Matching program and system for corporate meeting planners and hospitality providers

• US 20020120548A1
• Filed: 12/19/2000
• Published: 08/29/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 12/19/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: HJJ Incorporated
• Original Assignee: HJJ Incorporated
• Inventors: Etkin, James M.
• Granted Patent: US 7,343,338 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/37
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/02 Reservations, e.g. for tickets, services or events
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/08 Auctions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/04 Trading; Exchange, e.g. stocks, commodities, derivatives or currency exchange

Abstract

The computerized bidding method matches hospitality facility data and meeting requirement data, permits the posting of offers and responsive bidding by both hospitality facility vendors and meeting planners, and facilitates the exchange of data and enables an auction between multiple parties. The hospitality facility data represents vendors for hotel facilities, meeting room facilities or other hospitality facilities. Meeting requirement data represents the necessities of a plurality of meeting planners for a corresponding plurality of meetings or events. The system and the method stores data in a database. Meeting planner offers (meeting requirement data) are posted to the database. The system matches the meeting requirement data with previously stored hospitality facility data Meeting requirement data (offers) is typically truncated or blinded to all parties except the posting party. The blinded offer is sent to hospitality vendors which match the meeting requirements. The hospitality vendors then submit specific hospitality facility data or bids. The system and method permits the meeting planner offeror to select a predetermined number (typically 3) of vendor bids. Thereafter, the system and the method exchanges contact data and a full details of the offer and the selected bids to the offeror and the selected bidders. The meeting planner offeror can reject all bids and request new bids. The system and the method also enables the hospitality vendor to offer hospitality facilities. Blinded facilities offer data is presented to one or more inquiring meeting planners. Meeting planners can bid by submitting specific facilities requirement data (bid data). The meeting planner bids are typically, initially blinded (to remove bidder name, etc.). The hospitality vendor offeror is permitted to select a predetermined number (3) of the blinded meeting planner bids (specific requirement data) and, upon selection, the system enables direct communication.

Claims

1. A computerized bidding method for matching hospitality facility data, representing vendors furnishing hotel facilities, meeting room facilities or other hospitality facilities, with requirement data, representing respective necessities of a plurality of meeting planners for a corresponding plurality of meetings or events, said bidding and matching method utilizing a client-server network with at least one server and a plurality of client computer systems, the method comprising the steps of:

storing said hospitality facility data and said requirement data in a database on said at least one server, said hospitality facility data at least including vendor contact data, room quantity data and amenity data;

gathering requirement offer data and planner contact data from said plurality of meeting planners, the gathered requirement offer data including facilities requirements data;

matching requirement offer data with said hospitality facility data;

presenting blinded requirement data, without revealing the identity of the corresponding meeting planner who supplied said requirement offer data, to vendors associated with said hospitality facility data which match said facilities requirements data;

gathering specific hospitality facility data from said vendors relative to said presented blinded requirement data including price data;

presenting, to said corresponding meeting planner who supplied said requirement data, blinded specific hospitality facility data responsive to said requirement offer data;

permitting said corresponding meeting planner to select blinded specific hospitality facility data from a predetermined number of vendors;

enabling direct communications with the exchange of vendor and planner contact data between said predetermined number of vendors and said corresponding meeting planner supplying said requirement offer data;

in the event said corresponding meeting planner cannot fulfill necessities corresponding to said requirement offer data, repeating the permitting selection step while excluding at least one of said predetermined number of vendors and repeating the enabling communications step;

gathering facilities offer data, representing at least one offer by a vendor to supply hospitality facilities, and storing said facilities offer data in said database, said facilities offer data including at least a hospitality facility feature and facility offer price data;

presenting blinded facilities offer data to one or more meeting planners;

gathering specific facilities requirement data from a plurality of responsive meeting planners relative to said facilities offer data;

presenting, to said at least one vendor supplying said facilities offer data, blinded specific requirement data;

permitting said at least one vendor to select blinded specific requirement data representing a further predetermined number of said responsive meeting planners,

enabling direct communications with the exchange of planner contact data between said further predetermined number of said responsive meeting planners and vendor contact data of said at least one vendor supplying said facilities offer data and,

in the event said at least one vendor cannot fulfill the corresponding offer to supply hospitality facilities, repeating said permitting selection step and presenting said blinded facilities offer data step to said one vendor while excluding at least one of said further predetermined number of responsive meeting planners and repeating the enabling of communications step between said meeting planners and said one vendor.

