Method and apparatus for improved customer direct on-line reservation of rental vehicles

• US 8,108,231 B2
• Filed: 01/20/2005
• Issued: 01/31/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 06/14/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: The Crawford Group Incorporated (Jack Taylor Family Voting Trust U A D 4 14 99)
• Original Assignee: The Crawford Group Incorporated (Jack Taylor Family Voting Trust U A D 4 14 99)
• Inventors: Boruff, Kelli, Hibbard, Robert Michael, Tucker, Paul
• Primary Examiner(s): Vetter, Daniel
• Application Number:
  US11/039,203
• Publication Number:
  US 20050144048A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,567 Days
• Field of Search: 705/1, 705/5, 705/6, 705/26, 705/37, 705/26.41
• 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 30/0613 Third-party assisted
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0645 Rental transactions; Leasing transactions

Abstract

Disclosed herein is an improvement to 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. Also disclosed herein is an improvement to a reservation booking website wherein customers who plan to travel via general aviation (GA) are provided with a GA reservation creation path that is responsive to their GA travel needs. Also disclosed herein is an improvement to a reservation booking website for rental vehicle reservations wherein customers are provided with a streamlined ability to log into their customer profiles/accounts. Preferably fields for customer entry of a password for a customer profile/account (and optionally a field for customer entry of a user name for a customer profile/account) are provided on several of the displayed web pages (e.g., a choose vehicle page, a renter information page, a choose location page etc.), or more preferably, on all of the web pages that are displayed to the customer when the customer has not yet logged into his/her profile/account.

Claims

1. An apparatus for creating a reservation for a rental vehicle, the apparatus comprising:

a server accessible over a network to a user computer, the server being configured to (1) book a rental vehicle reservation with a rental vehicle service provider for a customer in response to data received from the user computer, wherein the rental vehicle service provider has a plurality of rental vehicle branch locations, wherein the received data comprises an identification of a fixed based operator (FBO) corresponding to travel plans of the customer, and (2) automatically select a rental vehicle branch location from among the plurality of rental vehicle branch locations for the reservation based at least in part upon the received FBO identification;

wherein the server is in communication with a database, the database storing data that associates each of a plurality of FBOs with a rental vehicle branch location from among the plurality of rental vehicle branch locations, the FBOs being different entities than the rental vehicle service provider, and wherein the server is further configured to automatically select the rental vehicle branch location for the reservation by accessing the database to determine the associated rental vehicle branch location corresponding to the received FBO identification.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the rental vehicle branch locations are associated with FBOs in the database at least partially on the basis of which rental vehicle branch locations are geographically closest to the FBOs.

3. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the FBO corresponding to the received FBO identification has a rental vehicle pricing rate arrangement with the rental vehicle service provider corresponding to the reservation, and wherein the server is further configured to automatically select a pricing rate for the customer'"'"'s reservation at least in part based upon the pricing rate arrangement with the FBO corresponding to the received FBO identification.

4. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the FBO corresponding to the received FBO identification has a rental vehicle pricing rate arrangement with the rental vehicle service provider corresponding to the reservation, and wherein the customer has another rental vehicle pricing rate arrangement with the rental vehicle service provider, and wherein the server is further configured to select the lower of these pricing rates as the pricing rate for the reservation.

5. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the reservation has a plurality of available pricing rates applicable thereto, and wherein the server is configured to apply a priority ranking schedule to the plurality of available pricing rates to thereby select one of the available pricing rates as the pricing rate for the reservation.

6. The apparatus of claim 5 wherein the priority ranking schedule is configured to assign a higher priority to a customer-specific available pricing rate than to an FBO-specific available pricing rate.

7. A method of creating a rental vehicle reservation for a customer, the method comprising:

receiving an indication over a network from a user computer that the customer is traveling via general aviation (GA);

providing a page for display on the user computer, the page being configured to allow data input via the user computer corresponding to an identification of an airport to which the customer is traveling via GA;

responsive to data input from the user computer corresponding to the airport identification, providing another page for display on the user computer, the another page being configured to allow data input via the user computer corresponding to a selection of a fixed base operator (FBO) available at the identified airport;

receiving data input from the user computer comprising a selection of an FBO; and

responsive to the data input from the user computer corresponding to the FBO selection, (1) accessing a database that stores data associating a plurality of rental vehicle branch locations of the same rental vehicle service provider with a plurality of FBOs, and (2) automatically selecting a rental vehicle branch location for the rental vehicle reservation with the rental vehicle service provider from among the plurality of rental vehicle branch locations based at least in part upon the FBO selection and the associations within the database between rental vehicle branch locations and FBOs, wherein the FBOs are different entities than the rental vehicle service provider; and

wherein the method steps are performed by a server that hosts a website.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein the another page is further configured to display a list of FBOs available at the identified airport.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein the FBO selection data input receiving step comprises:

receiving data input from the user computer comprising a selection of an FBO from the list.

10. The method of claim 7 wherein the associations within the database between rental vehicle branch locations and FBOs are based at least in part upon geographical proximity.

