Matching program and system for corporate meeting planners and hospitality providers

• US 7,587,360 B2
• Filed: 08/20/2007
• Issued: 09/08/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 12/19/2000
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: HJJ Incorporated
• Original Assignee: HJJ Incorporated
• Inventors: Etkin, James M.
• Primary Examiner(s): Campen; Kelly
• Application Number:
  US11/841,068
• Publication Number:
  US 20070288352A1
• Time in Patent Office: 750 Days
• Field of Search: 705/35, 705/36.R, 705/38, 705/39, 705/37, 705/14, 705/26, 705/10, 705/27, 705/5, 705/8, 705/9, 235/380, 235/494
• US Class Current: 705/37
• 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 30/08 Auctions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/04 Trading; Exchange, e.g. stocks, commodities, derivatives or currency exchange

Abstract

The computerized bidding method matches hospitality facility data and meeting requirement data, permits the posting of offers and responsive bidding by both hospitality facility vendors and meeting planners, and facilitates the exchange of data. In a simplified system, meeting planner requirement data (at least meeting planner contact data, facilities requirement data, date range data and price data) is matched to hotel or hospitality vendor data (at least vendor contact data, location data, room quantity data, date available range data, and meeting room data), and the system sends planner offer data to matching hospitality vendors without disclosing the planner contact data. Thereafter, the hotel vendors respond and the responses are sent to the meeting planner posting the offer. The presentation to the planner may be in spread sheet form, sorted by pre-set criteria.

Claims

1. A vendor client computer based bidding method for matching hospitality facility data, representing vendors furnishing hotel facilities, meeting room facilities, or other hospitality facilities, with requirement data, representing respective necessities of a plurality of meeting planners for a corresponding plurality of meetings or events, said data stored on a server, said server being one of a server computer and a plurality of networked server computers, and said bidding and matching method implemented over a client-server network with said server and a plurality of vendor client computer systems and a plurality of planner client computer systems coupled together via a telecommunications network, at said server:

as a computerized method;

(a) storing said hospitality facility data and requirement offer data in a database on said server, said hospitality facility data at least including vendor contact data, room quantity data and amenity data;

(b) via said client-server network, gathering requirement offer data and planner contact data from meeting planners via corresponding planner client computer systems, the gathered requirement data including facilities requirements data;

(c) matching requirement offer data with said hospitality facility data with said server;

(d) via said client-server network, supplying blinded requirement offer data, without revealing the identity of the corresponding meeting planner who supplied said requirement offer data, to vendors associated with said hospitality facility data which match said facilities requirements data, the matching vendors associated with corresponding vendor client computer systems;

(e) presenting via said client-server network, to said corresponding meeting planner who supplied said requirement offer data, blinded specific hospitality facility data responsive thereto;

(f) via said client-server network, permitting said corresponding meeting planner to select blinded specific hospitality facility data representing a predetermined number of vendors;

(g) in the event said corresponding meeting planner cannot fulfill necessities corresponding to said requirement offer data, repeating the permitting selection step via said client-server network while excluding at least one of said predetermined number of vendors and repeating an enabling communications step;

(h) storing facilities offer data in said database on said server;

(i) via said client-server network, presenting blinded facilities offer data to one or more inquiring meeting planners;

(j) via said client-server network, gathering specific facilities requirement data from a plurality of responsive meeting planners relative to said facilities offer data;

the vendor client computer based bidding and matching method comprising the steps of;

supplying via said client-server network, said vendor contact data, room quantity data and amenity data to said server;

supplying via said client-server network, specific hospitality facility data via a corresponding plurality of vendor client computer systems to said server relative to said presented blinded requirement data;

enabling direct communications via said client-server network, by participating in an exchange of vendor and planner contact data between said predetermined number of vendors and said corresponding meeting planner, said predetermined number of vendors being selected by said corresponding meeting planner supplying said requirement offer;

via said client-server network, supplying facilities offer data from at least one of said plurality of vendor client computer systems to said server, said facilities offer data representing an offer by at least one vendor to supply hospitality facilities, said facilities offer data including at least a hospitality facility feature and facility offer price data;

presenting via said client-server network, to said at least one vendor supplying said facilities offer data, blinded specific requirement data responsive to said facilities offer data;

permitting via said client-server network, said at least one vendor to select blinded specific requirement data representing a further predetermined number of said responsive meeting planners;

enabling direct communications by participating in an exchange of planner contact data between said further predetermined number of said responsive meeting planners and vendor contact data of said at least one vendor via said client-server network; and

,

in the event said at least one vendor cannot fulfill the corresponding offer to supply hospitality facilities, repeating said presenting via said client-server network, said blinded specific facilities requirement data step to said one vendor while excluding at least one of said further predetermined number of responsive meeting planners and repeating the enabling communications step.

2. A method as claimed in claim 1 including the steps of:

displaying said hospitality facility data to any vendor via said vendor client computer system;

displaying any blinded facilities offer data to any vendor; and

displaying any gathered blinded requirement offer data to any vendor.

