Is Your Favorite Bozeman Restaurant COVID Safe? Find Out on Yelp

Yelp is a great resource if you're looking for reviews on local businesses and restaurants.

If you're on vacation and you're not familiar with the dining options available, Yelp can help you find a good restaurant to enjoy a meal with friends and family.

In a press release, Yelp announced that it will now display user feedback on the health and safety practices of local restaurants.

Last summer, Yelp revamped its COVID-19 section to allow businesses to easily add information about their updated service offerings and specific health and safety precautions.

Starting on Tuesday, Yelp began displaying if users observed, or did not observe, the enforcement of social distancing and staff wearing masks at local businesses. We know many businesses are prioritizing the health and safety of their customers. The new update further highlights how businesses have adapted to keep their customers safe, and aims to instill confidence in consumers to continue supporting local businesses.

To ensure the user-generated feedback Yelp receives is fairly represented and not based on any one person’s observation, a number of criteria must be met before it can be displayed.

• The business must receive several user responses with consensus from multiple users on whether or not social distancing is being consistently enforced or if staff are regularly seen wearing masks.

• Only Yelp users who are logged into their account may provide feedback on a business’s health and safety practices.

• To ensure feedback displayed is based on recent visits to the business, user responses are evaluated daily and only user responses received within the previous 28 days are counted.

• For businesses with multiple locations or franchises, user feedback will only be counted and displayed on the business page for the relevant location.

If you search for restaurants in the Bozeman area on Yelp, you'll notice a "Health and Safety Measures" section that has been added to inform consumers which businesses are following COVID-19 guidelines. The information will be displayed on a business’s Yelp page under the “Health & Safety Measures” heading in the COVID-19 section. Restaurants will be ranked on a scale from 1-100.

For example, at Bridger Brewing in Bozeman, health and safety measures being taken are listed below.

For more information about Yelp's new health and safety feature for restaurants, click here.