Reservation system
First Claim
1. A system for making customer reservations, the system comprising:
- at least one individual service provider through which reservations for the respective individual service providers may be made directly;
a central reservation provider through which reservations for the at least one individual service provider may be made; and
means for communicating between the central reservation provider and the respective individual service providers, wherein a first portion of the available reservations from each individual service provider are held by the central reservation provider and a second portion of the available reservations from each individual service provider are held by each respective individual service provider and, if a reservation requested from either the central reservation provider or an individual service provider is not available from that provider, available reservations are transferred from the other of the central reservation provider or the individual service provider to the central reservation provider or the individual service provider via the means for communicating so as to allow a reservation to be made.
2 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
There is disclosed a system for making reservations, in which the system includes a central on-line reservation provider through which reservations for one or more individual service providers may be made, one or more individual service providers through which reservations for the respective individual service providers may be made directly, and means for communicating between the central reservation provider and the respective individual service providers, wherein a first portion of the available reservations from each individual service provider are held by the central reservation provider and a second portion of the available reservations from each individual service provider are held by each respective individual service provider and, if a reservation requested from either the central reservation provider or an individual service provider is not available from that provider, available reservations are transferred from the other of the central reservation provider or the individual service provider to the central reservation provider or the individual service provider via the means for communicating so as to allow a reservation to be made.
39 Citations
26 Claims
-
1. A system for making customer reservations, the system comprising:
-
at least one individual service provider through which reservations for the respective individual service providers may be made directly;
a central reservation provider through which reservations for the at least one individual service provider may be made; and
means for communicating between the central reservation provider and the respective individual service providers, wherein a first portion of the available reservations from each individual service provider are held by the central reservation provider and a second portion of the available reservations from each individual service provider are held by each respective individual service provider and, if a reservation requested from either the central reservation provider or an individual service provider is not available from that provider, available reservations are transferred from the other of the central reservation provider or the individual service provider to the central reservation provider or the individual service provider via the means for communicating so as to allow a reservation to be made. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6)
-
- 7. A reservation system for reserving one of a plurality of items, the system comprising means for dividing the time period of availability of each item into consecutive blocks of a predetermined duration so as to provide a plurality of sets of said consecutive blocks representing the total availability of items within the time period, wherein the system accepts a reservation request if at least one consecutive block is available for each part of the time period for which the reservation is required such that blocks relating to more than one of the items may be combined to provide the reservation.
Specification