Reservation management server and method that generate a new plan to be recommended to a facility

• US 10,671,943 B2
• Filed: 03/29/2013
• Issued: 06/02/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 03/29/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Rakuten Group, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Rakuten, Inc. (Rakuten Group, Inc.)
• Inventors: Watanabe, Taichi
• Primary Examiner(s): Joseph, Tonya
• Application Number:
  US14/778,639
• Publication Number:
  US 20160042302A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,622 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2455 Query execution
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24575 using context
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/248 Presentation of query results
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/02 Reservations, e.g. for tickets, services or events
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0637 Strategic management or analysis, e.g. setting a goal or target of an organisation; Planning actions based on goals; Analysis or evaluation of effectiveness of goals
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/12 Hotels or restaurants
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/14 Travel agencies

Abstract

The information providing server retrieves piece of first posted information, posted by user, on a base plan provided by a facility that requests a recommended plan, and also retrieves piece of second posted information, posted by the user, on reference plan different from the base plan. The information providing server identifies first popular element popular with the user, who posted the piece of first posted information, and also identifies second popular element that are popular with the user and different from the first popular element. Then, the information providing server determines the identified first popular element and second popular element as plan elements included in a new recommended plan to be recommended for the facility that requests the recommended plan.

Claims

1. A reservation management server that manages one or more facility reservation sites, which are sites that allow users of user terminals to reserve use of desired facilities, the reservation management server comprising:

a network communication interface configured to communicate over a network with the user terminals and at least one facility terminal;

at least one memory configured to store computer program code, and one or more databases that correspond to a user information database, a facility information database and a plan information database, wherein

the user information database stores user identifiers (IDs) identifying users,

the facility information database stores facility IDs identifying facilities in association with one or more plans, each of the plans including one or more plan elements, which is/are available in the facilities,

the plan information database stores, for each facility identifier, plan identification information identifying each plan associated with the facility identifier, and stores, for each plan, the plan identifier, the one or more plan elements, transaction use information, user piece(s) of posted information on the plan and one or more of;

a plan occupancy rate or plan sales,

the transaction use information includes the user ID of a user who reserved the facility, and

the posted information includes a character string indicating a user review or a user rating value(s); and

at least one processor configured to access said memory and operate as instructed by said computer program code, said computer program code including;

posted information retrieval code configured to cause at least one of said at least one processor to, based on receiving, over the network via the network communication interface, a request for a recommended plan from a terminal device of a facility;

(i) identify, in the plan information database based on the facility identifier, plans provided by the facility that requested the recommended plan, (ii) determine a base plan from among the identified plans provided by the facility based on a ranking of at least one of the plan occupancy rate or the plan sales, and (iii) retrieve, from the plan information database, piece(s) of first posted information related to a first object of the base plan and piece(s) of second posted information related to a second object of a reference plan that is different from the base plan and that is associated with the same or a different facility identifier, wherein the second object is different from the first object, and the user(s) who posted the piece(s) of first posted information and the user(s) who posted the piece(s) of second posted information are the same users who have used the facility of the reference plan;

identifying code configured to cause at least one of said at least one processor to in response to retrieving the piece(s) of first and second posted information;

(i) obtain, by performing natural language processing, first plan elements that appear in association with positive user evaluations within the retrieved piece(s) of first posted information, (ii) identify a first element popular with the user(s), based on a number of appearances of the element appearing in association with positive user evaluations in the retrieved piece(s) of first posted information, (iii) obtain, by performing the natural language processing, second plan elements that appear in association with positive user evaluations within the retrieved piece(s) of second posted information, and (iv) identify a second element popular with the user(s), based on a number of appearances of the element appearing in association with positive user evaluations in the retrieved piece(s) of second posted information, wherein the second element is different from the first element, and the first and second elements are obtained by dividing character strings in the respective piece(s) of posted information and extracting morphemes by morphological analysis;

generating code configured to cause at least one of said at least one processor to generate, based on the identified first element and the identified second element, a new plan to be recommended for the facility, the new plan including the identified first and second elements; and

transmitting code configured to cause at least one of said at least one processor to transmit, over the network via the network communication interface, the generated new plan to the terminal device of the facility, as a response to the request for the recommended plan.

2. The reservation management server according to claim 1, further comprising third element retrieval code configured to cause at least one of said at least one processor to retrieve, from an equipment information database that stores pieces of equipment information indicating equipment available in facilities, equipment information of the facility providing the first object, the equipment information database being accessible by at least one of said at least one processor, wherein the identifying code causes at least one of said at least one processor to identify the second element available in the facility providing the first object, based on both the retrieved piece(s) of second posted information and the retrieved equipment information.

3. The reservation management server according to claim 1, wherein, when a proportion of the most popular element in elements popular with the user(s) in the piece(s) of first posted information is greater than or equal to a threshold value, the identifying code causes at least one of said at least one processor to identify the most popular element as the first element.

4. The reservation management server according to claim 3, wherein, when the proportion of the most popular element in the elements popular with the user(s) in the piece(s) of first posted information is below the threshold value, and when a portion of another most popular element in elements popular with user(s) belonging to any of a plurality of user bases, into which users are classified by user attributes, in the piece(s) of first posted information of the user base is greater than or equal to the threshold value, the identifying code causes at least one of said at least one processor to identify the another most popular element as the first element for the user base.

5. The reservation management server according to claim 4, wherein the identifying code causes at least one of said at least one processor to identify, among the plurality of user bases into which users are classified by user attributes, a user base whose number of pieces of posted information over the number of pieces of posted information of all the user bases in the piece(s) of first posted information on the first object is greater than or equal to the threshold value, and identifies the first element for the user base.

