Method and system for providing and administering online rental vehicle reservation booking services

• US 20070239494A1
• Filed: 03/16/2006
• Published: 10/11/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 03/16/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: The Crawford Group Incorporated (Jack Taylor Family Voting Trust U A D 4 14 99)
• Original Assignee: The Crawford Group Incorporated (Jack Taylor Family Voting Trust U A D 4 14 99)
• Inventors: Tucker, Paul, Stephens, Scott, Boruff, Kelli, Zurliene, Colleen
• Granted Patent: US 8,271,309 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/5
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/02 Reservations, e.g. for tickets, services or events
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0645 Rental transactions; Leasing transactions

Abstract

A system and method is disclosed herein for customizing pages of a rental vehicle reservation booking website with deep-links for specialized rental vehicle reservations. The specialized rental vehicle reservations may comprise reservations for a division of a customer entity and/or promotional offer reservations. Multi-division and multi-offer pages can also be defined for the website through an administrative tool.

Claims

1. A method for providing rental vehicle reservation booking services through an Internet website, the website being accessible by a user computer over the Internet, the method comprising:

providing a multiple deep-link page of the website for display on the user computer, wherein a user of the user computer is associated with a customer profile, the customer profile having plurality of divisions, the multiple deep-link page being configured to display a plurality of division-specific reservation deep-links for the website, each division-specific reservation deep-link being selectable by the user to cause a display on the user computer of a deep-linked page of the website, and wherein each deep-linked page is configured to accept user input regarding a rental vehicle reservation having at least one pre-selected characteristic.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

receiving user input corresponding to a selection of one of the displayed division-specific reservation deep-links; and

responsive to the received user input, providing the deep-linked page to the user computer for display thereon.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein the customer profile corresponds to a business or governmental entity, the method further comprising:

storing the division-specific deep-links and the pre-selected rental vehicle reservation characteristics in a customer profile associated with the entity.

4. The method of claim 2 wherein the at least one pre-selected characteristic comprises a location for the reservation.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein the pre-selected location comprises a branch location of a rental vehicle service provider where a rental vehicle corresponding to the reservation is to be picked up.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein the customer profile corresponds to a business or governmental entity, and wherein at least one division of the entity has a physical location where offices therefor are situated, and wherein the pre-selected branch location for that division'"'"'s deep-link comprises a branch location of a rental vehicle service provider that is closest to the division'"'"'s physical location.

7. The method of claim 4 wherein the pre-selected location comprises a plurality of eligible branch locations of a rental vehicle service provider where a rental vehicle corresponding to the reservation can be picked up.

8. The method of claim 2 wherein the at least one pre-selected characteristic comprises a vehicle type for the reservation.

9. The method of claim 2 wherein the at least one pre-selected characteristic comprises a plurality of eligible vehicle types for the reservation.

10. The method of claim 2 wherein the at least one pre-selected characteristic comprises a starting date for the reservation.

11. The method of claim 2 wherein the at least one pre-selected characteristic comprises a plurality of eligible starting dates for the reservation.

12. The method of claim 2 wherein the at least one pre-selected characteristic comprises a rate for the reservation.

13. The method of claim 2 wherein the at least one pre-selected characteristic comprises a plurality of eligible rates for the reservation.

14. The method of claim 2 wherein the at least one pre-selected characteristic comprises a collision and damage protection product for the reservation.

15. The method of claim 2 wherein the at least one pre-selected characteristic comprises a plurality of eligible collision and damage protection products for the reservation.

16. The method of claim 2 further comprising positioning each division-specific reservation deep-link on the multiple deep-link page such that it is adjacent to text on the multiple deep-link page that describes that division-specific reservation deep-link.

17. The method of claim 2 wherein the multiple deep-link page is further configured to display a link for the website that is selectable by the user to cause a display on the user computer of a another multiple deep-link page comprising a plurality of division-specific reservation deep-links to pages of the website that are configured to accept user input regarding a rental vehicle reservation having at least one pre-selected characteristic.

18. The method of claim 2 wherein the multiple deep-link page is further configured to display a link that is selectable by the user to access a different website.

