Patent ID: 8744902

Claim:
A revenue management system for updating and limiting future sales of spaces of a travel-related service in which the spaces are capable of being classified in a plurality of classes each having a different pricing, the revenue management system comprising: a database comprising historical sales of the spaces; a computing device configured to query the database, the computing device further configured to execute instructions embodied in: a first forecast module configured to provide a first demand distribution that represents the probability of demand for each scenario of a remaining capacity of the spaces based upon the historical sales of the spaces; a first optimization module configured to calculate a first plurality of inventory controls for the spaces based upon the first demand distribution and that optimizes revenue; a second forecast module configured to provide a second demand distribution that represents the probability of demand for each scenario of a remaining capacity of the spaces that is different from the first demand distribution; a second optimization module configured to calculate a second plurality of inventory controls for the spaces based upon the second demand distribution and that optimizes revenue; a confidence module configured to measure a confidence level in the first demand distribution and to determine whether the confidence level in the first demand distribution is below a predetermined value; and a switch module configured to automatically select between the second forecast module and the second optimization module and the first forecast module and the first optimization module, wherein the switch module is further configured to select the second forecast module and the second optimization module if the confidence level in the first demand distribution is below the predetermined value, to select the second forecast module and the second optimization module in the absence of historical sales, and to select the second forecast module and the second optimization module until a booking period ends if the system switches to the second forecast module and the second optimization module for a second time during the booking period.