Periodically increasing pay-per-use credit associated with room as long as user remains utilizing room

摘要

A hospitality establishment includes guest rooms having media devices installed therein. Each guest room has one or more in-room media devices for providing a pay-per-use media function. A media system controller dynamically associates a credit corresponding to a monetary value with a particular guest room in response to an occurrence of a first event, configures an in-room media device of the particular guest room to indicate the credit associated with the particular guest room and allow a guest of the particular guest room to utilize at least an amount of the credit toward an order of the pay-per-use media function, activates the pay-per-use media function on at least one of the in-room media devices of the particular guest room in response to a received order, and decreases the credit associated with the particular guest room according to the amount of the credit utilized toward the received order.

主权项

1. A system for use at an establishment having a plurality of rooms, the system comprising:
a plurality of devices installed in the rooms and coupled to a computer network, wherein each room has one or more of the devices as in-room devices for providing functions therein, the functions including at least a pay-per-use function; a storage device storing a room credit table and a media device table, the room credit table storing a respective credit value for each of the rooms, and the media device table storing network addresses for the one or more in-room devices of each of the rooms; and a system controller coupled to the computer network, performing data communications with the devices via the computer network, and operable to:
dynamically update the room credit table in the storage device to associate a credit corresponding to a monetary value with a particular room in response to receiving a message from a property management system of the establishment indicating that a user is beginning to utilize the particular room,dynamically update the room credit table in the storage device to increase the credit associated with the particular room in response to every occurrence of a predetermined time period as long as the user remains utilizing the particular room,look up in the media device table a network address for an in-room device of the particular room,send a plurality of configuration commands to the network address of the in-room device of the particular room via the computer network as the credit associated with the particular room changes in the room credit table over time, each of the configuration commands causing the in-room device of the particular room to indicate a current value of the credit associated with the particular room,receive via the computer network an order of the pay-per-use function from the in-room device of the particular room, wherein the in-room device of the particular room includes a user interface that allows the user to utilize at least an amount of the credit toward the order,send one or more messages over the computer network in order to activate the pay-per-use function on at least one of the in-room devices of the particular room in response to receiving the order of the pay-per-use function, andupdate the room credit table in the storage device to decrease the credit associated with the particular room according to the amount of the credit utilized toward the order.