19. A method for providing rental vehicle reservation booking services through an Internet website, the website being accessible by at least one user computer over the Internet, the method comprising:

receiving input from the user computer corresponding to a selection of a deep-link uniform resource locator (URL) for the website from a multiple deep-link page of the website, the deep-link URL comprising a URL for a deep-linked page of the website that is configured to accept user computer input toward creating a reservation having at least one reservation characteristic that is pre-selected; and

responsive to the received input, providing the deep-linked page corresponding to the deep-link URL selection to the user computer for display thereon.

20. The method of claim 19 further comprising:

providing the multiple deep-link page for display on the user computer, wherein the user of the user computer is associated with a customer profile, the customer profile having plurality of divisions, the multiple deep-link page being configured to display a plurality of division-specific reservation deep-links for the website, each division-specific reservation deep-link having an associated deep-link URL and being selectable by the user to cause a display on the user computer of a deep-linked page of the website, and wherein each deep-linked page is configured to accept user input regarding a rental vehicle reservation having at least one pre-selected characteristic.

56. The method of claim 55 further comprising performing the steps of claim 20 through at least one graphical user interface (GUI) that is configured to accept input from an administrator regarding the at least one pre-selected characteristic and the created deep-link.

57. The method of claim 56 further comprising:

including a link to a different website on the multiple deep-link page.

58. The method of claim 56 wherein the multiple deep-link page comprises a plurality of sections, the method further comprising:

defining a plurality of text portions that are to be displayed in sections of the multiple deep-link page that are adjacent to the deep-links.

59. The method of claim 58 further comprising performing the text portions defining step through a GUI that is configured to accept text entry from an administrator for each of the adjacent sections.

21. A system for providing rental vehicle reservation creation services, the system comprising:

a memory in which data for a plurality of customer profiles is stored; and

a server in communication with the memory and the Internet, wherein the server is configured to provide an Internet website for access over the Internet by a user computer to book a rental vehicle reservation, the website comprising a plurality of pages for display on the user computer, wherein the pages are user-interactive to accept user input regarding a creation of a rental vehicle reservation with a rental vehicle service provider;

wherein the server is configured to (1) recognize a user of a user computer as being associated with a customer profile having a plurality of divisions, (2) access the memory to retrieve data corresponding to the user'"'"'s associated customer profile, (3) use the retrieved data to build a multiple deep-link page, and (4) provide the multiple deep-link page to the user computer for display thereon; and

wherein the multiple deep-link page is configured to display a plurality of division-specific reservation deep-links for the website, wherein each division-specific reservation deep-link is selectable by the user to cause a display on the user computer of a deep-linked page of the website, each deep-linked page being configured to accept user input regarding a rental vehicle reservation having at least one pre-selected characteristic.

22. The system of claim 21 wherein the customer profile comprises a customer profile for a business or governmental entity, and wherein the at least one pre-selected characteristic comprises a location for the reservation.

23. The system of claim 22 wherein the pre-selected location comprises a branch location of a rental vehicle service provider where a rental vehicle corresponding to the reservation is to be picked up.

24. The system of claim 22 wherein the pre-selected location comprises a plurality of eligible branch locations of a rental vehicle service provider where a rental vehicle corresponding to the reservation can be picked up.

25. The system of claim 21 wherein the at least one pre-selected characteristic comprises a vehicle type for the reservation.

26. The system of claim 21 wherein the at least one pre-selected characteristic comprises a plurality of eligible vehicle types for the reservation.

27. The system of claim 21 wherein the at least one pre-selected characteristic comprises a starting date for the reservation.

28. The system of claim 21 wherein the at least one pre-selected characteristic comprises a plurality of eligible starting dates for the reservation.

29. The system of claim 21 wherein the at least one pre-selected characteristic comprises a rate for the reservation.

30. The system of claim 21 wherein the at least one pre-selected characteristic comprises a plurality of eligible rates for the reservation.

31. The system of claim 21 wherein the at least one pre-selected characteristic comprises a collision and damage protection product for the reservation.

32. The system of claim 21 wherein the at least one pre-selected characteristic comprises a plurality of eligible collision and damage protection products for the reservation.

