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First Claim
1. A system for providing a set of comprehensive travel packages to attend an event out of a series of scheduled events, the system comprising:
- a server engine (400) further comprising;
means for gathering all sorts of online travel related information from a plurality of specialized websites (410, 420, 430);
means for storing the gathered travel information (402);
means for calculating overall travel time durations and costs (404) in order to dynamically build the set of comprehensive travel packages from the gathered travel information and on the basis of a home location (300);
means for delivering to a plurality of client websites (440) the sets of comprehensive travel packages (310, 320) in response to the submission by end-users of the client websites of queries to attend events out of series of scheduled events (470), each said query including the home location (270) to be used for dynamically building the corresponding set of comprehensive travel packages;
thereby, selecting event with the most appropriate date and location allowing to deliver the best travel package for the specified end-user home location.
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Abstract
A system and methods for providing comprehensive travel package to attend an event out of a series of scheduled events are disclosed. The system comprises a server engine having means for gathering all sorts of online travel related information from a plurality of specialized websites. It includes means for storing the gathered travel information. A travel time durations and costs calculator operates from the gathered travel information in order to dynamically build the comprehensive travel packages. Sets of comprehensive travel packages are then delivered to a plurality of client websites in response to the submission by their end-users of queries to attend events out of series of scheduled events. End-user queries include home locations along with further preferences that are used to dynamically build the corresponding set of comprehensive travel packages. The most appropriate event date and location is thus selected allowing to deliver the best travel package for the specified end-user home location. Preferences include minimizing overall trip elapsed times, minimizing overall trip costs and excluding some transportation means. The invention also applies to the organization of professional meetings and for socializing websites to restrict selection of people to meet only to those fitting in a cost or time metric.
The invention allows delivering, to end-users of websites proposing series of events or organizing meetings, the best comprehensive, i.e., home to home, travel packages for each one of the proposed events or meetings so that they are aware of all opportunities and travel consequences (overall durations and costs, overnight stays etc.) before they book a trip.
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Citations
29 Claims
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1. A system for providing a set of comprehensive travel packages to attend an event out of a series of scheduled events, the system comprising:
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a server engine (400) further comprising; means for gathering all sorts of online travel related information from a plurality of specialized websites (410, 420, 430); means for storing the gathered travel information (402); means for calculating overall travel time durations and costs (404) in order to dynamically build the set of comprehensive travel packages from the gathered travel information and on the basis of a home location (300); means for delivering to a plurality of client websites (440) the sets of comprehensive travel packages (310, 320) in response to the submission by end-users of the client websites of queries to attend events out of series of scheduled events (470), each said query including the home location (270) to be used for dynamically building the corresponding set of comprehensive travel packages; thereby, selecting event with the most appropriate date and location allowing to deliver the best travel package for the specified end-user home location. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26)
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27. A method in a server engine (525) for providing a set of comprehensive travel packages to attend an event out of a series of scheduled events, comprising:
optionally, during an initialization phase, prior to receiving queries from end-users of client websites (440), receiving (520) from the client websites events lists comprising locations, dates and times of scheduled events (515); gathering (532), on the basis of the events lists, travel related information from a plurality of specialized websites (545);
the gathering step including the determination of the nearest event airports (540);creating (530) tables of away locations (500) corresponding to the events lists and including event airport access times; after initialization phase is complete, processing queries issued by the end-users of the client websites to attend series of scheduled events;
said queries including a home location (550) and, optionally, other preferences;searching for and building comprehensive travel packages for the queried series of scheduled events and adapted for the home locations and other provided preferences; returning to the end users of the client websites (560) sets of comprehensive travel packages;
said returning step including the further step of sorting the comprehensive travel packages according to the provided preferences or to a default sorting method.- View Dependent Claims (29)
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28. A method for the end-user of a client web site to attend an event out of a series of scheduled events, comprising:
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from the client website, selecting a preferred series of events (260);
said selecting step including the optional step of deselecting (292) specific events out of the series of scheduled events;entering a home location (270) and, optionally, other preferences (272, 274); requesting trips evaluation (280) for the selected series of events on the basis of the home location and other preferences; after a set of comprehensive travel packages is returned to the client website, selecting an option (332) out of the returned set of sorted comprehensive travel package (310); requesting booking (330) of the selected travel option.
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Specification