Method and system for providing and administering online rental vehicle reservation booking services

• US 8,862,487 B2
• Filed: 09/17/2012
• Issued: 10/14/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 03/16/2006
• 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: Stephens, Scott Paul, Tucker, Paul C., Boruff, Kelli J., Zurliene, Colleen M.
• Primary Examiner(s): Vetter, Daniel
• Application Number:
  US13/621,608
• Publication Number:
  US 20130018680A1
• Time in Patent Office: 757 Days
• Field of Search: 705 5- 6, 705/27.1
• US Class Current: 705/5
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/02 Reservations, e.g. for tickets, services or events
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0645 Rental transactions; Leasing transactions

Abstract

A system and method is disclosed herein for customizing pages of a rental vehicle reservation booking website with deep-links for specialized rental vehicle reservations. The specialized rental vehicle reservations may comprise reservations for a division of a customer entity and/or promotional offer reservations. Multi-division and multi-offer pages can also be defined for the website through an administrative tool.

Claims

1. A method for providing a service to book a rental vehicle reservation, the rental vehicle reservation comprising a plurality of characteristics that need to be defined for booking, the method comprising:

communicating a plurality of deep-link uniform resource locators (URLs) to a remote computer to populate a multiple deep-link graphical user interface (GUI) for display on the remote computer such that the multiple deep-link GUI includes a plurality of the communicated deep-link URLs, each deep-link URL being associated with a specialized rental vehicle reservation profile such that a plurality of the deep-link URLs are associated with a plurality of specialized rental vehicle reservation profiles, each specialized rental vehicle reservation profile comprising a rental vehicle reservation characteristic, and wherein each deep-link URL is user-selectable to navigate the user to a deep-linked GUI that is configured to solicit input for booking a rental vehicle reservation that has the characteristic of the deep-link URL'"'"'s associated specialized rental vehicle reservation profile pre-defined for it;

receiving input from the remote computer corresponding to a selection of one of the deep-link URLs included on the multiple deep-link GUI;

automatically defining a rental vehicle reservation transaction to include the characteristic of the specialized rental vehicle profile associated with the selected deep-link URL; and

communicating data to the remote computer to solicit additional input from the user for booking the rental vehicle reservation transaction; and

wherein the method steps are performed by a processor; and

wherein the rental vehicle reservation transaction is for a customer entity having a plurality of divisions, each of a plurality of the divisions having an associated specialized rental vehicle reservation profile, and wherein a plurality of the deep-link URLs are associated with a division of the customer such that the plurality of deep-link URLs comprise a plurality of division-specific deep-link URLS.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

accessing a data structure stored in a memory, wherein the data structure associates the division-specific deep-link URLs and their associated specialized rental vehicle reservation profiles with the customer entity; and

in response to the accessing step, identifying the division-specific deep-link URLs associated with the customer entity for inclusion in the multiple deep-link GUI.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein the data structure further comprises a plurality of text labels, each text label being associated with a division-specific deep-link URL, the method further comprising:

in response to the accessing step, the processor identifying the text labels associated with the identified deep-link URLs; and

the processor communicating the identified text labels to the remote computer to populate the multiple deep-link GUI.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the deep-link URLs communicating step further comprises the processor providing the multiple deep-link GUI to the remote computer for display thereon, the multiple deep-link GUI including the communicated deep-link URLs.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein at least one rental vehicle reservation characteristic of at least one specialized rental vehicle reservation profile comprises a pickup location.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein the pickup location comprises a range of eligible pickup locations.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein at least one rental vehicle reservation characteristic of at least one specialized rental vehicle reservation profile comprises a vehicle type.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein the vehicle type comprises a range of eligible vehicle types.

9. The method of claim 2 wherein at least one rental vehicle reservation characteristic of at least one specialized rental vehicle reservation profile comprises a pickup location.

10. The method of claim 2 wherein at least one rental vehicle reservation characteristic of at least one specialized rental vehicle reservation profile comprises a vehicle type.

11. An apparatus for providing a service to book a rental vehicle reservation, the rental vehicle reservation comprising a plurality of characteristics that need to be defined for booking, the apparatus comprising:

a processor; and

a memory;

wherein the processor and memory are configured to (1) communicate a plurality of deep-link uniform resource locators (URLs) to a remote computer to populate a multiple deep-link graphical user interface (GUI) for display on the remote computer such that the multiple deep-link GUI includes a plurality of the communicated deep-link URLs, each deep-link URL being associated with a specialized rental vehicle reservation profile such that a plurality of the deep-link URLs are associated with a plurality of specialized rental vehicle reservation profiles, each specialized rental vehicle reservation profile comprising a rental vehicle reservation characteristic, and wherein each deep-link URL is user-selectable to navigate the user to a deep-linked GUI that is configured to solicit input for booking a rental vehicle reservation that has the characteristic of the deep-link URL'"'"'s associated specialized rental vehicle reservation profile pre-defined for it, (2) receive input from the remote computer corresponding to a selection of one of the deep-link URLs included on the multiple deep-link GUI, (3) automatically define a rental vehicle reservation transaction to include the characteristic of the specialized rental vehicle profile associated with the selected deep-link URL, and (4) communicate data to the remote computer to solicit additional input from the user for booking the rental vehicle reservation transaction; and

wherein the rental vehicle reservation transaction is for a customer entity having a plurality of divisions, each of a plurality of the divisions having an associated specialized rental vehicle reservation profile, and wherein a plurality of the deep-link URLs are associated with a division of the customer such that the plurality of deep-link URLs comprise a plurality of division-specific deep-link URLS.

12. The apparatus of claim 11 wherein the memory is further configured to store a data structure that associates the division-specific deep-link URLs and their associated specialized rental vehicle reservation profiles with the customer entity;

and

wherein the processor is further configured to (1) access the data structure in the memory, and (2) identify the division-specific deep-link URLs associated with the customer entity for inclusion in the multiple deep-link GUI.

13. The apparatus of claim 12 wherein the data structure further comprises a plurality of text labels, each text label being associated with a division-specific deep-link URL, and wherein the processor is further configured to interact with the memory to (1) identify the text labels associated with the identified deep-link URLs, and (2) communicate the identified text labels to the remote computer to populate the multiple deep-link GUI.

14. The apparatus of claim 11 wherein the processor and memory are further configured to provide the multiple deep-link GUI to the remote computer for display thereon, the multiple deep-link GUI including the communicated deep-link URLs.

15. The apparatus of claim 11 wherein at least one rental vehicle reservation characteristic of at least one specialized rental vehicle reservation profile comprises a pickup location.

16. The apparatus of claim 15 wherein the pickup location comprises a range of eligible pickup locations.

17. The apparatus of claim 11 wherein at least one rental vehicle reservation characteristic of at least one specialized rental vehicle reservation profile comprises a vehicle type.

18. The apparatus of claim 17 wherein the vehicle type comprises a range of eligible vehicle types.

19. The apparatus of claim 12 wherein at least one rental vehicle reservation characteristic of at least one specialized rental vehicle reservation profile comprises a pickup location.

20. The apparatus of claim 12 wherein at least one rental vehicle reservation characteristic of at least one specialized rental vehicle reservation profile comprises a vehicle type.