6. The reservation management server according to claim 5, wherein the identifying code causes at least one of said at least one processor to identify the second element that is popular with the user(s), based on the piece(s) of second posted information posted by user(s) belonging to the identified user base among the retrieved piece(s) of second posted information.

7. The reservation management server according to claim 1, further comprising third element identifying code configured to cause at least one of said at least one processor to identify a third element unpopular with the user(s), based on the retrieved piece(s) of first posted information, wherein the third element is different from the second element.

8. The reservation management server according to claim 1, further comprising third element identifying code configured to cause at least one of said at least one processor to identify a third element unpopular with the user(s), based on the retrieved piece(s) of first posted information, wherein the identifying code causes at least one of said at least one processor to identify, as the second element, an element to compensate for the third element unpopular with the user(s).

10. The reservation management server according to claim 2, wherein, when a proportion of the most popular element in elements popular with the user(s) in the piece(s) of first posted information is greater than or equal to a threshold value, the first identifying code causes at least one of said at least one processor to identify the most popular element as the first element.

11. The reservation management server according to claim 10, wherein, when the proportion of the most popular element in the elements popular with the user(s) in the piece(s) of first posted information is below the threshold value, and when a portion of another most popular element in elements popular with user(s) belonging to any of a plurality of user bases, into which users are classified by user attributes, in the piece(s) of first posted information of the user base is greater than or equal to the threshold value, the identifying code causes at least one of said at least one processor to identify the another most popular element as the first element for the user base.

12. The reservation management server according to claim 11, wherein the identifying code causes at least one of said at least one processor to identify, among the plurality of user bases into which users are classified by user attributes, a user base whose number of pieces of posted information over the number of pieces of posted information of all the user bases in the piece(s) of first posted information on the first object is greater than or equal to a threshold value, and identifies the first element for the user base.

13. The reservation management server according to claim 12, wherein the identifying code causes at least one of said at least one processor to identify the second element that is popular with the user(s), based on the piece(s) of second posted information posted by user(s) belonging to the identified user base among the retrieved piece(s) of second posted information.

14. The reservation management server according to claim 3, further comprising third element identifying code configured to cause at least one of said at least one processor to identify a third element unpopular with the user(s), based on the retrieved piece(s) of first posted information, wherein the third element is different from the second element.

15. The reservation management server according to claim 3, further comprising third element identifying code configured to cause at least one of said at least one processor to identify a third element unpopular with the user(s), based on the retrieved piece(s) of first posted information, wherein the identifying code causes at least one of said at least one processor to identify, as the second element, an element to compensate for the third element unpopular with the user(s).

16. The reservation management server according to claim 2, wherein the equipment includes at least one of:

an open-air bath, a pool, a training gym, a karaoke room, a golf course, or a tennis court.

17. The reservation management server according to claim 1, wherein when the facility that provides the base plan and the facility that provides the reference plan(s) are different, the piece(s) of posted information on the reference plan include plan element(s) relating to equipment that is unavailable in the facility that provides the base plan.

18. The reservation management server according to claim 1, wherein the one or more plan elements each correspond to a text string describing at least one of:

a No Charge element, an all you can eat or drink item, an available physical equipment, an available sporting facility, an available item, an available service, an adjustment on at least one of check-in or check-out, a floor assurance, a ticket or an outside the facility activity that is available with a plan.

19. The reservation management server according to claim 1, wherein the at least one processor stores information regarding the new plan in the plan information database.

9. An information processing method performed by a computer or a server, the method comprising:

storing, in at least one memory, one or more databases that correspond to a user information database, a facility information database and a plan information database, wherein

the user information database stores user identifiers (IDs) identifying users,

the facility information database stores facility IDs identifying facilities in association with one or more plans, each of the plans including one or more plan elements, which is/are available in the facilities,

the plan information database stores, for each facility identifier, plan identification information identifying each plan associated with the facility identifier, and stores, for each plan, the plan identifier, the one or more plan elements, transaction use information, user piece(s) of posted information on the plan and one or more of;

a plan occupancy rate or plan sales,

the transaction use information includes the user ID of a user who reserved the facility, and

the posted information includes a character string indicating a user review or a user rating value(s);

based on receiving, over a network via a network communication interface, a request for a recommended plan from a terminal device of a facility;

(i) identifying, in the plan information database based on the facility identifier, plans provided by the facility that requested the recommended plan, (ii) determining a base plan from among the identified plans provided by the facility based on a ranking of at least one of the plan occupancy rate or the plan sales, and (iii) retrieving, from the plan information database, piece(s) of first posted information related to a first object of the base plan and piece(s) of second posted information related to a second object of a reference plan that is different from the base plan and that is associated with the same or a different facility identifier, wherein the second object is different from the first object, and the user(s) who posted the piece(s) of first posted information and the user(s) who posted the piece(s) of second posted information are the same user(s) who have used the facility of the reference plan;

obtaining, by performing natural language processing, first plan elements that appear in association with positive user evaluations within the retrieved piece(s) of first posted information;

identifying a first element popular with the user(s), based on a number of appearances of the element appearing in association with positive user evaluations in the retrieved piece(s) of first posted information;

obtaining, by performing the natural language processing, second plan elements that appear in association with positive user evaluations within the retrieved piece(s) of second posted information;

identifying a second element popular with the user(s), based on a number of appearances of the element appearing in association with positive user evaluations in the retrieved piece(s) of second posted information, wherein the second element is different from the first element, and the first and second elements are obtained by dividing character strings in the respective piece(s) of posted information and extracting morphemes by morphological analysis;

generating, based on the identified first element and the identified second element, a new plan to be recommended for the facility, the new plan including the identified first and second elements; and

transmitting, over the network via the network communication interface, the generated new plan to the terminal device of the facility, as a response to the request for the recommended plan.