Restaurant yield management portal

• US 20080154654A1
• Filed: 12/22/2006
• Published: 06/26/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 12/22/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Liberty Peak Ventures, LLC (Dominion Harbor Enterprises, LLC)
• Original Assignee: American Express Travel Related Services Company, Inc. (American Express Company)
• Inventors: Niessen, Peter William, Kheraj, Aileen, Shere, Sheraz, Fogg, Rebecca, Funda, Jack
• Granted Patent: US 8,326,705 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 10/087 Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0241 Advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/12 Hotels or restaurants

Abstract

A system and method to optimize the yield of a restaurant having perishable inventory is described. Through a card company, a restaurant can market incentives to make reservations during an off-peak time to enrolled card members. Offer marketing is based on stated customer preferences, and conducted via, for example, a website, email, or text message. Reservations are made, for example, via a centralized booking service. The incentive is fulfilled to the card member in a coupon-less manner. The card company receives a commission from the participating restaurant for every such sale.

Claims

1. A method for improving the yield of a perishable inventory, comprising:

(1) receiving information regarding offers for perishable inventory of a merchant;

(2) targeting a consumer likely to accept the offer with the discounted merchant price for sale;

(3) communicating the offer to the consumer and providing a reservations facility;

(4) notifying the merchant about a reservation made by the consumer;

(5) debiting the consumer for a full price of the reservation made by the consumer at a point of sale; and

(6) crediting the consumer with either a difference between the full price of the reservation and the discounted merchant price or an equivalent value in loyalty points.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein step (1) further comprises providing details of the perishable inventory to a website that is accessible by a merchant and a consumer.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of targeting involves displaying on a website the most relevant inventory of offers for the consumer.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of targeting comprises communicating via an email, a text message or a telephone message.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising facilitating real-time online, a text message, Interactive Voice Response or telephone reservation by the consumer.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising notifying the merchant about a cancellation of the reservation via email, a website notice, a text message or by telephone.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein step (6) comprises:

automatically crediting the consumer with either the value of a merchant incentive or an equivalent value in loyalty points; and

billing the merchant for a value of the incentive plus a sales commission.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein step (2) comprises:

updating the availability of inventory of offers until one hour prior to a time of expiry.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising registering the consumer by linking a credit card account with the website such that a transaction card company hosting the website receives a commission from the merchant for every purchase made by the merchant to the consumer.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein step (1) further comprises:

authenticating by telephone or website, the merchant associated with the perishable inventory; and

.

notifying the merchant owner of the sale of the perishable inventory.

11. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

rectifying erroneous entries to the website by contacting a system administrator or a call center.

12. A method to optimize the yield of a restaurant comprising:

hosting information on a common platform that can be accessed by merchants and card members;

displaying search results for a card member showing a plurality of merchant offers meeting pre-specified user preferences or search criteria entered at a time of use by the card member;

allowing the card member to make a reservation or a cancellation with a particular restaurant;

billing the card member for a full cost of the meal at the particular restaurant;

automatically matching a roster of enrollees, a roster of available offers, a roster of participating merchants and a reservation log, with a transaction occurring between a merchant and a card member via the common platform on a regular basis;

crediting the card member with a portion of either the full amount for a transaction or an equivalent amount in loyalty points via the common platform in a coupon-less manner; and

providing off-peak incentives to the card member.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the step of hosting further comprises:

generating a periodic transaction statement for the restaurant and the card member;

validating the current inventory and updates to the current inventory; and

dynamically displaying any reservations.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein the step of hosting further comprises:

managing accounts of the card members by creating a preferences database; and

maintaining a reservation log and a cancellation log.

15. The method of claim 12, further comprising communicating updated discount offers from a plurality of merchants to a select group of card members via a website, text messaging, email, RSS feeds or WAP.

16. A system for optimizing restaurant inventory yield, comprising:

a processor;

a memory in communication with the processor, the memory for storing a plurality of processing instructions for directing the processor to;

match restaurants in a database of restaurants with card members in a database of potential customers;

provide information about restaurants having available tables in substantially current time to a card member;

accept a reservation made by a card member;

inform a restaurant of the reservation;

charge a full reservation amount at a time of sale to an account associated with the card member who is availing the reservation; and

automatically credit a card member statement for either a discount corresponding to the reservation or an equivalent value in loyalty points.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the instructions for directing the processor to match a database of restaurants with a database of potential customers further comprise instructions to:

authenticate a registered restaurant and a registered potential customer by validating.

18. The system of claim 16, wherein the instructions for directing the processor to inform the restaurants of the reservation further comprise instructions to send confirmations to restaurants and card members about specific reservations or cancellations.

19. The system of claim 16, wherein the instructions for directing the processor to charge the full reservation amount at the time of sale to an account associated with the card member further comprise instructions to:

create a record of charge containing details of a transaction; and

extract the record of charge only if there is an enrollee roster match, an offer roster match, a merchant roster match and a reservation log match.

20. The system of claim 16, wherein the instructions for directing the processor to provide updated information about restaurants further comprise instructions to collect, from a third party, additional information related to the ratings of the restaurant or driving directions to and from the restaurant.

21. The system of claim 16, wherein the instructions for directing the processor to match a database of restaurants with card members in a database of potential customers further comprise instructions to:

compute a size of a communication message between the system and a card member;

compute a total number of communication messages to be sent to the card member based on the total number of available tables and a pre-determined statistically computed pickup rate;

limit the total number of the communication messages to be sent per restaurant per day; and

classify results of a match based on at least one of;

a date, a time, a geographical location and a customer spending capability.