2. A method as claimed in claim 1 wherein, in said permitting selection step by said corresponding planner, said predetermined number of vendors selected by said corresponding planner is one from the group of one, two and three;

and wherein said further predetermined number of said responsive meeting planners selected by said at least one vendor is one from the group of one, two and three.

3. A method as claimed in claim 2 wherein the steps of gathering involve gathering from one or more of said plurality of client computer systems.

4. A method as claimed in claim 3 wherein said plurality of client computer systems includes a plurality of vendor enabled client computer systems, the method including the step of, at said at least one server:

communicating with said plurality of vendor enabled client computer systems relative to presenting blinded requirement data;

gathering specific hospitality facility data;

enabling direct communications with said meeting planner supplying said requirement data;

gathering facilities offer data;

presenting said blinded specific requirement data; and

enabling direct communications with said further plurality of meeting planners.

5. A method as claimed in claim 1 including the step of registering said plurality of meeting planners into said database is independent of said gathering requirement offer data step.

6. A method as claimed in claim 5 including the step of gathering prospective requirement offer data from at least one meeting planner;

matching said prospective requirement offer data with said hospitality data;

presenting blinded prospective requirement offer data to vendors associated with hospitality data which match said prospective requirement offer data thereby prompting the matched vendors and said at least one meeting planner to engage in the steps of gathering requirement offer data and gathering facilities offer data.

7. A method as claimed in claim 6 wherein said plurality of client computer systems includes a plurality of planner enabled client computer systems, the method including the step of, at said at least one server:

communicating with said plurality of planner enabled client computer systems relative to gathering requirement offer data, gathering said planner contact data;

presenting blinded specific hospitality data; and

permitting selection of said predetermined number of vendors.

8. A method as claimed in claim 7 including the step of verifying said planner contact data.

9. A method as claimed in claim 1 wherein prior to said steps of presenting said blinded specific hospitality facility data to said corresponding meeting planner and presenting said blinded specific requirement data to said at least one vendor, said blinded data is sorted and ordered based upon predetermined criteria which includes a data characteristic of at least one from the group of room price data, location data, amenity data, total revenue data, composite rating data and date availability data.

10. A vendor client computer based bidding method for matching hospitality facility data, representing vendors furnishing hotel facilities, meeting room facilities, or other hospitality facilities, with requirement data, representing respective necessities of a plurality of meeting planners for a corresponding plurality of meetings or events, said data stored on a server, said server begin one of a server computer and a plurality of networked server computers, and said bidding and matching method implemented over a client-server network with said server and a plurality of vendor client computer systems and a plurality of planner client computer systems coupled together via a telecommunications network, at said server:

(a) storing said hospitality facility data and requirement offer data in a database, said hospitality facility data at least including vendor contact data, room quantity data and amenity data;

(b) gathering requirement offer data and planner contact data from meeting planners via corresponding planner client computer systems, the gathered requirement data including facilities requirements data;

(c) matching requirement offer data with said hospitality facility data;

(d) supplying blinded requirement offer data, without revealing the identity of the corresponding meeting planner who supplied said requirement offer data, to vendors associated with said hospitality facility data which match said facilities requirements data, the matching vendors associated with corresponding vendor client computer systems;

(e) presenting, to said corresponding meeting planner who supplied said requirement offer data, blinded specific hospitality facility data responsive thereto;

(f) permitting said corresponding meeting planner to select blinded specific hospitality facility data representing a predetermined number of vendors;

(g) in the event said corresponding meeting planner cannot fulfill necessities corresponding to said requirement offer data, repeating the permitting selection step while excluding at least one of said predetermined number of vendors and repeating an enabling communications step;

(h) storing facilities offer data in said database on said server;