33. The system of claim 21 wherein the multiple deep-link page is further configured to display each division-specific reservation deep-link such that it is adjacent to text on the multiple deep-link page that describes that division-specific reservation deep-link.

34. The system of claim 21 wherein the multiple deep-link page is further configured to display a link for the website that is selectable by the user to cause a display on the user computer of a another multiple deep-link page comprising a plurality of division-specific reservation deep-links to pages of the website that are configured to accept user input regarding a rental vehicle reservation having at least one pre-selected characteristic.

35. The system of claim 21 wherein the multiple deep-link page is further configured to display a link that is selectable by the user to access a different website.

69. The method of claim 68 further comprising performing the steps of claim 33 through a plurality of interrelated graphical user interfaces.

36. A method for administering a rental vehicle reservation booking website, the method comprising:

defining a plurality of specialized rental vehicle reservation profiles, each specialized rental vehicle reservation profile comprising at least one characteristic of a rental vehicle reservation;

defining a plurality of deep-linked pages, each one of which being configured to accept user input toward creating a rental vehicle reservation corresponding to one of said specialized rental vehicle reservation profiles;

defining a multiple deep-link page for displaying a plurality of deep-links on a user computer, each deep-link being selectable by a user of the user computer to display the defined deep-linked pages corresponding to said specialized rental vehicle reservation profiles; and

storing data corresponding to the defined specialized rental vehicle reservation profiles, the defined deep-linked pages corresponding to each of said specialized rental vehicle reservation profiles, and the defined multiple deep-link page in a database for subsequent retrieval when the user accesses the website to request the defined multiple deep-link page.

37. The method of claim 36 wherein the deep-linked page defining step comprises generating a uniform resource locator (URL) for the deep-linked page, wherein the user-selectable deep-link for that deep-linked page corresponds to the generated URL therefor.

38. The method of claim 37 further comprising:

maintaining a customer profile in the database, the customer profile being associated with an entity, the entity having a plurality of divisions;

wherein the specialized rental vehicle reservation profile defining step and the deep-linked page defining step are performed for the plurality of divisions; and

wherein the storing step comprises storing the data corresponding to the defined specialized rental vehicle reservation profiles, the defined deep-linked pages, and the defined multiple deep-link page in the database in association with the customer profile for subsequent retrieval when the user who is associated with the customer profile accesses the website to request the defined multiple deep-link page.

39. The method of claim 38 wherein the specialized rental vehicle reservation profile defining step comprises defining a location for a specialized rental vehicle reservation profile.

40. The method of claim 38 wherein the specialized rental vehicle reservation profile defining step comprises defining at least one vehicle type for the specialized rental vehicle reservation profile.

41. The method of claim 38 wherein the specialized rental vehicle reservation profile defining step comprises defining a plurality of eligible vehicle types for the specialized rental vehicle reservation profile.

42. The method of claim 38 wherein the specialized rental vehicle reservation profile defining step comprises defining a collision and damage protection product for the specialized rental vehicle reservation profile.

43. The method of claim 38 wherein the multiple deep-link page comprises a plurality of sections, and wherein the step of defining the multiple deep-link page comprises defining a text portion that is to be displayed in a section of the multiple deep-link page.

44. The method of claim 43 wherein the text portion comprises at least an identification of a name of the customer associated with the customer profile.

45. The method of claim 43 wherein the step of defining the multiple deep-link page comprises defining a plurality of text portions that are to be displayed in sections of the multiple deep-link page adjacent to the deep-links on the multiple deep-link page.

46. The method of claim 45 wherein the plurality of text portions adjacent to the deep-links comprise a plurality of identifiers for the entity'"'"'s divisions.

47. The method of claim 37 wherein the specialized rental vehicle reservation profile defining step comprises defining at least one characteristic for a specialized rental vehicle reservation profile corresponding to a promotional offer, and wherein the deep-linked page defining step comprises defining a deep-linked page that is configured to accept user input toward creating a promotional offer rental vehicle reservation wherein the defined at least one characteristic is pre-selected.

48. The method of claim 47 wherein the specialized rental vehicle reservation profile defining step comprises defining at least one eligible location for the specialized rental vehicle reservation profile.

