Reservation system and method

摘要

A reservation system for travel, accommodation, venue ticketing and other purposes may be accessed on-line, for example via a social networking website. A user enters their social networking identification into the reservation system, which is stored for future use. When a subsequent user makes a reservation, they also enter their social networking ID and the system retrieves a list of associated parties from the social networking website, which may be a friends or contacts list, and searches for reservations made by any of those parties which have an overlapping criterion, such as date and destination. It then sends the subsequent user the social networking ID of the overlapping party. The overlap may be used to identify parties who will be at the same destination at the same time as the subsequent user, and/or are travelling on the same flight or journey. The list of associated parties may also be used to identify parties who are listing as living at the destination to which the subsequent user is travelling and those parties social networking IDs may be sent to the subsequent user. On check-in, the system may use the list of associated parties to notify the party checking-in that one of their friends or contacts has also check-in.

主权项

1. A computerized on-line reservation method, comprising the steps of:
receiving a reservation enquiry at a computerized booking system from a user; receiving the user's social networking identification on a social networking platform at the computerized booking system; storing the social networking identification of the user in a database associated with the computerized booking system; in response to a subsequent user submitting a reservation enquiry; retrieving a list of social networking identifications (SNIDs) for that user from the social networking platform, the list comprising a group of one or more other parties registered on the social networking platform with whom the subsequent user is associated; searching, at the computerized booking system, for third party reservations having at least one overlapping reservation criterion and an associated SNID from the subsequent user's list; sending a request to the social networking platform to retrieve a city of residence of each party in the subsequent user's list of associated parties; comparing the residences of the list of associated parties with a chosen destination of the subsequent user; displaying to the subsequent user, an identification of any party from the list recorded by the social networking platform as resident in the subsequent user's destination city; and displaying to the subsequent user the SNID of a third party identified by the search together with information regarding the reservation.