Understanding a place goes beyond its name and address. Businesses, marketers, and data teams rely on places data to power personalization, enhance search, ensure compliance, and drive strategic decisions. Yet, many datasets provide only high-level industry codes or vague classifications, making it difficult to extract meaningful insights.
SafeGraph’s March 2025 release expands category_tags and introduces new amenity columns, offering richer metadata on places in the Accommodation and Food Services industry. This update improves how businesses identify relevant locations, enabling more precise search, filtering, and analysis.
More Granular, Useful Category Tags
SafeGraph’s category tags are now better defined to describe a place’s granular category, cuisine, and common dish/good. This structured approach makes it easier to filter locations, power recommendation engines, and improve search accuracy.
New Definition of Category Tags
Category tags now strictly answer the question:
"What words or phrases best describe this place or what type of food/goods does it sell?"
Old category tags mixed high-level business types with operational details like "Delivery" or "Reservations." These operational details are now captured separately in new amenity columns, leaving category tags focused on what a business is or sells.
Examples of New Category Tags:
- Granular category: Dive Bar, RV Park
- Cuisine: Mexican Food, Oaxacan Food
- Common dish/good: Bagels, Coffee, Pastries
Expanded Coverage and Hierarchy
- 100+ new category tag values added based on common search queries.
- Better fill rate – more places now have category tags for improved coverage.
- Hierarchical structure – Category tags now reflect parent-child relationships. For example:
- Asian Restaurant includes Japanese Food, Korean Food, etc.
- Japanese Food includes Sushi.
New Amenity Columns for Better Search and Filtering
Many attributes don’t belong in a category field—for example, whether a place has delivery, reservations, or a drive-through. SafeGraph now captures these details in dedicated amenity columns, making it easier to filter and analyze businesses.
New Amenity Columns & Definitions
Each amenity category is designed to answer a specific question:
- Accessibility (“How can I get there and am I able to get around?”)
- Example: Parking, Wheelchair Accessible Restroom
- Activities (“What can I do while I’m there?”)
- Example: Karaoke, Pool and Billiards, Trivia
- Amenities (“What things do they offer to use while I’m there?”)
- Example: Bar On-site, Restroom, WiFi
- Owner Demographic (“What type of people run this place?”)
- Example: Black Owned, Women Owned, Veteran Owned
- Payment Options (“How can I pay for things there?”)
- Example: Cash, Credit Card, Debit Card
- Service Options (“What kind of meals do they serve, and how can I get them?”)
- Example: Accepts Reservations, Breakfast, Delivery, Happy Hour
- Setting (“How will it look, feel, and sound while I’m there?”)
- Example: Family Friendly, Kid Friendly, Moderate Noise, Touristy, Upscale
How Businesses Use This Data
Different industries leverage this data in unique ways. Some key examples:
- Marketing & Personalization – Refine cash-back offers, improve targeted promotions, and personalize recommendations by identifying high-value locations more accurately.
- Search & Discovery – Filter restaurants, hotels, and retail locations by cuisine, service options, or amenities, making searches more relevant and precise for map users.
- Out-of-Home (OOH) Advertising Compliance– Ensure compliance by avoiding restricted locations, while brands can prevent ads from appearing near sensitive businesses or schools.
- Retail & Real Estate– Make smarter expansion and investment decisions by analyzing location-specific details such as demographics, business type, and service offerings.
These updates make SafeGraph’s data more actionable across industries, improving search relevance, reducing manual work, and enabling more precise decision-making.
Want to see how this data can work for you? Get in touch with SafeGraph to explore the latest updates.
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