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

• US 8,862,488 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:
  US13/621,617
• Publication Number:
  US 20130268447A1
• Time in Patent Office: 757 Days
• Field of Search: 705 5- 6, 705/26.1
• 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 administering a rental vehicle reservation booking application with respect to an entity, the entity comprising a plurality of divisions, the method comprising:

defining a plurality of division-specific specialized rental vehicle reservation profiles, each division-specific specialized rental vehicle reservation profile corresponding to a division of the entity and comprising at least one characteristic of a rental vehicle reservation;

generating a plurality of division-specific deep-link uniform resource locators (URLs), each division-specific deep-link URL being configured, upon selection by a user, to navigate the user to a deep-linked page of an automated rental vehicle reservation booking application corresponding to that division-specific deep-link URL, the deep-linked page being configured to solicit user input for booking a rental vehicle reservation that already has pre-selected for it the at least one characteristic of the specialized rental vehicle reservation profile corresponding to same division as that division-specific deep-link URL;

grouping the generated division-specific deep-link URLs in association with the entity; and

communicating a plurality of the grouped division-specific deep-link URLs to a remote computer for display to a user via a multiple division, multiple deep-link page; and

wherein the method steps are performed by a processor.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising the processor providing at least one graphical user interface (GUI) to an administrator computer for display thereon, the at least one GUI configured to solicit input from an administrator to define a division-specific specialized rental vehicle reservation profile including its at least one characteristic, and wherein the defining step comprises the processor defining the division-specific specialized rental vehicle reservation profile in response to administrator input through the at least one GUI.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein the at least one GUI comprises at least one input field for defining a vehicle type for the division-specific specialized rental vehicle reservation profile, and wherein the defining step comprises the processor defining a vehicle type for the division-specific specialized rental vehicle reservation profile in response to administrator input through the at least one GUI that comprises a vehicle type selection.

4. The method of claim 3 wherein the at least one GUI further comprises at least one input field for defining an appearance characteristic for the deep-linked page for the division-specific deep-link URL corresponding to the division-specific specialized rental vehicle reservation profile, the method further comprising the processor defining an appearance characteristic for the deep-linked page corresponding to the division-specific specialized rental vehicle reservation profile in response to administrator input through the at least one GUI that comprises an appearance characteristic selection.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the communicating step comprises the processor providing the multiple division, multiple deep-link page to the remote computer for display thereon, the multiple division, multiple deep-link page including the plurality of the grouped division-specific deep-link URLs.

6. The method of claim 1 further comprising the processor providing at least one graphical user interface (GUI) to an administrator computer for display thereon, the at least one GUI configured to (1) receive input from an administrator to identify a plurality of generated division-specific deep-link URLs that are to be grouped, and (2) receive input from an administrator to define a plurality of parameters for the multiple division, multiple deep-link page, wherein the grouping step comprises the processor grouping the identified division-specific deep-link URLs in association with the entity in response to administrator input through the at least one GUI, and wherein the method further comprises the processor defining an appearance for the multiple division, multiple deep-link page in response to the parameters input through the at least one GUI.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein the at least one GUI comprises an input field for defining a text label to be presented on the multiple division, multiple deep-link page to identify an associated division-specific deep-link URL included within the multiple division, multiple deep-link page, and wherein the appearance defining step comprises the processor including a text label for the associated division-specific deep-link URL in the multiple division, multiple deep-link page for display thereon based on the text label defined via administrator input through the at least one GUI.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein the defining step comprises the processor defining a pickup location as the at least one characteristic for at least one of the specialized rental vehicle reservation profiles in response to input via a graphical user interface (GUI).

9. The method of claim 8 wherein the defined pickup location comprises a range of eligible pickup locations.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein the defining step comprises the processor defining a vehicle type as the at least one characteristic for at least one of the specialized rental vehicle reservation profiles in response to input via a graphical user interface (GUI).