49. The method of claim 47 wherein the specialized rental vehicle reservation profile defining step comprises defining at least one eligible vehicle type for the specialized rental vehicle reservation profile.

50. The method of claim 47 wherein the specialized rental vehicle reservation profile defining step comprises defining at least one eligible starting date for the specialized rental vehicle reservation profile.

51. The method of claim 47 wherein the specialized rental vehicle reservation profile defining step comprises defining at least one eligible ending date for the specialized rental vehicle reservation profile.

52. The method of claim 47 wherein the specialized rental vehicle reservation profile defining step comprises defining a blackout date for the specialized rental vehicle reservation profile.

53. The method of claim 47 wherein the multiple deep-link page comprises a plurality of sections, and wherein the step of defining the multiple deep-link page comprises defining a plurality of text portions that are to be displayed in sections of the multiple deep-link page adjacent to the deep-links on the multiple deep-link page.

54. The method of claim 53 wherein the plurality of text portions adjacent to the deep-links comprise a plurality of identifiers for the promotional offers corresponding to the deep-links.

55. A method of administering a website for access by a user computer, the website comprising a plurality of pages for display on the user computer that are configured to accept input from a user of the user computer for creating a rental vehicle reservation with a rental vehicle service provider, the method comprising:

defining at least one pre-selected characteristic for a specialized rental vehicle reservation;

repeating the defining step for a plurality of different specialized rental vehicle reservations;

creating a deep-link for each of the specialized rental vehicle reservations, each deep-link being selectable by the user to display a deep-linked page of the website corresponding to the specialized rental vehicle reservation for the selected deep-link;

consolidating the created deep-links on a multiple deep-link page, the multiple deep-link page for display on the user computer; and

storing the defined pre-selected characteristics in a database for subsequent retrieval by the website upon receipt of user input corresponding to a selection of one of the created deep-links from the multiple deep-link page.

60. The method of claim 55 wherein a plurality of the specialized rental vehicle reservations comprise rental vehicle reservations for a customer profile.

61. The method of claim 60 wherein the customer profile has a plurality of divisions, and wherein a plurality of the customer profile specialized rental vehicle reservations comprise customer profile rental vehicle reservations for the plurality of customer profile divisions.

62. The method of claim 55 wherein a plurality of the specialized rental vehicle reservations comprise rental vehicle reservations for a plurality of promotional offers.

63. The method of claim 55 wherein the step of defining at least one pre-selected characteristic for a specialized rental vehicle reservation comprises defining at least one location for the specialized rental vehicle reservation.

64. The method of claim 55 wherein the step of defining at least one pre-selected characteristic for a specialized rental vehicle reservation comprises defining at least one vehicle type for the specialized rental vehicle reservation.

65. The method of claim 55 wherein the step of defining at least one pre-selected characteristic for a specialized rental vehicle reservation comprises defining at least one starting date for the specialized rental vehicle reservation.

66. The method of claim 55 wherein the step of defining at least one pre-selected characteristic for a specialized rental vehicle reservation comprises defining at least one ending date for the specialized rental vehicle reservation.

67. The method of claim 55 wherein the step of defining at least one pre-selected characteristic for a specialized rental vehicle reservation comprises defining a blackout date for the specialized rental vehicle reservation.

68. A method for customizing a multiple deep-link page of a rental vehicle reservation booking website for a customer, the website comprising a plurality of customer-interactive pages for display on a customer computer, the method comprising:

maintaining a multiple deep-link page template, the multiple deep-link page template having a plurality of sections;

populating at least one section of the multiple deep-link page template with content that is customized for a customer, to thereby create a customized multiple deep-link page;

creating a uniform resource locator (URL) for the multiple deep-link page; and

storing data corresponding to the customized multiple deep-link page in a customer profile maintained in a database that is associated with that customer for subsequent retrieval by the website for display of the customized multiple deep-link page on a customer computer in response to a request from the customer computer that includes the URL of the customized multiple deep-link page.

