New TripAdvisor Tool Makes it Easier to Stay Safe Out on the Road

With much of the U.S. seemingly ready to declare the coronavirus pandemic over even as new surges in cases have popped up in places like Texas, Florida, and Arizona, the world’s largest travel platform is at least keeping its eye on the ball. TripAdvisor, that online Valhalla of handy-dandy travel information, has released a new tool to help you identify which measures hotels and restaurants have in place to keep guests and customers safe.

Unveiled on June 24, “Travel Safe” is actually a suite of tools designed to help travelers such as yourself “find, filter for, and validate health and safety information” so that you can feel more confident with your future travel choices, whether near or far.

According to a recent TripAdvisor study, cleanliness and sanitation are top of mind for travelers right now, especially in choosing accommodations. For that reason, the online travel hub is making the new tools available in all 49 of its markets, and has already partnered with nearly 14,000 businesses who have agreed to make their health and safety information known via Travel Safe.

The tools involved include health and safety checklists, which allow businesses to list measures they are using, such as face mask guidelines and social distancing policies; a search filter, allowing you to find hotels and restaurants making use of certain safety measures; traveler reviews, which allow you to vouch for a business’s use of safety measures; and Q&A functionality, allowing you to message business owners if you still have questions about their procedures and guidelines.

Reviews from individual travelers will likely be the lifeblood of this thing, seeing as it’s often up to the public to actually make sure that establishments are adhering to guidelines they set for themselves, so be sure to make use of them! Even if we weren’t in the middle of an ongoing global pandemic, online reviews are useful — both for would-be customers/visitors/guests and the owners of the restaurants/hotels/what-have-you who can benefit from word-of-mouth.

Find out everything there is to know about Travel Safe by heading right over here. And, as always, safe travels!

-LTH