According to one aspect of the present disclosure, a computer-implemented method is provided for processing a query for points of interest (POIs) using a hierarchical grid structure representing a geographic area. The method includes receiving a query for POIs; defining a query footprint for the query based on a location corresponding to the query, wherein the query footprint comprises query spatial identifiers for a plurality of levels of the hierarchical grid structure; matching the query spatial identifiers with one or more POI spatial identifiers organized into a plurality of indexes, wherein each one of the plurality of indexes comprises an index of the POI spatial identifiers for one of the plurality of levels; and providing an output specifying one or more POIs corresponding to the matched POI spatial identifiers.