11. The method of claim 7 wherein the GA indication receiving step comprises receiving input from the user computer indicative of a selection of a link on a reservation booking website specific to GA travelers.

12. The method of claim 7 further comprising:

automatically selecting a price for the customer'"'"'s reservation based at least in part upon a predetermined pricing arrangement with the selected FBO.

13. The method of claim 7 further comprising:

displaying a link on the user computer that is selectable by the user to change the automatically selected rental vehicle branch location to a different rental vehicle branch location.

14. The method of claim 7 further comprising:

automatically selecting a price for the customer'"'"'s reservation as between a predetermined pricing arrangement with the selected FBO and a predetermined pricing arrangement with the customer based on which pricing arrangement represents a lower price.

15. The method of claim 7 further comprising:

automatically selecting a price for the customer'"'"'s reservation as between a plurality of available pricing arrangements based on a priority ranking schedule as applied to the plurality of available pricing arrangements.

16. The method of claim 15 wherein the priority ranking schedule is configured to assign a higher priority to a customer-specific available pricing arrangement than to an FBO-specific available pricing arrangement.

17. A method of implementing a reservation booking website, the website comprising a plurality of pages for display on a user computer, the plurality of pages for interacting with a user of the user computer to create a rental vehicle reservation, the method comprising:

providing a general aviation (GA) rental vehicle reservation creation path within the reservation booking website for customers whose rental vehicle needs are based upon plans to travel via GA, the GA rental vehicle reservation creation path comprising a plurality of website pages configured to request a plurality of types of data input for processing by the website to create a rental vehicle reservation;

providing a commercial aviation rental vehicle reservation creation path within the reservation booking website for customers whose rental vehicle needs are based upon plans to travel via commercial aviation, the commercial aviation rental vehicle reservation creation path comprising a plurality of website pages configured to request a plurality of types of data input for processing by the website to create a rental vehicle reservation, wherein the types of data input and data processing required for the commercial aviation rental vehicle reservation creation path are different than the types of data input and data processing required by the GA rental vehicle reservation creation path;

within the GA rental vehicle reservation creation path, (1) receiving data from a customer that is indicative of a fixed based operator (FBO), wherein the FBO is a different entity than the rental vehicle service provider, (2) accessing a database that stores data associating a plurality of rental vehicle branch locations of the same rental vehicle service provider with a plurality of FBOs, and (3) automatically selecting a rental vehicle branch location for a rental vehicle reservation with the rental vehicle service provider for the customer from among the plurality of rental vehicle branch locations based at least in part upon the received FBO data and the data associating the rental vehicle branch locations with the FBOs; and

wherein the method steps are performed by a server in communication with a computer network, the server being configured to host the reservation booking website.

18. The method of claim 17 further comprising providing a link on a page within the website, the link being selectable by the user to indicate that the customer'"'"'s rental vehicle need is based at least partially on a plan by the customer to travel via general aviation (GA), wherein user selection of the link is effective to place the user on the GA rental vehicle reservation creation path, and wherein the link providing step is performed by the server.

19. The method of claim 18 wherein the GA rental vehicle reservation creation path providing step includes providing a page for display on the user computer, wherein the page includes a link selectable by the user to change the user'"'"'s path to the commercial aviation rental vehicle reservation creation path, and wherein the page providing step is performed by the server.

20. A method of creating a reservation for a customer, the method comprising:

interacting with a user computer via a reservation booking website to create a rental vehicle reservation with a rental vehicle service provider for the customer, the rental vehicle service provider having a plurality of rental vehicle branch locations, wherein the interacting step comprises (1) receiving data from the user computer that identifies a general aviation (GA) travel plan of the customer, wherein the data that identifies the customer'"'"'s GA travel plan comprises data indicative of a fixed based operator (FBO), (2) accessing a database that stores data associating the plurality of rental vehicle branch locations with a plurality of FBOs, wherein the FBOs are different entities than the rental vehicle service provider, (3) automatically determining at least one suggested rental vehicle branch location from the plurality of branch locations based at least in part upon the FBO data and the data associating the rental vehicle branch locations with the FBOs, and (4) providing a page for display on the user computer that is responsive to the GA travel plan, the page being configured to display the determined at least one suggested rental vehicle branch location for the rental vehicle reservation; and

wherein the method steps are performed by a server that hosts the reservation booking website.

21. The method of claim 20 further comprising:

automatically selecting a price for the customer'"'"'s reservation based at least in part upon a predetermined pricing arrangement with the selected FBO.

22. The method of claim 20 further comprising:

automatically selecting a price for the customer'"'"'s reservation as between a predetermined pricing arrangement with the selected FBO and a predetermined pricing arrangement with the customer based on which pricing arrangement represents a lower price.

23. The method of claim 20 further comprising:

automatically selecting a price for the customer'"'"'s reservation as between a plurality of available pricing arrangements based on a priority ranking schedule as applied to the plurality of available pricing arrangements.

24. The method of claim 23 wherein the priority ranking schedule is configured to assign a higher priority to a customer-specific available pricing arrangement than to an FBO-specific available pricing arrangement.