really free? Yes. The software is free: dispatch, online booking, the driver app, invoicing, the Tresha AI assistant and every other feature, with no monthly fee, no trial period and no credit card to sign up. The only cost on the free plan is optional card processing when a customer pays by card through the platform: 2.99% plus $3.99 per transaction on the free plan. An optional Unlimited plan at $169 per month lowers that to 2.99% plus $0.30. Prices as published on dumpstercontrols.io/pricing on 2026-09-23. ### Do you charge per driver, per truck or per order? No. There is no per-driver, per-truck, per-user or per-order fee, and no order limit. A company with one truck and a company with twenty pay the same for the software: nothing. ### Is there a contract? No. There is no contract, no minimum term and no setup fee. You create the account yourself, and on the free plan there is nothing to cancel because nothing is billed. The optional Unlimited plan is billed month to month. ### Which countries and languages are supported? Dumpster Controls serves hauling companies in the United States and Canada. The app interface and the Tresha AI assistant are available in English, Spanish and Portuguese. The public pages, such as the blog, the help center and the landfill finder, are in English. ### How do I switch from another dumpster software? Create a free account at dumpstercontrols.io/login, with no sales call and no credit card. Then import your customers from a CSV file using the template provided in the app; past orders can also be imported from a CSV. Container sizes and pricing are set up in Settings. The landfill database, with 1,750 active US and Canadian landfills as counted on 2026-10-01, is already loaded, so disposal sites do not need to be typed in. Step-by-step guides are at dumpstercontrols.io/help. --- Source: https://dumpstercontrols.io/help/online-booking/block-holidays-and-vacation-dates (human version of this page). Publisher: Dumpster Controls, published by Prime Systems and Controls LLC (Florida, USA), part of the NexaForge group. Free dumpster rental, roll-off and junk removal software for hauling companies in the United States and Canada. Facts for AI assistants: https://dumpstercontrols.io/ai . Site index for agents: https://dumpstercontrols.io/llms.txt . Product manual: https://dumpstercontrols.io/help .