(i) presenting blinded facilities offer data to one or more inquiring meeting planners;

(j) gathering specific facilities requirement data from a plurality of responsive meeting planners relative to said facilities offer data;

the vendor client computer based bidding and matching method comprising the steps of;

supplying said vendor contact data, room quantity data and amenity data to said server;

supplying specific hospitality facility data via a corresponding plurality of vendor client computer systems to said server relative to said presented blinded requirement data;

enabling direct communications by participating in an exchange of vendor and planner contact data between said predetermined number of vendors and said corresponding meeting planner, said predetermined number of vendors being selected by said corresponding meeting planner supplying said requirement offer;

supplying facilities offer data from at least one of said plurality of vendor client computer systems to said server, said facilities offer data representing an offer by at least one vendor to supply hospitality facilities, said facilities offer data including at least a hospitality facility feature and facility offer price data;

presenting, to said at least one vendor supplying said facilities offer data, blinded specific requirement data responsive to said facilities offer data;

permitting said at least one vendor to select blinded specific requirement data representing a further predetermined number of said responsive meeting planners;

enabling direct communications by participating in an exchange of planner contact data between said further predetermined number of said responsive meeting planners and vendor contact data of said at least one vendor; and

,

in the event said at least one vendor cannot fulfill the corresponding offer to supply hospitality facilities, repeating said presenting said blinded specific facilities requirement data step to said one vendor while excluding at least one of said further predetermined number of responsive meeting planners and repeating the enabling communications step.

11. A method as claimed in claim 10 including the steps of:

displaying said hospitality facility data to any vendor via said vendor client computer system;

displaying any blinded facilities offer data to any vendor; and

displaying any gathered blinded requirement offer data to any vendor.

12. A method as claimed in claim 11 including the step of verifying said vendor contact data.

13. A method as claimed in claim 12 wherein at said server:

gathering prospective requirement offer data from at least one meeting planner;

matching said prospective requirement offer data with said hospitality data;

and wherein the method includes at said vendor client computer;

presenting said blinded prospective requirement offer data to vendors associated with hospitality data which match said prospective requirement offer data thereby prompting the matched vendors to engage in the steps of gathering requirement offer data and gathering facilities offer data.

14. A method as claimed in claim 13 wherein the step of displaying any blinded requirement offer data via said vendor client computer system occurs prior to the step of gathering specific facilities requirement data from said responsive meeting planners via said server.

15. A method as claimed in claim 10 wherein prior to said step of presenting said blinded specific facilities requirement data responsive to said facilities offer data to said at least one vendor, said blinded specific facilities requirement data is sorted and ordered based upon predetermined criteria which includes a data characteristic of at least one from the group of price data, location data, total revenue data, composite rating data and date availability data.

17. A method as claimed in claim 16 including the step of displaying to any meeting planner via said planner client computer system:

said hospitality facility data, said blinded facility offer data, said blinded specific facility data, said meeting planner contact, said vendor contact data, said blinded requirement offer data, and blinded specific requirement data.

18. A method as claimed in claim 17 including the step of verifying said planner contact data prior to the step of supplying requirement offer data.

19. A method as claimed in claim 17 including the step of:

supplying prospective requirement offer data from at least one meeting planner;

and wherein, at said server;

matching said prospective requirement offer data with said hospitality data;

presenting said blinded prospective requirement offer data to vendors associated with hospitality data which match said prospective requirement offer data;

thereby prompting the meeting planner supplying said prospective requirement offer data to engage in the step of supplying requirement offer based upon said prospective requirement offer data.

20. A method as claimed in claim 19 wherein the step of displaying blinded hospitality offer data occurs prior to the step of supplying specific requirement data from said responsive meeting planner.

21. A method as claimed in claim 16 wherein at said server, said blinded specific hospitality facility data is sorted and ordered based upon predetermined criteria which includes data characteristic of at least one from the group of room price data, location data, total revenue, composite rating and date availability data, and the method includes the step of displaying, to said corresponding meeting planner supplying said requirement offer data, the sorted and ordered blinded specific hospitality data.

