Method and Apparatus for Improved Customer Direct On-Line Reservation of Rental Vehicles
First Claim
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1. A method of facilitating a user'"'"'s booking of a rental vehicle reservation via a user computer that is in communication with the reservation booking computer system over a network, the method comprising:
- providing a customer profile associated with a user for use by the user to expedite the user'"'"'s booking of a rental vehicle reservation with the reservation booking computer system, the customer profile comprising data representative of a plurality of favorite branch locations for the user; and
accessing the customer profile following a request from the user to initiate a rental vehicle reservation booking process through the computer system;
in response to the accessing step, providing the user with the plurality of favorite branch locations as selectable options for picking up a rental vehicle in accordance with a rental vehicle reservation;
receiving a selection from the user of one of the favorite branch locations; and
creating a rental vehicle reservation having the selected favorite branch location as the pickup location for the rental vehicle reservation; and
wherein the method steps are performed by a processor.
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Abstract
Disclosed herein is a reservation booking website for rental vehicle reservations wherein the functionality of managing customer profiles/accounts is expanded upon to provide customers with greater control over the profile data stored in their associated personalized accounts/profiles, particularly in connection with the “favorite” or “preferred” branch locations for rental vehicle reservations that are stored in the customer profiles/ accounts.
4 Citations
40 Claims
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1. A method of facilitating a user'"'"'s booking of a rental vehicle reservation via a user computer that is in communication with the reservation booking computer system over a network, the method comprising:
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providing a customer profile associated with a user for use by the user to expedite the user'"'"'s booking of a rental vehicle reservation with the reservation booking computer system, the customer profile comprising data representative of a plurality of favorite branch locations for the user; and accessing the customer profile following a request from the user to initiate a rental vehicle reservation booking process through the computer system; in response to the accessing step, providing the user with the plurality of favorite branch locations as selectable options for picking up a rental vehicle in accordance with a rental vehicle reservation; receiving a selection from the user of one of the favorite branch locations; and creating a rental vehicle reservation having the selected favorite branch location as the pickup location for the rental vehicle reservation; and wherein the method steps are performed by a processor. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 31)
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19. An apparatus for facilitating a user'"'"'s booking of a rental vehicle reservation, the apparatus comprising:
a server accessible over a network to a user computer, the server being configured to (1) access a customer profile following a request from the user computer to initiate a rental vehicle reservation booking process, the customer profile associated with a user of the user computer to expedite the user'"'"'s booking of a rental vehicle reservation with a rental vehicle service provider, wherein the rental vehicle service provider has a plurality of branch locations, the customer profile comprising data representative of a plurality of favorite branch locations for the user, (2) provide the user computer with the plurality of favorite branch locations from the accessed customer profile as selectable options for picking up a rental vehicle in accordance with a rental vehicle reservation, (3) receive a selection from the user computer of one of the favorite branch locations, and (4) create a rental vehicle reservation having the selected favorite branch location as the pickup location for the rental vehicle reservation. - View Dependent Claims (20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 32, 33, 34, 35)
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36. A method comprising:
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communicating at least one graphical user interface (GUI) page to a user computer for display thereon, the GUI page configured to permit a user of the user computer to administer a customer profile associated with the user for use by the user to expedite the user'"'"'s booking of a rental vehicle reservation with a rental vehicle service provider, wherein the rental vehicle service provider has a plurality of branch locations; receiving input, through the at least one GUI page from the user computer, identifying a plurality of favorite branch locations for the user; storing the identified favorite branch locations in the customer profile; receiving input, through the at least one GUI page from the user computer, identifying a plurality of vehicle types for association with each of the favorite branch locations; storing the identified vehicle types in the customer profile in association with their corresponding favorite branch locations, the customer profile for access by a rental vehicle reservation booking computer system to expedite a rental vehicle reservation booking process for the user such that the user is able to create a rental vehicle reservation having a pickup location corresponding to a favorite branch location from the customer profile and a vehicle type that is automatically selected as the vehicle type associated with the favorite branch location serving as the pickup location; and wherein the method steps are performed by a processor. - View Dependent Claims (37, 38, 39, 40)
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Specification