11. An apparatus for administering a rental vehicle reservation booking application with respect to an entity, the entity comprising a plurality of divisions, the apparatus comprising:

a processor; and

a memory;

wherein the processor and memory are configured to (1) define a plurality of division-specific specialized rental vehicle reservation profiles, each division-specific specialized rental vehicle reservation profile corresponding to a division of the entity and comprising at least one characteristic of a rental vehicle reservation, (2) generate a plurality of division-specific deep-link uniform resource locators (URLs), each division-specific deep-link URL being configured, upon selection by a user, to navigate the user to a deep-linked page of an automated rental vehicle reservation booking application corresponding to that division-specific deep-link URL, the deep-linked page being configured to solicit user input for booking a rental vehicle reservation that already has pre-selected for it the at least one characteristic of the specialized rental vehicle reservation profile corresponding to same division as that division-specific deep-link URL, (3) group the generated division-specific deep-link URLs in association with the entity, and (4) communicate a plurality of the grouped division-specific deep-link URLs to a remote computer for display to a user via a multiple division, multiple deep-link page.

12. The apparatus of claim 11 wherein the processor and memory are further configured to (1) provide at least one graphical user interface (GUI) to an administrator computer for display thereon, the at least one GUI configured to solicit input from an administrator to define a division-specific specialized rental vehicle reservation profile including its at least one characteristic, and (2) define the division-specific specialized rental vehicle reservation profile in response to administrator input through the at least one GUI.

13. The apparatus of claim 12 wherein the at least one GUI comprises at least one input field for defining a vehicle type for the division-specific specialized rental vehicle reservation profile, and wherein the processor and memory are further configured to define a vehicle type for the division-specific specialized rental vehicle reservation profile in response to administrator input through the at least one GUI that comprises a vehicle type selection.

14. The apparatus of claim 13 wherein the at least one GUI further comprises at least one input field for defining an appearance characteristic for the deep-linked page for the division-specific deep-link URL corresponding to the division-specific specialized rental vehicle reservation profile, and wherein the processor and memory are further configured to define an appearance characteristic for the deep-linked page corresponding to the division-specific specialized rental vehicle reservation profile in response to administrator input through the at least one GUI that comprises an appearance characteristic selection.

15. The apparatus of claim 11 wherein the processor and memory are further configured to provide the multiple division, multiple deep-link page to the remote computer for display thereon, the multiple division, multiple deep-link page including the plurality of the grouped division-specific deep-link URLs.

16. The apparatus of claim 11 wherein the processor and memory are further configured to (1) provide at least one graphical user interface (GUI) to an administrator computer for display thereon, the at least one GUI configured to (i) receive input from an administrator to identify a plurality of generated division-specific deep-link URLs that are to be grouped, and (ii) receive input from an administrator to define a plurality of parameters for the multiple division, multiple deep-link page, (2) group the identified division-specific deep-link URLs in association with the entity in response to administrator input through the at least one GUI, and (3) define an appearance for the multiple division, multiple deep-link page in response to the parameters input through the at least one GUI.

17. The apparatus of claim 16 wherein the at least one GUI comprises an input field for defining a text label to be presented on the multiple division, multiple deep-link page to identify an associated division-specific deep-link URL included within the multiple division, multiple deep-link page, and wherein the processor and memory are further configured to include a text label for the associated division-specific deep-link URL in the multiple division, multiple deep-link page for display thereon based on the text label defined via administrator input through the at least one GUI.

18. The apparatus of claim 11 wherein the processor and memory are further configured to define a pickup location as the at least one characteristic for at least one of the specialized rental vehicle reservation profiles in response to input via a graphical user interface (GUI).

19. The apparatus of claim 18 wherein the defined pickup location comprises a range of eligible pickup locations.

20. The apparatus of claim 11 wherein the processor and memory are further configured to define a vehicle type as the at least one characteristic for at least one of the specialized rental vehicle reservation profiles in response to input via a graphical user interface (GUI).