3. A method as claimed in claim 2 including the step of verifying said vendor contact data.

4. A method as claimed in claim 3 wherein at said server:

gathering prospective requirement offer data from at least one meeting planner;

matching said prospective requirement offer data with said hospitality data;

and wherein the method includes at said vendor client computer;

presenting said blinded prospective requirement offer data to vendors associated with hospitality data which match said prospective requirement offer data thereby prompting the matched vendors to engage in the steps of gathering requirement offer data and gathering facilities offer data.

5. A method as claimed in claim 4 wherein the step of displaying any blinded requirement offer data via said vendor client computer system occurs prior to the step of gathering specific facilities requirement data from said responsive meeting planners via said server.

6. A method as claimed in claim 1 wherein prior to said step of presenting said blinded specific facilities requirement data responsive to said facilities offer data to said at least one vendor, said blinded specific facilities requirement data is sorted and ordered based upon predetermined criteria which includes a data characteristic of at least one from the group of price data, location data, total revenue data, composite rating data and date availability data.

7. A planner client computer based bidding method for matching hospitality facility data, representing vendors furnishing hotel facilities, meeting room facilities, or other hospitality facilities, with requirement data, representing respective necessities of a plurality of meeting planners for a corresponding plurality of meetings or events, said data stored on a server, said server being one of a server computer and a plurality of networked server computers, said bidding and matching method implemented over a client-server network with said server and a plurality of vendor client computer systems and a plurality of planner client computer systems, said server:

as a computerized method;

(a) storing said hospitality facility data and requirement offer data in a database on said server, said hospitality facility data at least including vendor contact data, room quantity data, amenity data, and room price data;

(b) via said client-server network, matching requirement offer data from a corresponding meeting planner supplying the same with said hospitality facility data;

(c) presenting blinded requirement offer data via said client-server network, without revealing the identity of the corresponding meeting planner who supplied said requirement offer data, to vendors associated with said hospitality facility data which match said requirement offer data;

(d) gathering via said client-server network, specific hospitality facility data from said vendors relative to said presented blinded requirement offer data;

(e) gathering facilities offer data via said client-server network, representing at least one offer by a vendor to supply hospitality facilities, and storing said facilities offer data in said database, said facilities offer data including at least a maximum hospitality facility feature and facility offer price data;

(f) presenting blinded facilities offer data via said server to one or more inquiring meeting planners;

(h) presenting via said client-server network, to said at least one vendor supplying said facilities offer data, blinded specific requirement data responsive to said maximum facility feature and offer price data;

(i) via said client-server network, permitting said at least one vendor to select blinded specific requirement data representing a further predetermined number of responsive meeting planners,

(j) in the event said at least one vendor cannot fulfill the corresponding offer to supply hospitality facilities, repeating said presenting via said client-server network, said blinded facilities offer data step to said one vendor while excluding at least one of said further predetermined number of responsive meeting planners and repeating the enabling of communications step between said meeting planners and said one vendor;

the planner client computer based bidding and matching method comprising the steps of;

supplying meeting planer contact data via said client-server network;

supplying requirement offer data via said client-server network, from a corresponding meeting planner of said plurality of meeting planners utilizing a corresponding one of said plurality of planner client computer systems, the requirement offer data including facilities requirements data;

presenting, via said planner client computer system to said corresponding meeting planner who supplied said requirement offer data, blinded specific hospitality facility data responsive thereto;

permitting via said client-server network, said corresponding meeting planner to select blinded specific hospitality facility data representing a predetermined number of vendors;

enabling direct communications via said client-server network, by participation in an exchange of vendor and planner contact data between said predetermined number of vendors and said corresponding meeting planner supplying said requirement offer data;

in the event said corresponding meeting planner cannot fulfill necessities corresponding to said requirement offer data, repeating the permitting selection step via said client-server network, while excluding at least one of said predetermined number of vendors and repeating the enabling communications step;

displaying via said client-server network, to one or more inquiring meeting planners via corresponding planner client computer systems, blinded facilities offer data from said at least one vendor;

supplying specific facilities requirement data via said client-server network, from responsive meeting planners of said plurality of meeting planners relative to facilities offer data; and

enabling direct communications via said client-server network, by participation in an exchange of planner contact data between said further predetermined number of said responsive meeting planners and vendor contact data of said at least one vendor supplying said facilities offer data.

8. A method as claimed in claim 7 including the step of displaying to any meeting planner via said planner client computer system:

said hospitality facility data, said blinded facility offer data, said blinded specific facility data, said meeting planner contact, said vendor contact data, said blinded requirement offer data, and blinded specific requirement data.

9. A method as claimed in claim 8 including the step of verifying said planner contact data prior to the step of supplying requirement offer data.

10. A method as claimed in claim 8 including the step of:

supplying prospective requirement offer data from at least one meeting planner;

and wherein, at said server;

matching said prospective requirement offer data with said hospitality data;

presenting said blinded prospective requirement offer data to vendors associated with hospitality data which match said prospective requirement offer data;

thereby prompting the meeting planner supplying said prospective requirement offer data to engage in the step of supplying requirement offer based upon said prospective requirement offer data.