16. A planner client computer based bidding method for matching hospitality facility data, representing vendors furnishing hotel facilities, meeting room facilities, or other hospitality facilities, with requirement data, representing respective necessities of a plurality of meeting planners for a corresponding plurality of meetings or events, said data stored on a server, said server being one of a server computer and a plurality of networked server computers, said bidding and matching method implemented over a client-server network with said server and a plurality of vendor client computer systems and a plurality of planner client computer systems, said server:

(a) storing said hospitality facility data and requirement offer data in a database, said hospitality facility data at least including vendor contact data, room quantity data, amenity data, and room price data;

(b) matching requirement offer data from a corresponding meeting planner supplying the same with said hospitality facility data;

(c) presenting blinded requirement offer data, without revealing the identity of the corresponding meeting planner who supplied said requirement offer data, to vendors associated with said hospitality facility data which match said requirement offer data;

(d) gathering specific hospitality facility data from said vendors relative to said presented blinded requirement offer data;

(e) gathering facilities offer data, representing at least one offer by a vendor to supply hospitality facilities, and storing said facilities offer data in said database, said facilities offer data including at least a maximum hospitality facility feature and facility offer price data;

(f) presenting blinded facilities offer data via said server to one or more inquiring meeting planners;

(h) presenting, to said at least one vendor supplying said facilities offer data, blinded specific requirement data responsive to said maximum facility feature and offer price data;

(i) permitting said at least one vendor to select blinded specific requirement data representing a further predetermined number of responsive meeting planners,

(j) in the event said at least one vendor cannot fulfill the corresponding offer to supply hospitality facilities, repeating said presenting said blinded facilities offer data step to said one vendor while excluding at least one of said further predetermined number of responsive meeting planners and repeating the enabling of communications step between said meeting planners and said one vendor;

the planner client computer based bidding and matching method comprising the steps of;

supplying meeting planer contact data;

supplying requirement offer data from a corresponding meeting planner of said plurality of meeting planners utilizing a corresponding one of said plurality of planner client computer systems, the requirement offer data including facilities requirements data;

presenting, via said planner client computer system to said corresponding meeting planner who supplied said requirement offer data, blinded specific hospitality facility data responsive thereto;

permitting said corresponding meeting planner to select blinded specific hospitality facility data representing a predetermined number of vendors;

enabling direct communications by participation in an exchange of vendor and planner contact data between said predetermined number of vendors and said corresponding meeting planner supplying said requirement offer data;

in the event said corresponding meeting planner cannot fulfill necessities corresponding to said requirement offer data, repeating the permitting selection step while excluding at least one of said predetermined number of vendors and repeating the enabling communications step;

displaying, to one or more inquiring meeting planners via corresponding planner client computer systems, blinded facilities offer data from said at least one vendor;

supplying specific facilities requirement data from responsive meeting planners of said plurality of meeting planners relative to facilities offer data; and

enabling direct communications by participation in an exchange of planner contact data between said further predetermined number of said responsive meeting planners and vendor contact data of said at least one vendor supplying said facilities offer data.

22. A computerized system for matching hospitality facility data, representing vendors furnishing hotel facilities, meeting room facilities or other hospitality facilities, with requirement data, representing respective necessities of a plurality of meeting planners for a corresponding plurality of meetings or events, the computerized system comprising:

means for storing and maintaining said hospitality facility data and said requirement data in a database on said at least one server, said hospitality facility data at least including vendor contact data, room quantity data and amenity data;

means for gathering requirement offer data and planner contact data from said plurality of meeting planners, the gathered requirement offer data including facilities requirements data;

means for matching requirement offer data with said hospitality facility data;

means for presenting blinded requirement offer data, without revealing the identity of the corresponding meeting planner who supplied said requirement offer data, to vendors associated with said hospitality facility data which match said facilities requirements data;

means for gathering specific hospitality facility data from a group of responding vendors relative to said blinded requirement offer data;

means for presenting, to said corresponding meeting planner who supplied said requirement offer data, blinded specific hospitality facility data responsive to said facilities requirements data;

means for permitting said corresponding meeting planner to select blinded specific hospitality facility data representing a predetermined number of vendors;

