Amenity, special service and food/beverage search and purchase booking system

• US 10,719,896 B2
• Filed: 09/15/2014
• Issued: 07/21/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 09/13/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Keith Fishberg
• Original Assignee: Keith Fishberg
• Inventors: Fishberg, Keith
• Primary Examiner(s): Flynn, Kevin H
• Assistant Examiner(s): Zeroual, Omar
• Application Number:
  US15/021,386
• Publication Number:
  US 20160225108A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,136 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/00 Handling natural language data speech analysis or synthesis, speech recognition G10L
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/247 Thesauruses; Synonyms
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/30 Semantic analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G06N 20/00 Machine learning
• 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 30/0283 Price estimation or determination
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0613 Third-party assisted
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/12 Hotels or restaurants
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/14 Travel agencies

Abstract

The present invention relates to systems, methods and computer program products for an a la carte amenity, special service, food/beverage and accommodation feature search and booking engines. Aspects of the present invention allow customers to identify, via arbitrary search, amenities and/or special services (including food/beverage) available at lodging facilities, restaurants clubs/lounges/bars, dwellings and travel accommodation venues. Customers are thereby presented with goods and services matching or related to their query items and are permitted to select and confirm desired feature options and book, reserve or purchase their selection; optionally including the booking of an accommodation such as a room or table at a restaurant as well.

Claims

1. A method for selecting and booking a custom hospitality/tourism reservation, using a processor-based server comprising a network interface and access to a data store of users preferences, to an unmatched queries database, to a database of hospitality/tourism features arranged by location including attributes associated with a feature, and to a third party, comprising the steps of:

receiving, from a network connected computing device in control of a user, at least one desired hospitality/tourism feature with constraints including desired time periods and user preferences of said hospitality/tourism feature, said at least one desired hospitality/tourism feature including free form entry received by a graphical user interface (GUI);

searching said database of hospitality/tourism features for availability of said desired time periods and for matching desired at least one hospitality/tourism feature with said attributes;

obtaining from said data store said users preferences;

said preferences populated based on at least one of a response to user queries and prior bookings;

delivering to said network connected computing device said user preferences for selection;

delivering to said network connected computing device a list of matching hospitality/tourism locations matching said at least one desired hospitality/tourism feature for selection, said list including hospitality/tourism locations available for said time periods, matched desired features with said attributes, and selectable user preferences;

receiving, from a network connected computing device, indication of a selected hospitality/tourism location from said list and billing information for said user;

booking said hospitality/tourism reservation with said selected hospitality/tourism location by transmitting booking content and feature to a server associated with said hospitality/tourism location;

delivering a confirmation of the booked reservation to the network connected computing device;

entering an adaptive learning mode including;

storing any unmatched feature in an unmatched queries database;

transmitting an entry from the unmatched queries database to a third party for display;

receiving an association of the entry with a bookable feature from said third party; and

reconfiguring said hospitality/tourism feature database in conformity with said association at least in part by adding a new feature field related to at least one of unmatched entries or an evolving feature;

wherein said bookable feature includes relevant identifying characteristics.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising the steps of:

transmitting, through the network, to an external provider, a booking query based on said constraints; and

receiving, via the network from said external provider, indications of availability for at least one accommodation provider satisfying said constraints.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising the steps of:

receiving, from the network connected computing device, an indication of an acceptance of an offer to book;

receiving, from the network connected computing device, payment information;

transmitting, to a payment processor, the payment information;

updating an inventory record in the hospitality/tourism features database to record a booking of a location and feature; and

transmitting, to the network connected computing device, a confirmation of the offer to book.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the external provider is a provider selected from the group consisting of a Global Distribution System provider, a Central Reservation System provider, an inventory system provider, a Customer Relationship Management System provider, a sales/revenue management system provider, a loyalty system provider, and a provider'"'"'s Property Management System.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein said at least one hospitality/tourism feature is provided by at least one boutique hotel.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising steps of:

receiving, through the network from a network connected affiliate device, a hospitality/tourism provider feature identity; and

storing in said hospitality/tourism features database an artifact associating said hospitality/tourism feature identity with an identity of a hospitality/tourism provider.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein said constraints further comprise a desired room and/or layout configuration.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein a bookable feature is an amenity, special service or, food/beverage.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein unmatched features are correlated with at least one descriptive artifact for use in a plurality of facilities.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein said at least one desired hospitality/tourism feature with constraints is obtained at least in part consequential to free form entry.

11. A system for identifying and booking an a la carte feature from a hospitality/tourism provider, said system comprising:

a processor;

an adaptive feature database stored on a non-transitory computer readable medium, said adaptive feature database comprising a plurality of feature artifacts wherein a feature artifact associates a bookable feature identity with a hospitality provider identity; and

a preference database stored on a non-transitory computer readable medium, said preference database comprising preferences for hospitality features and arranged by user;

wherein said processor is instructed to;

receive, through the network, arbitrary feature identity information for an adaptive bookable feature from a network connected client device, said information obtained at least in part consequential to free form entry using a GUI on a client device;

analyzing said arbitrary feature identity information and determining at least one bookable feature identity;

identify by searching the adaptive feature database for a set of feature artifacts having a feature identity matching, at least in part, the arbitrary feature identity information;

search said preference database for preferences for a user and the user'"'"'s preferences associated with said network connected client device;

transmit, through the network to the client device, one or more hospitality provider identities associated with the identified set of feature artifacts and identified user preferences;

enter an adaptive learning mode whereby;

storing an unmatched feature in an unmatched queries database;

transmitting an entry from the unmatched queries database to a third party for display;

receiving an association of the entry with a bookable feature from said third party; and

reconfiguring said adaptive feature database in conformity with said association at least in part by adding a new feature field related to the at least one of unmatched entries or an evolving feature;

wherein a feature artifact is an identifying characteristic of a bookable feature.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the processor instructions further include instructions to cause the processor to:

receive, from the client device, adaptive accommodation search constraints, said accommodation search constraints including an indication of a desired booking period for an accommodation and an indication of a desired geographic location for a hospitality provider;

wherein the search of the adaptive feature database is further constrained to the plurality of artifacts having a hospitality-provider identity identifying a hospitality provider within the desired geographic location and able to provide an accommodation or the bookable feature during the desired booking period.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the processor instructions further include instructions to cause the processor to:

transmit, through the network, to an external provider, a booking query based on said accommodation search constraints; and

receive, via the network from said external provider, indications of availability for at least one accommodation provider satisfying said accommodation search constraints.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the processor instructions further include instructions to cause the processor to:

receive, from the client device, an indication of an acceptance of the offer;

receive, from the client device, payment information;

transmit, to a payment processor, the payment information;

transmit, to the client device, a confirmation of the booking.

15. The system of claim 11, wherein the arbitrary feature identity information comprises location based information derived from a geolocation of the client device or detection of a proximity beacon by the client device.

16. The system of claim 11, wherein the processor instructions further include instructions to cause the processor to:

store an unmatched arbitrary feature identity information in an unmatched queries database;

transmit an entry from the unmatched queries database for a reviewer display;

receive an adaptive association of the entry with a bookable feature identity;

store the association in the feature database;

receive, through the network from a network connected affiliate device, a hospitality provider feature identity; and

store in said feature database an artifact associating said hospitality feature identity with an identity of said hospitality provider;

wherein the feature database comprises a plurality of associations and the search of the feature database includes a search of the associations.

17. The system of claim 11, wherein unmatched features are correlated with at least one descriptive artifact for use in a plurality of facilities.