METHODS AND SYSTEMS FOR TRANSMITTING ALERTS ON HOTEL DEALS

• US 20110022423A1
• Filed: 07/27/2009
• Published: 01/27/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 07/27/2009
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: DealBase Corporation
• Original Assignee: DealBase Corporation
• Inventors: Shank, Sam
• Application Number:
  US12/510,116
• Publication Number:
  US 20110022423A1
• 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 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0239 Online discounts or incentives
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/06 Buying, selling or leasing transactions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0613 Third-party assisted

Abstract

Disclosed herein are methods and systems for transmitting hotel deal alerts. In one embodiment, a deal alert service receives a request to periodically receive hotel related deals satisfying a specific criteria, such as being from one or more geographic locations. Based on a frequency of the periodic basis, the deal alert service generates a list of hotel deals and sends it to the user during each frequency cycle. The deal alert service transmits the list of hotel deals using a specific transmission mechanism indicated by the user. Additionally, each list item of the list of hotel-deals includes a hyperlink to a primary source offering the hotel and the saving-deal. Upon selecting a list item of the list of hotel-deals, the user is transported to an entity associated with the primary source, through which the user is able to complete a transaction to book a hotel room and receive the posted saving-deal.

Claims

1. A method for providing alerts related to hotel deals based on a specific criteria, the method comprising:

receiving a first request from a user to provide, on a periodic basis, alerts related to saving-deals available on one or more hotels satisfying the specific criteria; and

during each periodic instance of the periodic basis;

querying one or more hotel-deal sources to identify and collect information related to the saving-deals available on one or more hotels satisfying the specific criteria;

generating a first list of hotel deals pertaining to the specific criteria based on the query of the one or more hotel-deal sources; and

transmitting the first list of hotel deals to the user as a first personalized alert using a specific transmission mechanism.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the specific criteria includes at least one of a given geographic location, a hotel category, a hotel rating, a range of dates, a specific hotel, a deal category, and a price range.

3. A method for providing alerts related to hotel deals in a given geographic location, the method comprising:

receiving a first request from a user to provide, on a periodic basis, alerts related to saving-deals available on one or more hotels located at a first geographic location; and

during each periodic instance of the periodic basis;

querying one or more hotel-deal sources to identify and collect information related to the saving-deals available on one or more hotels located at the first geographic location;

generating a first list of hotel deals pertaining to the first geographic location based on the query of the one or more hotel-deal sources; and

transmitting the first list of hotel deals to the user as a first personalized alert using a specific transmission mechanism.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the specific transmission mechanism is specified by the user.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the transmission mechanism includes one or more of:

transmitting the list of hotel deals as an electronic mail to an electronic mail account associated with the user;

transmitting the list of hotel deals as a text message to a mobile device associated with the user;

transmitting the list of hotel deals using an application of a social networking website;

transmitting the list of hotel deals as a voice message to a telecommunication device associated with the user;

or

transmitting the list of hotel deals to a website for display of the list of hotel deals in a webpage.

6. The method of claim 3, wherein the one or more hotel-deal sources includes a local database, wherein the local database stores saving-deals retrieved from a plurality of primary sources, each of the plurality of primary sources corresponding to an entity through which the user can consummate a transaction to book a reservation and receive the saving-deal for a particular hotel in the first geographic location.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein each of the plurality of primary sources includes one or more of:

a website operated by a specific hotel through which the user can book a reservation to the specific hotel;

or

a website operated by a travel agent advertising saving-deals for the specific hotel, wherein the user can book a reservation to the specific hotel through the website operated by the travel agent.

8. The method of claim 3, wherein the one or more hotel-deal sources includes a primary source, wherein the primary source corresponds to an entity through which the user can consummate a transaction to book a reservation and receive the saving-deal for a particular hotel in the first geographic location.

9. The method of claim 3, wherein each hotel deal of the first list of hotel deals includes a hyperlink to a primary source, wherein the primary source corresponds to an entity through which the user can consummate a transaction to book a reservation and receive the saving-deal for a particular hotel in the first geographic location.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein the primary source includes one or more of:

a website operated by a specific hotel through which the user can book a reservation to the specific hotel;

or

a website operated by a travel agent advertising saving-deals for the specific hotel, wherein the user can book a reservation to the specific hotel through the website operated by the travel agent.

11. The method of claim 3, wherein each hotel deal displayed from the first list of hotel deals transmitted to the user includes one or more of:

a name of a specific hotel;

a rating information associated with the specific hotel;

a deal price for booking a room in the specific hotel;

information data related to the specific hotel and/or the room;

a deal price value for booking the room in the specific hotel;

savings information associated with booking the room in the specific hotel;

a hyperlink to a primary source, wherein the primary source corresponds to an entity through which the user can consummate a transaction to book a reservation and receive the saving-deal for a particular hotel in the first geographic location;

a duration through which the indicated deal price value is available;

or

a sponsor link.

