Changing opening hours in Tavern Keeper requires selecting your tap room and opening its Room Schedule menu. In this interface, you can designate specific times for opening, closing, and cleaning to ensure your business only welcomes patrons when you have the staff ready to serve them. Adjusting operating hours prevents your employees from burning out and keeps patron satisfaction from dropping due to unstaffed counters.
How to Change Opening Hours in Tavern Keeper
Tavern operating hours are tied directly to your tap rooms rather than a global menu. Patrons will visit your establishment as long as at least one tap room is officially set to open.
To change your tap room hours, follow these steps:
- Click directly on the floor of your built tap room to open its room details panel.
- Select the Room Schedule icon located along the bottom toolbar of the room interface.
- Adjust the timeline sliders or hour blocks to set your desired opening and closing times.
- Configure secondary off-hour activities, such as floor polishing or maintenance windows, if needed.
- Confirm and save your changes.
If you ever need an emergency shutdown, you can also right-click the tavern name displayed at the top of the main screen. This header menu lets you rename your tavern or force-close the entire tavern immediately to stop incoming patrons.
Connecting Tap Room Hours to Staff Work Schedules
Adjusting your tap room schedule only changes when customers are allowed inside; it does not automatically organize your employees. To prevent staff from being overworked or leaving the bar unattended, you must synchronize tap room hours with the staff schedule.
Managing shifts requires specific setup inside your staff room:
- Build a Work Schedule board: Place a Work Schedule wall item from the Staff Room build category onto any available wall.
- Access the Work Schedule: Click the board to open the employee roster and timetable.
- Set duty hours: Assign designated blocks for each employee. You can assign workers as Generalists or specialize them into roles like Server, Chef, Janitor, or Dog's Body.
- Monitor workloads: Keep an eye on workload indicators. Employees forced to work excessive hours—such as exceeding 14 hours in a single shift—will accumulate stress, suffer happiness penalties, and trigger negative trait reactions like vandalizing items or stealing gold.
- Stagger bed usage: If you run separate day and night shifts, multiple staff members can be assigned to the same staff bed as long as their scheduled sleeping hours do not overlap.
Operating Hours vs. Work Shift Configuration
The table below outlines how tap room operating controls compare to the staff scheduling system based on in-game mechanics:
| System Element | Where to Access | Primary Function | Key Considerations |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tap Room Schedule | Click Tap Room > Room Schedule icon | Dictates when patrons can enter and purchase drinks or food | Patrons only arrive when at least one tap room is marked open. |
| Staff Work Schedule | Click Work Schedule item in Staff Room | Assigns individual employee working hours, roles, and tasks | Prevents overworking staff past 14 hours; matches specialized roles to open hours. |
| Emergency Force Close | Right-click Tavern Name at top of screen | Instantly shuts down tavern operations | Useful when facing extreme dirt, fires, or a complete absence of working staff. |
| Time Format Setting | Game Settings Menu | Toggles between 12-hour (AM/PM) and 24-hour clocks | Allows you to match schedule views to your preferred reading format. |
Can You Run a 24/7 Tavern in Tavern Keeper?
You can run your tavern 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, but doing so right at the start of a scenario will quickly overwhelm your business.
Community gameplay shows that running around the clock requires a large enough roster to establish rotating shifts. If you keep the tap room open 24/7 with only one or two workers, dirt accumulates across the tap room floor, pest nests go ignored, and workers become exhausted. In addition, certain traits affect shift performance; for example, workers with the Night Owl trait dislike working between 8:00 AM and 5:00 PM, making them ideal candidates specifically for overnight coverage.
During early scenario progression, keeping your doors open for a limited window—such as 8:00 AM to 8:00 PM or 9:00 AM to 9:00 PM—gives your starting staff dedicated downtime to sweep, restock barrels, clear pests, and sleep without patron interruption.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why are no patrons coming in during my opening hours?
Patrons will not visit if your tap room is marked as closed in the Room Schedule, or if your tavern fails to meet the specific requirements of visiting groups. Check the Patron Attraction book; if prospective guests require food or specific seating and you only offer drinks, they will remain grayed out until those amenities are built.
Can I change between 12-hour and 24-hour schedules?
Yes. You can switch the game clock format between a standard 12-hour AM/PM display and a 24-hour clock within the game settings menu. The schedules in both the Tap Room and Work Schedule interfaces update accordingly.
What happens if the tavern is open but no staff are on duty?
Customers will still enter the tap room as long as the room schedule marks it as open. However, because no servers or generalists are present to pull drinks or deliver orders, patrons will wait until their patience meters deplete, resulting in low approval ratings and negative feedback reviews.
