Method and system for reservation and management of recreational activities

• US 7,881,955 B2
• Filed: 02/22/2005
• Issued: 02/01/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 02/22/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Rezact Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Rezact Incorporated
• Inventors: Winlo, John Robert Christopher, Ewart, Craig
• Primary Examiner(s): Jeanty; Romain
• Assistant Examiner(s): Singh; Gurkanwaljit
• Application Number:
  US11/061,515
• Publication Number:
  US 20060190309A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,170 Days
• Field of Search: 705/1, 705/5, 705/6, 705/8
• US Class Current: 705/7.24
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/02 Reservations, e.g. for tickets, services or events
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/025 Coordination of plural reservations, e.g. plural trip segments, transportation combined with accommodation
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06314 Calendaring for a resource
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/087 Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/203 Inventory monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/06 Buying, selling or leasing transactions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/14 Travel agencies

Abstract

A reservation and management system for recreational activities offered by a plurality of activity operators, comprises a database for storing information regarding a plurality of recreational activities, including inventory information and a financial record containing financial information, for reservation transactions carried out for said activity and profile information for a plurality of subscribers, including activity operators and resellers. The system includes a reservation information compiler for providing information for an activity, a transaction module for updating inventory information and financial record following a reservation transaction request. A plurality of purchase modules are also provided, allowing clients and resellers to access information and make reservation for activities. An operator inventory management module allows to receive and update activity information.

Claims

1. A reservation and management system for recreational activities offered by a plurality of activity operators, comprising:

a processor in a computer system;

a memory accessible by the processor and comprising;

a) information regarding a plurality of recreational activities, at least some of said recreational activities having a plurality of class-specific attributes corresponding to at least activity equipment, staff requirements, and activity regulations, said information including;

i) a description of said activity;

ii) an activity class;

iii) identification information for said activity operator offering said activity;

iv) inventory information for said activity;

v) a financial record containing financial information, for reservation transactions carried out for said activity, including payment details, reseller commission details and identification information of a reseller, and

b) profile information regarding a plurality of subscribers, including said activity operators and resellers, said profile information including a definition of information access rights for each subscriber;

a plurality of software modules coupled to the processor, the software modules configured as follows;

a reservation information compiler for receiving an information request for an activity, according to an activity class, and in communication with said database for retrieving descriptions of said activities of said activity class and for providing said requested information;

a transaction module for receiving a reservation transaction request for an activity, and in communication with said database for updating said inventory information and said financial record for said activity following said reservation transaction request and sending a transaction confirmation;

a plurality of client purchase modules receiving, through a client interface, requests for activity information and reservation transactions, and in communication with said reservation information compiler for providing said information request for an activity, and for receiving said requested information for activities of said activity class, and in communication with said transaction module for providing said reservation transaction request for an activity and for receiving said transaction confirmation, and for displaying said requested information and said transaction confirmation through said client interface;

a plurality of reseller purchase modules receiving, through a reseller interface, requests regarding activity information and reservation transactions, and in communication with said reservation information compiler for providing said information request for an activity, and for receiving said requested information for activities of said activity class, in communication with said transaction module for providing said reservation transaction request for an activity for a client and for receiving said transaction confirmation, and receiving, in accordance with said profile information, a said commission details from said financial records, and displaying said commission details, said requested information and said transaction confirmation through said reseller interface; and

an operator inventory management module receiving, through an operator interface, setup information for new activities, activity information updates, and in communication with said database for setting up said new activities and for providing said updates and for receiving activity information for all activities offered by said operator, in accordance with said profile information, and displaying said activity information through said operator interface, said operator inventory management module adapted to dynamically manage availability of said recreational activities depending on a set of rules and said class-specific attributes that limit inventory, said availability starting at full capacity and diminishing as reservations are received, whereby a reservation for a given recreational activity may have an impact on availability of another recreational activity.

2. A system as claimed in claim 1, wherein said reservation information compiler and said transaction module are part of a server receiving requests from a plurality of subscribers.

3. A system as claimed in claim 2, wherein said purchase modules are part of said server.

4. A system as claimed in claim 2, wherein said operator inventory management module is part of said server.

5. A system as claimed in claim 1, wherein said subscribers include clients and wherein said database further stores client profile information and client transaction history data and wherein said client purchase modules comprises means for displaying said history data.

6. A system as claimed in claim 1, further comprising a payment server receiving payment details from said client purchase module as part of a transaction request and for providing a payment acknowledgement to said transaction module.

7. A system as claimed in claim 1, wherein an activity class is a class of snowmobile activities.

8. A system as claimed in claim 1, wherein at least some of said purchase modules further comprise a ticket generator module for providing a ticket for said activity following a reservation request.

9. A system as claimed in claim 1, further comprising a report module in communication with operator inventory management module for providing a reservation list for an activity and details of clients having reserved said activity.

10. A system as claimed in claim 1, wherein said transaction module further comprises a billing module in communication with said reseller purchase module for sending billing statements for reservations received from said reseller purchase module.

11. A system as claimed in claim 1, wherein said profile information includes login information for each subscriber and further comprising a login module in communication with said reseller purchase module and said operator inventory management module for receiving login information and identifying said subscriber.