12. The method of claim 3, wherein the step of transmitting the first personalized alert based on the periodic basis includes one or more of:

transmitting the first personalized alert instantly;

transmitting the first personalized alert only once without any recurrence;

or

transmitting the first personalized alert on a recurring basis based on a time frequency specified the user.

13. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

providing the user a mechanism to specify a plurality of preferences related to receiving and/or filtering the first personalized alert, the plurality of preferences including;

a frequency of receiving the first personalized alert;

favorite hotels associated with a given geographic location;

hotels to be avoided in the given geographic location;

a desired category of a hotel in the given geographic location;

a desired price range for the hotel;

a desired rating for the hotel;

a desired time duration for booking the hotel;

a keyword associated with the given geographic location;

a desired type of room;

or

a desired tag for selecting the hotel.

14. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

subsequent to the user completing a booking of a specific hotel using the first list of hotel deals and/or completing a stay at the specific hotel, following up with the user to obtain user experience information, the user experience information including one or more of;

experience with using a primary source for booking the specific hotel;

experience of the user at the specific hotel;

or

experience of the user at the first geographic location.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the user posts the user experience information in the form of a star rating, further wherein the star rating is included in a subsequent display of the specific hotel and/or the primary source in a second list of hotel deals.

16. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

including additional travel related deals associated with the first geographic location, the additional travel related deals including one or more of;

deals related to air, ground and/or water transportation to the first geographic location;

sight-seeing and/or other tourist packages relevant to the first geographic location;

or

social events related to the first geographic location.

17. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

setting up a personalized registered account for the user, wherein subsequent to setting up the registered account;

receiving a second request from the user to provide alerts related to saving-deals available on one or more hotels at a second geographic location, wherein the second geographic location is saved in association with the user'"'"'s registered account.

18. The method of claim 17, further comprising:

subsequent to adding the second geographic location, sending a second list of travel deals as a second personalized alert to the user based on a second transmission mechanism selected by the user.

19. The method of claim 18, further comprising:

transmitting the first list of travel deals and the second list of travel deals to the user as a combined personalized alert using a specific transmission mechanism.

20. The method of claim 18, further comprising:

transmitting the first list of travel deals and the second list of travel deals as two discrete personalized alerts, each discrete personalized alert transmitted using an associated transmission mechanism.

21. The method of claim 18, further comprising:

transmitting the first list of travel deals according to the same periodic basis as that of the second list of travel deals.

22. The method of claim 18, further comprising:

transmitting the first list of travel deals and the second list of travel deals according to two discrete periodic bases.

23. A method for providing alerts related to hotel deals to a user, the method comprising:

providing a preferences menu to enable a user to select one or more geographic locations and a frequency at which the user would prefer to receive alerts related to saving-deals pertaining to the selected one or more geographic locations;

subsequent to the user providing an input using the preferences menu, generating, on a periodic basis as indicated by the selected frequency, a list of hotel deals pertaining to each of the selected one or more geographic locations, wherein each list item of the generated list of hotel deals includes a hyperlink to a web location of a corresponding primary source; and

transmitting, according to the periodic basis, the list of hotel deals to the user utilizing a specific transmission mechanism, wherein, upon the user selecting a first hyperlink from a first list item from the list of hotel deals, the user is transferred to a first web location of a first primary source corresponding to the first list item, enabling the user to consummate a transaction to book a reservation and receive the saving-deal for a first hotel associated with the first list item.

24. The method of claim 23, further comprising:

establishing a personalized registered account for the user, wherein the personalized registered account stores the user'"'"'s preferences as indicated in the preferences menu.

25. The method of claim 24, wherein, the user can indicate additional preferences using the personalized registered account, the additional preferences including one or more of:

adding one or more additional geographic locations;

removing one or more geographic locations previously added to the user'"'"'s personalized registered account;

the specific transmission mechanism to be used specifically for each individual geographic location;

the specific transmission mechanism to be used globally for all geographic locations;

favorite hotels associated with a given geographic location;

hotels to be avoided in the given geographic location;

a desired category of a given hotel;

a desired price range for the given hotel;

a desired rating for the given hotel;

a desired time duration for booking the given hotel;

a keyword associated with the given geographic location;

a desired type of room;

or

a desired tag for selecting the given hotel.

26. The method of claim 23, further comprising:

generating a separate and individualized list of hotel deals for each of the one or more geographic locations.

27. The method of claim 23, further comprising:

generating a combined list of hotel deals that includes all of the one or more geographic locations.

28. The method of claim 23, wherein the first primary source is an entity that provides the saving-deal for the first hotel associated with the first list item, and wherein the user utilizes a service of the first primary source to consummate the transaction to book the reservation and receive the saving-deal for the first hotel associated with the first list item.

29. The method of claim 28, wherein the service of the first primary source is one or more of:

a website operated by the first hotel through which the user can book a reservation to the first hotel;

or

a website operated by a travel agent advertising saving-deals for the first hotel, wherein the user can book a reservation to the first hotel through the website operated by the travel agent.