means for exchanging contact data between said predetermined number of vendors and said corresponding meeting planner supplying said requirement offer data;

means for determining if said corresponding meeting planner cannot fulfill necessities corresponding to said requirement offer data, and, in such event, reactivating said means for permitting the selection of said vendors while excluding at least one of said predetermined number of vendors;

means for gathering facilities offer data from at least one vendor offeror to supply hospitality facilities, and for storing said facilities offer data in said database, said facilities offer data including at least a hospitality facility feature and offer price data;

means for presenting blinded facilities offer data to one or more inquiring meeting planners;

means for gathering specific facilities requirement data from a responsive plurality of meeting planners relative to said facilities offer data;

means for presenting, to said vendor offeror, blinded specific requirement data responsive to said facilities offer data;

means for permitting said vendor offeror to select blinded specific requirement data representing a further predetermined number of said responsive meeting planners,

means for exchanging contact data between said further predetermined number of said responsive meeting planners and vendor offeror; and

,

means for determining if said vendor offeror cannot fulfill the corresponding offer to supply hospitality facilities, and, in such event, reactivating said means for presenting said blinded facilities offer data step while excluding at least one of said further predetermined number of responsive meeting planners.

23. A system as claimed in claim 22 wherein said predetermined number of vendors presented to meeting planners with requirement offer data is one from the group of one, two and three, and said further predetermined number of responsive meeting planners presented to said vendor offerror is one from the group of one, two and three.

24. A system as claimed in claim 22 including means for registering said plurality of meeting planners into said database and means for gathering planner contact data.

25. A system as claimed in claim 24 including means for verifying said planner contact data.

26. A system as claimed in claim 22 including means for sorting and ordering said blinded specific data based upon predetermined criteria which includes data characteristic of at least one from the group of room price data, location data, amenity data, total revenue, composite rating and date availability data.

28. A method as claimed in claim 27 wherein said predetermined number of bids selected by each said offeror is one from the group of one, two and three.

29. A method as claimed in claim 27 including the step of verifying said vendor data and said planner data prior to the steps of gathering offers therefrom.

30. A method as claimed in claim 27 wherein the method includes, prior to said step of permitting selection, sorting and ordering bid data for each respective offer and presenting ordered blinded hospitality facility bid data to said corresponding meeting planner offeror and presenting ordered blinded meeting requirement bid data to said corresponding vendor offeror, said sort and order step based upon predetermined criteria which includes a data characteristic of at least one from the group of room price data, location data, amenity data, total revenue data, composite rating data and date availability data.

31. A method as claimed in claim 27 including the step of presenting to hospitality facility vendors and meeting planners who are both offering parties and bidding parties all posted offers and bids unique to those parties.

32. A method as claimed in claim 27 wherein the steps of posting and making available occurs said telecommunications network.

33. A method as claimed in claim 32 wherein said telecommunications network is an Internet and said posting and making available occurs on said Internet.

34. A method as claimed in claim 27 including the step of matching said planner offers with said hospitality facility data and broadcasting planner offer messages to hospitality vendors with matching hospitality facility data.

35. A method as claimed in claim 27 including the step of obtaining a prospective meeting planner offer, matching said prospective planner offer with said hospitality facility data and broadcasting blinded prospective planner offer messages to matching hospitality vendors thereby spurring hospitality facility offers for said prospective planner offer.

36. A method as claimed in claim 30 wherein said telecommunications network is an Internet and said posting and making available occurs on said Internet.

37. A method as claimed in claim 36 including the step of matching said planner offers with said hospitality facility data and broadcasting planner offer messages to hospitality vendors with matching hospitality facility data.

38. A method as claimed in claim 37 including the step of obtaining a prospective meeting planner offer, matching said prospective planner offer with said hospitality facility data and broadcasting blinded prospective planner offer messages to matching hospitality vendors thereby spurring hospitality facility offers for said prospective planner offer.

40. A method as claimed in claim 39 including the steps of:

displaying said hospitality facility data to any vendor via said vendor client computer system;

displaying any facilities offer data to any vendor; and

displaying any gathered requirement offer data to any vendor.

