SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) — It can get confusing to know which businesses will require you to pull out your COVID vaccination record, or to know which businesses are being COVID safe ahead of arrival.
Yelp says it’s rolling out a new feature that can help you figure out vaccination policies and vaccination status of the staff at local businesses.
Users can use a search filter to check businesses that have “proof of vaccination required” for visitors so you know to grab your vaccination card before you go – or skip out if you are not vaccinated.
Another filter shows “all staff fully vaccinated.”
“To help protect businesses that may experience backlash for their vaccination policies, we are proactively monitoring Yelp pages of businesses that activate these attributes,” the company added.
Yelp says it has recently seen a rise in reviews regarding people’s stance on COVID vaccinations, rather than reviews specifically about the food and restaurant experience.
To prevent any loss of business from the so-called “review bombing,” Yelp said it has been implementing Unusual Activity Alerts on the Yelp pages of businesses that have an influx of activity after they’ve received public attention for their COVID policies.
Nearly 4,500 such reviews have been removed by Yelp so far, the company said. Businesses that activate the vaccination status filter on their Yelp page will get proactive monitoring of their reviews to remove ones unrelated to the business’s services.