30. The method of claim 23, wherein, in addition to the first hyperlink to the first primary source, the first list item includes one or more of:

a name of the first hotel;

a rating information associated with the first hotel;

a deal price for booking a room in the first hotel;

information data related to the first hotel and/or the room;

a deal price value for booking the room in the first hotel;

savings information associated with booking the room in the first hotel;

a duration through which the indicated deal price value is available;

or

a sponsor link.

31. A hotel-deal alerting system for providing alerts related to hotel deals to a user, the hotel-deal alerting system comprising:

a receiving module configured to receive a first request from a user to provide, on a periodic basis, alerts related to saving-deals available on one or more hotels located at a first geographic location;

a querying module configured to query, at each given periodic instance of the periodic basis, one or more hotel-deal sources to identify and collect information related to the saving-deals available on one or more hotels located at the first geographic location;

a deal-generation module configured to generate, at each given periodic instance, a first list of hotel deals pertaining to the first geographic location based on the query of the one or more hotel-deal sources; and

a transmitting module configured to transmit, at each given periodic instance, the first list of hotel deals to the user as a first personalized alert using a specific transmission mechanism.

32. The hotel-deal alerting system of claim 31, wherein the specific transmission mechanism is specified by the user, and wherein the specific transmission mechanism includes one or more of:

transmitting the list of hotel deals as an electronic mail to an electronic mail account associated with the user;

transmitting the list of hotel deals as a text message to a mobile device associated with the user;

transmitting the list of hotel deals using an application of a social networking website;

transmitting the list of hotel deals as a voice message to a telecommunication device associated with the user;

or

transmitting the list of hotel deals to a website for display of the list of hotel deals in a webpage.

33. The hotel-deal alerting system of claim 31, wherein each of the one or more hotel-deal sources includes one or more of:

a local database, wherein the local database stores saving-deals retrieved from a plurality of primary sources, each of the plurality of primary sources corresponding to an entity through which the user can consummate a transaction to book a reservation and receive the saving-deal for a particular hotel in the first geographic location;

or

one of the plurality of primary sources.

34. The hotel-deal alerting system of claim 33, wherein each of the plurality of primary sources includes one or more of:

a website operated by a specific hotel through which the user can book a reservation to the specific hotel;

or

a website operated by a travel agent advertising saving-deals for the specific hotel, wherein the user can book a reservation to the specific hotel through the website operated by the travel agent.

35. The hotel-deal alerting system of claim 34, wherein the periodic basis includes one or more of:

transmitting the first personalized alert instantly;

transmitting the first personalized alert only once without any recurrence;

or

transmitting the first personalized alert on a recurring basis based on a time frequency specified the user.

36. The hotel-deal alerting system of claim 31, further comprising:

a preference input module configured to provide the user a mechanism to specify a plurality of preferences related to receiving the first personalized alert, the plurality of preferences including;

a frequency of receiving the first personalized alert;

favorite hotels associated with a given geographic location;

hotels to be avoided in the given geographic location;

a desired category of a hotel in the given geographic location;

a desired price range for the hotel;

a desired rating for the hotel;

a desired time duration for booking the hotel;

a keyword associated with the given geographic location;

a desired type of room;

or

a desired tag for selecting the hotel.

37. A hotel-deal alerting system for providing alerts related to hotel deals to a user, the hotel-deal alerting system comprising:

a processor;

a memory configured to store a set of instructions, which when executed by the processor cause the hotel-deal alerting system to perform a method, the method including;

providing a preferences menu to enable a user to select one or more geographic locations and a frequency at which the user would prefer to receive alerts related to saving-deals pertaining to the selected one or more geographic locations;

subsequent to the user providing an input using the preferences menu, generating, on a periodic basis as indicated by the selected frequency, a list of hotel deals pertaining to each of the selected one or more geographic locations, wherein each list item of the generated list of hotel deals includes a hyperlink to a web location of a corresponding primary source; and

transmitting, according to the periodic basis, the list of hotel deals to the user utilizing a specific transmission mechanism, wherein, upon the user selecting a first hyperlink from a first list item from the list of hotel deals, the user is transferred to a first web location of a first primary source corresponding to the first list item, enabling the user to consummate a transaction to book a reservation and receive the saving-deal for a first hotel associated with the first list item.

38. A hotel-deal alerting system for providing alerts related to hotel deals to a user, the hotel-deal alerting system comprising:

receiving means for receiving a first request from a user to provide, on a periodic basis, alerts related to saving-deals available on one or more hotels located at a first geographic location;

querying means for querying, at each given periodic instance of the periodic basis, one or more hotel-deal sources to identify and collect information related to the saving-deals available on one or more hotels located at the first geographic location;

deal-generation means for generating, at each given periodic instance, a first list of hotel deals pertaining to the first geographic location based on the query of the one or more hotel-deal sources; and

transmitting means for transmitting, at each given periodic instance, the first list of hotel deals to the user as a first personalized alert using a specific transmission mechanism.