Method and apparatus for improved customer direct on-line reservation of rental vehicles
First Claim
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.
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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.
440 Citations
24 Claims
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1. An apparatus for creating a reservation for a rental vehicle, the apparatus comprising:
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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. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6)
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7. A method of creating a rental vehicle reservation for a customer, the method comprising:
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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. - View Dependent Claims (8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16)
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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:
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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. - View Dependent Claims (18, 19)
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20. A method of creating a reservation for a customer, the method comprising:
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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. - View Dependent Claims (21, 22, 23, 24)
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Specification