11. A method as claimed in claim 10 wherein the step of displaying blinded hospitality offer data occurs prior to the step of supplying specific requirement data from said responsive meeting planner.

12. A method as claimed in claim 7 wherein at said server, said blinded specific hospitality facility data is sorted and ordered based upon predetermined criteria which includes data characteristic of at least one from the group of room price data, location data, total revenue, composite rating and date availability data, and the method includes the step of displaying, to said corresponding meeting planner supplying said requirement offer data, the sorted and ordered blinded specific hospitality data.

13. A vendor client computer based bidding method for matching hospitality facility data, representing vendors furnishing hotel facilities, meeting room facilities, or other hospitality facilities, with requirement data, representing respective necessities of a plurality of meeting planners for a corresponding plurality of meetings or events, said data stored on a server, said server being one of a server computer and a plurality of networked server computers, and said bidding and matching method implemented over a client-server network with said server and a plurality of vendor client computer systems and a plurality of planner client computer systems coupled together via a telecommunications network, at said server:

as a computerized method;

(a) storing said hospitality facility data in a database on said server, said hospitality facility data at least including vendor contact data, room quantity data and amenity data;

(b) gathering via said client-server network, requirement offer data and planner contact data from meeting planners via corresponding planner client computer systems, the gathered requirement data including facilities requirements data;

(c) matching requirement offer data with said hospitality facility data via said client-server network;

(d) supplying via said client-server network, requirement offer data to vendors associated with said hospitality facility data which match said facilities requirements data, the matching vendors associated with corresponding vendor client computer systems;

(e) presenting via said client-server network, to said corresponding meeting planner who supplied said requirement offer data, specific hospitality facility data responsive thereto;

(f) permitting said corresponding meeting planner to select specific hospitality facility data representing a predetermined number of vendors via said client-server network;

(g) in the event said corresponding meeting planner cannot fulfill necessities corresponding to said requirement offer data, repeating the permitting selection step via said client-server network, while excluding at least one of said predetermined number of vendors and repeating an enabling communications step;

(h) storing facilities offer data in said database on said server;

(i) presenting via said client-server network, blinded facilities offer data to one or more inquiring meeting planners;

(j) gathering via said client-server network, specific facilities requirement data from a plurality of responsive meeting planners relative to said facilities offer data;

the vendor client computer based bidding and matching method comprising the steps of;

supplying via said client-server network, said vendor contact data, room quantity data and amenity data to said server;

supplying via said client-server network, specific hospitality facility data via a corresponding plurality of vendor client computer systems to said server relative to said presented requirement data;

enabling direct communications by participating in an exchange of vendor and planner contact data between said predetermined number of vendors and said corresponding meeting planner via said client-server network, said predetermined number of vendors being selected by said corresponding meeting planner supplying said requirement offer;

supplying facilities offer data via said client-server network, from at least one of said plurality of vendor client computer systems to said server, said facilities offer data representing an offer by at least one vendor to supply hospitality facilities, said facilities offer data including at least a hospitality facility feature and facility offer price data;

presenting via said client-server network, to said at least one vendor supplying said facilities offer data, specific facilities requirement data responsive to said facilities offer data;

permitting via said client-server network, said at least one vendor to select specific facilities requirement data representing a further predetermined number of said responsive meeting planners;

enabling direct communications via said client-server network, by participating in an exchange of planner contact data between said further predetermined number of said responsive meeting planners and vendor contact data of said at least one vendor; and

,

in the event said at least one vendor cannot fulfill the corresponding offer to supply hospitality facilities, repeating said presenting said blinded specific facilities requirement data step via said client-server network, to said one vendor while excluding at least one of said further predetermined number of responsive meeting planners and repeating the enabling communications step.

14. A method as claimed in claim 13 including the steps of:

displaying said hospitality facility data to any vendor via said vendor client computer system;

displaying any facilities offer data to any vendor; and

displaying any gathered requirement offer data to any vendor.

15. A method as claimed in claim 14 wherein at said server:

gathering prospective requirement offer data from at least one meeting planner;

matching said prospective requirement offer data with said hospitality data;

and wherein the method includes at said vendor client computer;

presenting said prospective requirement offer data to vendors associated with hospitality data which match said prospective requirement offer data thereby prompting the matched vendors to engage in the steps of gathering requirement offer data and gathering facilities offer data.

16. A method as claimed in claim 15 wherein the step of displaying any requirement offer data via said vendor client computer system occurs prior to the step of gathering specific facilities requirement data from said responsive meeting planners via said server.

17. A method as claimed in claim 13 wherein prior to said step of presenting said specific facilities requirement data responsive to said facilities offer data to said at least one vendor, said specific facilities requirement data is sorted and ordered based upon predetermined criteria which includes a data characteristic of at least one from the group of price data, location data, total revenue data, composite rating data and date availability data.