41. A method as claimed in claim 40 wherein at said server:

gathering prospective requirement offer data from at least one meeting planner;

matching said prospective requirement offer data with said hospitality data;

and wherein the method includes at said vendor client computer;

presenting said prospective requirement offer data to vendors associated with hospitality data which match said prospective requirement offer data thereby prompting the matched vendors to engage in the steps of gathering requirement offer data and gathering facilities offer data.

42. A method as claimed in claim 41 wherein the step of displaying any requirement offer data via said vendor client computer system occurs prior to the step of gathering specific facilities requirement data from said responsive meeting planners via said server.

43. A method as claimed in claim 39 wherein prior to said step of presenting said specific facilities requirement data responsive to said facilities offer data to said at least one vendor, said specific facilities requirement data is sorted and ordered based upon predetermined criteria which includes a data characteristic of at least one from the group of price data, location data, total revenue data, composite rating data and date availability data.

27. A computerized bidding and information exchange method accessible on a telecommunications network for matching hospitality facility data, representing vendors furnishing hotel facilities, meeting room facilities or other hospitality facilities, with meeting requirement data, representing respective necessities of a plurality of meeting planners for a corresponding plurality of meetings or events, the bidding, matching and information exchange method comprising the steps of:

gathering and storing said hospitality facility data for said plurality of vendors and said meeting requirement data for said plurality of meeting planners in a database accessible via said telecommunications network, said hospitality facility data at least including vendor contact data, room quantity data, and amenity data, said meeting requirement data including facilities requirements and price data and storing meeting planner contact data associated with said meeting requirement data;

obtaining a plurality of meeting planner offers from a corresponding plurality of meeting planners, each planner offer having a respective meeting requirement;

posting and making available blinded facilities requirement data and gathering responsive hospitality bid data from a plurality of interested vendors relative to said posted blinded requirement data;

obtaining a plurality of hospitality facility offers from a corresponding plurality of hospitality vendors, each facility offer having respective hospitality facility offer data including at least one facility feature and a facility offer price;

posting and making available blinded facility offer data and gathering responsive meeting planner bid data from a plurality of interested meeting planners relative to said posted blinded facility offer data;

permitting selection of a predetermined number of bids by each respective offering party;

exchanging respective contact data and bid data between each said offeror and the predetermined number of selected bidders; and

,

in the event said offeror cannot fulfill the respective offer, repeating said permitting selection step and exchanging step while excluding at least one of said predetermined number of bids.

39. A vendor client computer based bidding method for matching hospitality facility data, representing vendors furnishing hotel facilities, meeting room facilities, or other hospitality facilities, with requirement data, representing respective necessities of a plurality of meeting planners for a corresponding plurality of meetings or events, said data stored on a server, said server begin one of a server computer and a plurality of networked server computers, and said bidding and matching method implemented over a client-server network with said server and a plurality of vendor client computer systems and a plurality of planner client computer systems coupled together via a telecommunications network, at said server:

(a) storing said hospitality facility data in a database, said hospitality facility data at least including vendor contact data, room quantity data and amenity data;

(b) gathering requirement offer data and planner contact data from meeting planners via corresponding planner client computer systems, the gathered requirement data including facilities requirements data;

(c) matching requirement offer data with said hospitality facility data;

(d) supplying requirement offer data to vendors associated with said hospitality facility data which match said facilities requirements data, the matching vendors associated with corresponding vendor client computer systems;

(e) presenting, to said corresponding meeting planner who supplied said requirement offer data, specific hospitality facility data responsive thereto;

(f) permitting said corresponding meeting planner to select specific hospitality facility data representing a predetermined number of vendors;

(g) in the event said corresponding meeting planner cannot fulfill necessities corresponding to said requirement offer data, repeating the permitting selection step while excluding at least one of said predetermined number of vendors and repeating an enabling communications step;

(h) storing facilities offer data in said database on said server;

(i) presenting blinded facilities offer data to one or more inquiring meeting planners;

