Online registration and block tracking for travel wholesalers, agencies and hotels

• US 20030061145A1
• Filed: 09/26/2001
• Published: 03/27/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 09/26/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Kyndryl Incorporated (Kyndryl Holdings, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Norrid, Joshua A.
• Granted Patent: US 8,364,507 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 40/04 Trading; Exchange, e.g. stocks, commodities, derivatives or currency exchange

Abstract

A system and method for providing reservation capabilities to a reservation or property management system via a plurality of Internet web sites. Each booking party is directed to a web site containing common content and content specific to the type of booking party, such as a travel agent, wholesaler, or traveler. The system ensures the complete and accurate collection of data regarding a customer and the customer'"'"'s reservation request through the use of distributed software components and association with customer profiles. Each booking party may create or modify customer profile information to be associated with reservations. The product or service provider may establish and maintain its own set of commission rates, fee amounts and discount values for each type of booking party, thereby allowing the provider to control accuracy and completeness of reservations, as well as revenue flow to the booking parties.

Claims

1. A method for establishing a reservation for a service or product, said service or product being provided by a provider having a management system, said management system providing a repository for customer profiles, available inventory and reservations, said method comprising the steps of:

directing a booking party to a set of web objects according to the type of booking party;

collecting a reservation data set from said booking party including itinerary and preferences for a customer;

establishing a reservation in said management system according to said reservation data set if a matching service or product is available, said reservation being associated with a customer profile; and

determining a revenue value to be afforded to said booking party.

2. The method as set forth in claim 1 wherein said step of directing a booking party to a set of web objects comprises a step selected from the group of providing a plurality of Universal Resource Locators, web addresses, and subdomains, each being tailored to the needs of a booking party type.

3. The method as set forth in claim 1 further comprising a step of allowing said booking party to create a new customer profile.

4. The method as set forth in claim 1 further comprising the step of allowing said booking party to modify an existing customer profile.

5. The method as set forth in claim 1 where in said step of establishing and associating said reservation with a customer profile comprises a step selected from the group of establishing a hotel reservation, reserving a travel ticket, booking a rental car, reserving a golf tee time, reserving an entertainment ticket, and reserving products due for future availability.

6. A computer readable medium encoded with software for establishing a reservation for a service or product, said service or product being provided by a provider having a management system, said management system providing a repository for customer profiles, available inventory and reservations, said software causing a computer to perform the steps of:

directing a booking party to a set of web objects according to the type of booking party;

collecting a reservation data set from said booking party including itinerary and preferences for a customer;

establishing a reservation in said management system according to said reservation data set if a matching service or product is available, said reservation being associated with a customer profile; and

determining a revenue value to be afforded to said booking party.

7. The computer readable medium as set forth in claim 6 wherein said software for directing a booking party to a set of web objects comprises a step selected from the group of providing a plurality of Universal Resource Locators, web addresses, and subdomains, each being tailored to the needs of a booking party type.

8. The computer readable medium as set forth in claim 6 further comprising software for allowing said booking party to create a new customer profile.

9. The computer readable medium as set forth in claim 6 further comprising software for allowing said booking party to modify an existing customer profile.

10. The computer readable medium as set forth in claim 6 wherein said software for establishing and associating said reservation with a customer profile comprises software for performing a step selected from the group of establishing a hotel reservation, reserving a travel ticket, booking a rental car, reserving a golf tee time, reserving an entertainment ticket, and reserving products due for future availability.

11. A system for establishing a reservation for a service or product, said service or product being provided by a provider having a management system, said management system providing a repository for customer profiles, available inventory and reservations, said system comprising:

a plurality of web sites, each web site being adapted to provide reservation capabilities to a specific type of booking party;

a content router adapted to provide each of said web sites with a set of common software components, and to provide each of said web sites with site-specific software components, said software components being adapted to collect and validity check reservation request details from a booking party, and adapted to confirm available reservations with said management system;

an intermediary system for interfacing said management system to said web sites, adapted to request availability for specific reservations according to said collected reservation request details, and adapted to create specific reservations and associate those reservations with customer profiles, and further adapted to determine a revenue amount afforded to said booking party.

12. The system as set forth in claim 11 wherein said software components comprise a software component adapted to collect a customer profile data set from a booking party and to create a customer profile in said management system.

13. The system as set forth in claim 11 wherein said software components comprise a software component adapted to retrieve an existing customer profile data set from said management system and to modify said customer profile by a booking party.

14. The system as set forth in claim 11 wherein said intermediary system is adapted to interface to said management system through terminal emulation.

15. The system as set forth in claim 11 wherein said intermediary system is adapted to interface to a management system selected from the group of a hotel reservation system, a travel ticket reservation system, a rental car reservation system, a golf tee time reservation system, an entertainment ticket reservation system, and reservation system for products due for future availability.