Patent ID: 9547878
Date: 2017-01-17
CPC Classifications: G06Q,Y10S

Claim:
1. A computer-based system for responding to requests for hotel room and rate availability, comprising: a central reservation computing system including a revenue management module configured and arranged to update hotel room rate information and a guest history module, said central reservation computing system operatively coupled to a plurality of hotel property management computing systems, said plurality of hotel property management computing systems configured to manage availability information for respective properties, one or more of said plurality of hotel property management computing systems being configured to manage said availability information for individual ones of said respective properties, said central reservation computing system and said plurality of hotel property management computing systems being operated by a provider of hotel services that determines and sets hotel room rates, said availability information including availability of room inventory and availability of rates, a first of said plurality of hotel property management computing systems configured and arranged to communicate a first set of said availability information as needed or as requested, a second of said plurality of hotel property management computing systems configured and arranged to communicate a second set of said availability information as needed or as requested; and an availability engine operatively coupled to said central reservation computing system and to said plurality of hotel property management computing systems, said availability engine configured and arranged to respond to requests from internal and external sources for hotel room and rate availability instead of said central reservation computing system handling said requests from said internal and external sources, wherein said internal sources include an internal reservation call center and a proprietary website, and wherein said external sources include global distribution systems and online travel agencies that are consumers of said availability information furnished by said provider of hotel services, said availability engine further configured and arranged to receive updates to said rate information from said revenue management module of said central reservation computing system and to utilize said updates to said rate information when responding to said requests from said internal and external sources, said availability engine additionally configured and arranged to receive and store said availability information from said plurality of hotel property management computing systems in a form native to said plurality of hotel property management computing systems without requiring standardization by said availability engine as to room type and rate plan when said availability information is received and stored, said availability information being stored using memory-based storage thereby enhancing a processing speed of responses to said requests by said computer-based system, said availability engine including: wherein said availability engine is further configured and arranged to determine a nature of availability of one or more hotel rooms requested during a reservation request from said external sources based upon each of the following two status classifications: (i) availability confirmed status such that said availability engine is capable of being confirmed by said availability engine without querying one or more of said plurality of hotel property management computing systems, and (ii) availability request status such that said one or more of said plurality of hotel property management computing systems must be queried directly for said availability to be confirmed; wherein, when said nature of availability is availability confirmed status, said availability engine is further configured and arranged to process said reservation request from said external sources based on said compilation of said availability information, to convey accepted reservations to respective ones of said plurality of hotel property management computing systems, and to send confirmation messages to said external sources; and wherein, when said nature of availability is availability request status, said availability engine is further configured and arranged to convey said reservation request from said external sources directly to a respective one of said plurality of hotel property management computing systems, to receive a hotel-generated confirmation message from said respective one of said plurality of hotel property management computing systems, and to send said hotel-generated confirmation message to said external sources.