Patent ID: 8478630

Claim:
A computer-implemented method for scheduling and booking of service appointments, the method comprising: receiving through a calendar-based service provider interface, provided by a server, a schedule of services offered by a service provider by appointment, wherein the schedule includes at least one service offer identifying a type of service, a practitioner, a price of the service, and one or more rules set by the service provider; determining a discount amount to be applied to the price of the service in at least one service offer based on the one or more rules set by the service provider, wherein the discount amount of the price varies based on a time schedule and on an initial discount amount selected by the service provider for at least one practitioner or at least one type of service of the service provider, and wherein the service offer is further determined based on user behavioral data and users' reviews provided by the server; storing the received schedule of services in an inventory database on the server; accessing using a dedicated application program interface (API), a calendaring application of the service provider; retrieving from the calendaring application of the service provider through the API information about available appointment dates and times for the schedule of services offered by the service provider; storing the retrieved information about the available appointment dates and times in the schedule of services for the service provider in the inventory database; generating the service offer for at least one user based on the available appointment dates and times for the services offered by the service provider; automatically adjusting the discount amount of the generated service offer based on the one or more rules set by the service provider and the initial discount amount; and during each adjustment of the service offer, identifying a user for receiving advertisements of the service offer, wherein identifying is based on at least one of the user having: viewed a previous service; booked a previous service; indicated an interest in a service; or returned to a particular business of a service provider a number of times; generating a targeted discount offer for the service offer based on the adjusted discount amount; electronically sending an advertisement with the targeted discount offer to the user; and sending to the service provider, through the API, information about which of the available appointment dates and times from the schedule of services have been booked by user.