(j) gathering specific facilities requirement data from a plurality of responsive meeting planners relative to said facilities offer data;

the vendor client computer based bidding and matching method comprising the steps of;

supplying said vendor contact data, room quantity data and amenity data to said server;

supplying specific hospitality facility data via a corresponding plurality of vendor client computer systems to said server relative to said presented requirement data;

enabling direct communications by participating in an exchange of vendor and planner contact data between said predetermined number of vendors and said corresponding meeting planner, said predetermined number of vendors being selected by said corresponding meeting planner supplying said requirement offer;

supplying facilities offer data from at least one of said plurality of vendor client computer systems to said server, said facilities offer data representing an offer by at least one vendor to supply hospitality facilities, said facilities offer data including at least a hospitality facility feature and facility offer price data;

presenting, to said at least one vendor supplying said facilities offer data, specific facilities requirement data responsive to said facilities offer data;

permitting said at least one vendor to select specific facilities requirement data representing a further predetermined number of said responsive meeting planners;

enabling direct communications by participating in an exchange of planner contact data between said further predetermined number of said responsive meeting planners and vendor contact data of said at least one vendor; and

,

in the event said at least one vendor cannot fulfill the corresponding offer to supply hospitality facilities, repeating said presenting said blinded specific facilities requirement data step to said one vendor while excluding at least one of said further predetermined number of responsive meeting planners and repeating the enabling communications step.

44. A computerized bidding and information exchange method accessible on a telecommunications network for matching hospitality facility data, representing vendors furnishing hotel facilities, meeting room facilities or other hospitality facilities, with meeting requirement data, representing respective necessities of a plurality of meeting planners for a corresponding plurality of meetings or events, the bidding, matching and information exchange method comprising the steps of:

gathering and storing said hospitality facility data for said plurality of vendors and said meeting requirement data for said plurality of meeting planners in a database accessible via said telecommunications network, said hospitality facility data at least including vendor contact data, room quantity data, and amenity data, said meeting requirement data including facilities requirements and price data and storing meeting planner contact data associated with said meeting requirement data;

obtaining a plurality of meeting planner offers from a corresponding plurality of meeting planners, each planner offer having a respective meeting requirement;

posting and making available facilities requirement data and gathering responsive hospitality bid data from a plurality of interested vendors relative to said posted requirement offer data;

obtaining a plurality of hospitality facility offers from a corresponding plurality of hospitality vendors, each facility offer having respective hospitality facility offer data including at least one facility feature and a facility offer price;

posting and making available facility offer data and gathering responsive meeting planner bid data from a plurality of interested meeting planners relative to said posted facility offer data;

permitting selection of a predetermined number of bids by each respective offering party;

exchanging respective contact data and bid data between each said offeror and the predetermined number of selected bidders; and

,

in the event said offeror cannot fulfill the respective offer, repeating said permitting selection step and exchanging step while excluding at least one of said predetermined number of bids.

45. A method as claimed in claim 44 wherein the method includes, prior to said step of permitting selection, sorting and ordering bid data for each respective offer and presenting ordered hospitality facility bid data to said corresponding meeting planner offeror and presenting ordered meeting requirement bid data to said corresponding vendor offeror, said sort and order step based upon predetermined criteria which includes a data characteristic of at least one from the group of room price data, location data, amenity data, total revenue data, composite rating data and date availability data.

46. A method as claimed in claim 44 including the step of presenting to hospitality facility vendors and meeting planners who are both offering parties and bidding parties all posted offers and bids unique to those parties.

47. A method as claimed in claim 44 wherein the steps of posting and making available occurs said telecommunications network.

48. A method as claimed in claim 47 wherein said telecommunications network is an Internet and said posting and making available occurs on said Internet.

49. A method as claimed in claim 44 including the step of matching said planner offers with said hospitality facility data and broadcasting planner offer messages to hospitality vendors with matching hospitality facility data.

50. A method as claimed in claim 44 including the step of obtaining a prospective meeting planner offer, matching said prospective planner offer with said hospitality facility data and broadcasting prospective planner offer messages to matching hospitality vendors thereby spurring hospitality facility offers for said prospective planner offer.