Hotel/transportation reservation mechanism

• US 20040249684A1
• Filed: 12/19/2003
• Published: 12/09/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 06/19/2001
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Berling Finance Oy (Travelport Worldwide Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Berling Finance Oy (Travelport Worldwide Ltd.)
• Inventors: Karppinen, Esa
• Application Number:
  US10/481,520
• Publication Number:
  US 20040249684A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/5
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/02 Reservations, e.g. for tickets, services or events

Abstract

A method for handling a reservation request relating to a reservable item, such as a hotel room. An availability data provider (ADP) actively polls (4-1 . . . 4-4) providers (P1 . . . P4) of reservable items to obtain availability data and receives polling results (PR, 4-1′ . . . 4-4′) from the providers. The ADP maintains (4-5, 4-6) provider-specific availability data on the basis of the polling results. The ADP receives a reservation request (4-17, 4-37) from a client (TA1, TA2, EU1, EU2) and provides the client with a response (4-22, 4-43) to the reservation request. As a result of the active polling, accuracy of the availability data is improved.

Claims

1. A method for handling a reservation request relating to a reservable item;

the method comprising;

polling (P, 4-1 . . . 4-4) providers (P1 . . . P4) of reservable items to obtain availability data;

receiving polling results (PR, 4-1′

. . . 4-4′

) from the providers of reservable items;

maintaining (4-5, 4-6) provider-specific availability data at least partly on the basis of the polling results;

receiving a reservation request (4-17, 4-37) from a client (TA1, TA2, EU1, EU2); and

providing the client with a response (4-22, 4-41) to the reservation request;

characterized by

maintaining a provider-specific frequency for the polling;

wherein the step of maintaining the provider-specific frequency comprises calculating (4-20, 4-40) a success rate of reservation requests to the provider in question.

2. A method according to claim 1, characterized by displaying (4-16, 52) the provider-specific availability data (522) to the client prior to receiving the reservation request (4-17) from the client.

3. A method according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized by maintaining provider-specific availability data also on the basis of results (4-19, 4-39) from the reservation requests.

4. A method according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized by maintaining the provider-specific availability data per rate class.

5. A method according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the reservable items comprise hotel rooms and the providers comprise hotels.

6. An apparatus (ADP) for handling reservation requests, each reservation request relating to a reservable item;

the apparatus comprising;

a polling engine (PE) for polling (P, 4-1 . . . 4-4) providers (P1 . . . P4) of reservable items to obtain availability data and for receiving polling results (PR, 4-1′

. . . 4-4′

) from the providers of reservable items;

a database (DB) for maintaining (4-5, 4-6) provider-specific availability data at least partly on the basis of the polling results;

means (Cl, RL, 50) for receiving a reservation request (4-17, 4-37) from a client (TA1, TA2, EU1, EU2); and

for providing the client with a response (4-22, 4-43) to the reservation request;

characterized in that the polling engine (PE) is operable to;

maintain a provider-specific frequency for the polling; and

determine the provider-specific frequency based on a success rate of reservation requests to the provider in question.