Place categories
The Place categories used in Waze are not always directly applicable to the BeNeLux, for they are global categories. At this time, it is not possible to adapt these categories to local customs. Waze has several major categories, which includes quite a number of subcategories.
If you choose a main category within WME, you automatically get to see the sub-categories to choose from. It is also possible to directly type in a category. If you cannot find an applicable sub-category, just use the main category.
Categories that require special handling are described briefly in this section. A complete list can be found in the table below. It also lists the keywords that can be used in the app to search for the category.
Car Services
Gas Stations
Parking Lot
Garage / Automotive Shop
Car Wash
Charging Stations.
Transportation
Airport
Bridgeː Use only to represent a named road bridge with local or navigational significance.
Bus Station
Ferry Pier
Junction / Interchange
Seaport / Marina / Harbor
Subway Station
Taxi Station
Train Station
Professional and public
For public buildings or services such as fire departments, town halls and the like, we set the location of the name after the name, e.g., Stadhuis Antwerpen. For Organisations that have several locations, specify the location after a hyphen, after the general name of the organisation, e.g., UZ leuven - campus Gasthuisberg.
Hospital / Medical Care
- The category Hospital / Medical Care currently only apply to Hospitals, First Aid Posts and other places that offer emergency aid. At the moment, no separate category is available for all other medical care. Therefore we use a provisional category like Office, Personal Care, Organization or Association, or any other category that best applies.
Shopping and services
Car rental
- Rental-car facilities and returns, including at airports, should be marked as a Point with the “Rental Car” Place category. If the return location is a normal Parking Lot, then mark it with the Parking Lot category and the building with the Car Rental category.
ATMs
- ATMs can be found inside and outside of buildings. In Waze we only add those ATMs that are accessible to the general public. Most of the times, we can just add them as a Point Place with the primary category ATM, and the name ATM [%NameOfBank%] 1). However, if they are inside a building, like a bank, supermarket, or post office, extra care should be taken:
- When the opening hours are different from the building holding the ATM (For example, an ATM in the hall of a bank can be accessible outside the bank's hours.)
- Add a separate Point Place inside the building, with ATM as primary category.
- Make sure to add the specific opening hours
- When the opening hours are the same as the building holding the ATM:
- Add the ATM as a secondary category to the building's Place.
- Make sure to add the opening hours to the building's Place.
- ATMs that have restricted use (like only accessible for account holders of a specific bank), should not be added. Any other condition, like the need to swipe a card before entering, can be written in the description field if you think it is important information for the Wazer searching for an ATM.
- 1) Note: To avoid WME from automatically merging a separate ATM Point Place as an update to a building’s place, the ATM should be named differently than the building. Therefore, the naming convention is implemented.
Food and Drink
Culture and Entertainment
Other
Lodging
Outdoors
Natural features
Tipː for splitting place areas of this category the script WME Split POI can be used.
Car park
Table
This table shows the categories used for the Waze Places. It shows examples, lock levels and search strings (scroll to the right of the table). Also, there is an indication to the use of a Point or an Area Place. Area Places should have a minimum area size of 500 m2 (e.g., 50m x 10m) to be visible in the client's display. See also the paragraph on how to determine Area or Point.
At the bottom of the table you can choose the language in which you want the categories to show.
If you want to search this list you can view it with this link.