70. A system for administering a rental vehicle reservation booking website, the website being accessible over the Internet by a user computer and comprising a plurality of pages that are configured to accept user input toward booking a rental vehicle reservation, the system comprising:

a database;

a server in communication with the database and the user computer, the server being configured to (1) provide pages of the website to the user computer for display thereon, and (2) respond to user input to book a rental vehicle reservation; and

an administrator computer in communication with the database, the administrator computer being configured to display a plurality of graphical user interfaces (GUI) that are configured to (1) accept administrator input for customizing a plurality of the website pages so that the customized website pages are configured to accept user input in connection with a specialized rental vehicle reservation, (2) store data corresponding to the customized website pages in the database, (3) accept administrator input for customizing a multiple deep-link page that includes a plurality of user-selectable deep-links for accessing the customized website pages for the specialized rental vehicle reservations, and (4) store data corresponding to the multiple deep-link page in the database.

71. The system of claim 70 wherein at least one of the administrator computer GUIs is configured to accept administrator input for customizing a deep-linked page for a specialized rental vehicle reservation that is a customer profile division rental vehicle reservation.

72. The system of claim 71 wherein at least one of the administrator computer GUIs is configured to accept administrator input for defining at least one pre-selected characteristic of the customer profile division rental vehicle reservation.

73. The system of claim 70 wherein at least one of the administrator computer GUIs is configured to accept administrator input for customizing a deep-linked page for specialized rental vehicle reservation that is a promotional offer rental vehicle reservation.

74. The system of claim 73 wherein at least one of the administrator computer GUIs is configured to accept administrator input for defining at least one pre-selected characteristic of the promotional offer rental vehicle reservation.

75. The system of claim 74 wherein at least one of the administrator computer GUIs is configured to accept administrator input for duplicating a customized a deep-linked page for a promotional offer rental vehicle reservation.

76. A computer-implemented method for administering a rental vehicle reservation booking website, the website comprising a plurality of pages for display on a user computer, the plurality of website pages being user-interactive for a user of the user computer to book a rental vehicle reservation, the method comprising:

defining a plurality of pre-selected characteristics for a plurality of specialized rental vehicle reservations corresponding to different rental vehicle needs of a customer;

creating a plurality of deep-link uniform resource locators (URLs) for the specialized rental vehicle reservations, each deep-link URL corresponding to one of the specialized rental vehicle reservations;

grouping a plurality of the deep-link URLs together for inclusion as user-selectable deep-links on a multiple deep-link page, the multiple deep-link page being for display on the user computer;

generating a URL for the multiple deep-link page; and

storing data corresponding to the defined pre-selected characteristics, the created deep-link URLs, the multiple deep-link page and the multiple deep-link page URL in a database accessible by the website for subsequent retrieval.

77. The method of claim 76 further comprising receiving input through at least one administrator interface that defines text to be displayed on the multiple deep-link page adjacent each of the multiple deep-link page'"'"'s user-selectable deep-links.

78. A computer-implemented method for administering a rental vehicle reservation booking website, the website comprising a plurality of pages for display on a user computer, the plurality of website pages being user-interactive for a user of the user computer to book a rental vehicle reservation, the method comprising:

providing a plurality of graphical user interfaces (GUIs) through which an administrator can control which of a plurality of reservation characteristics for a specialized rental vehicle reservation corresponding to a rental need of a customer will be pre-selected for that specialized rental vehicle reservation, including (1) a first GUI through which the administrator can control whether a branch location of a rental vehicle service provider will be pre-selected for the specialized rental vehicle reservation, (2) a second GUI through which the administrator can control whether a vehicle type will be pre-selected for the specialized rental vehicle reservation, and (3) a third GUI through which the administrator can control whether at least one of a starting date and an ending date will be pre-selected for specialized rental vehicle reservation; and

responsive to administrator input through the GUIs, creating a deep-link uniform resource locator (URL) for a deep-linked page of the website corresponding to the specialized rental vehicle reservation.

79. The method of claim 78 further comprising:

creating a plurality of the deep-link URLs for a plurality of different specialized rental vehicle reservations of the customer;

providing a fourth GUI through which the administrator can group a plurality of the created deep-link URLs for inclusion as user-selectable deep-links on a multiple deep-link page of the website.