AN ONLINE DISTRIBUTION SYSTEM TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION

THIS INVENTION relates to an online distribution system for a user to purchase and/or reserve an inventory item, and in particular but not limited thereto, the system is for reservation of accommodation packages.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The advent of personal computers equipped with communications devices arranged to provide convenient and easy access to web sites over the Internet has provided businesses with a direct online international marketing portal. Any person having access to the Internet can access such a portal to purchase a product or make reservation for a guest room, a time slot in a conference room, for a round of the golf game, a ticket or pass to attend an event or travel with an airline or other transportation vehicle, and the like.

United States Patent Number US5,832,452 to Schneider et al. proposed a computer system for users to access hotel information of participating hotels online.

Using this prior art system, a user can retrieve a list of hotels within a range of rates and in a selected location. On selecting a hotel on the list, the system provides its address and contact details, and rates for different room types. As the rates are provided following selection of a hotel from the list, users who wish to compare the rates of the different hotels on the list must select all hotels. To make a reservation for a room in any of the listed hotels, a user must contact a travel agent or the hotel.

PCT International Patent Publication Number WO2005/013165 to Surrey

Technologies Limited proposed a reservation system for users to make an online reservation for accommodation, performance or travel. In an example for a hotel reservation, the Surrey Technologies application describes with reference to Figure

5, a graphical user interface (GUI) on a user's computer monitor for the user to input selection criteria based on check-in and check-out dates and room type. The GUI is generated from a reservation server connected to the user computer over the

Internet. The user inputs and data for the GUI are transmitted through an invisible transmission window so the GUI is updated immediately after a user input. The GUI allows the user to select a desired room type and shows the capacity and rates of the

selected room type. Also included in the GUI are a calendar showing the two dates and the days in two consecutive months. The dates are marked as available or unavailable for the selected room type. The Surrey Technologies system is configured to recognise successive clicks on the calendar as the check-in and check-out dates and using these dates to calculate the total costs payable for the reservation. The reservation is finalised following completion of a credit card transaction process.

The Surrey Technologies system is for making online reservation at a particular hotel and does not allow users to compare rates at different hotels.

In United States Patent Application Number US 2005/0033613, there is disclosed a reservation system for both travel agents and direct users. A travel agent must input the appropriate agency identification to access the price quote requests for agents. Apart from the prices, the procedures for requesting price quotes are similar for both agents and direct users. This system uses a set of user entered data relevant to the arrival date, the departure date and the number of guests to generate a list of resorts close to a selected airport. On selection of a particular resort from the list, the system provides the prices for different room types alone and the prices for different room types bundled with airfares. Upon selection of a room type, the system presents a booking form for the user to complete the booking procedure.

None of the above prior art systems provide a list of rates and room availability in different hotels/resorts in a given date range. Accordingly, users must check each hotel/resort for availability and take note of their rates so that the rates of the available rooms/resorts can be compared.

The prior art online reservation systems generate price lists based on the data provided by suppliers of the hotel/resort rooms. Generally, the suppliers allocate a relatively small percentage of a finite number of stock for online users as they have to allocate inventory rooms to other distribution channels. As the rooms can be reserved up to about one year in advance, availability and rates for each room in that period must be provided and then updated regularly. The allocations of inventory rooms thus needs to be micro-managed on a full-time basis across multiple web-sites. As there is only a number of rooms available, by having all inventory displayed on all web-sites (thereby maximising exposure) the supplier runs a risk of overselling

unless room inventory is managed "as it happens". If the supplier chooses not to have all inventory available on all web-sites, they may choose to spread the available stock across these sites, therefore significantly reducing the exposure and the chances of selling all available occupancy. Data entries are labourious and extensive time resources are allocated to enter such data and to verify their correctness.

Accommodation providers recognise the value of potential upsell by adding food and beverage components to the room only products to increase revenue and make the product more attractive to the consumer. The prior art systems do not have the ability to utilise the provided allocation to offer these components both individually and packaged to the consumer thereby exposing far more variety of the products and packages available.

The prior art systems do not have the ability to utilise the provided allocations to offer the products and packages to multiple market-segments. They also do not have an efficient mechanism to price components both individually and packaged across multiple market-segments.

OBIECT OF THE INVENTION

It is an object of the present invention to alleviate or to reduce to a certain level one or more of the prior art disadvantages.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In one aspect the present invention provides an online distribution system for a user to purchase and/or reserve an inventory item. The system comprises a database arranged to contain relevant data of inventory items allocated by at least one supplier and package components associated with one or more of the inventory items, and a computer server arranged for user communications terminals and supplier communications terminals to communicate therewith over a communications network. The computer server includes an online inventory allocation arrangement arranged for the at least . one supplier using a supplier communications terminal to provide relevant inventory data for each inventory item to be allocated for distribution for transfer to the database, and an extrapolation arrangement for the at least one supplier to selectively associate any of the package components with any of the inventory items for distribution. The online inventory

allocation arrangement further has a set up procedure for the at least one supplier to set up allocations of inventory items and any associated package components. The set up procedure includes a set up interface for the at least one supplier to enter the relevant data of the inventory items and any associated package components for allocations, and an extension procedure for extending the relevant data of a relatively small number of inventory items and any associated package components into allocations for a relatively large range of corresponding inventory items. The computer server is arranged to provide an item search page on a user communications terminal in communication therewith for a user to enter one or more search parameters and to generate a list containing an item or items matching the search parameter(s) and where applicable, packaged with associated component(s).

The inventory items may include accommodation rooms, and/or conference rooms, and/or travel tickets, and the like. The components for packaging may include food and/or drink, and/or golf game, and/or passes to local attractions or events, and/or rental cars, and/or laptop computers, and/or projectors, and the like.

The inventory data for each item may include price, and where applicable, prices with packaged components. The prices are preferably variable according to market segments of the users. In preference, the system further includes a transaction arrangement arranged for a user to make payment for one or more selected inventory items/packaged items. The system can thus be selectively tailored by suppliers to packages to suit their marketing strategy including:

• Packaged in a variety of ways, including the addition of food and beverage; and/or

• Priced according to packaged product; and/or

• Priced according to target market segment; and/or

• Extrapolated to obtain maximum exposure of products and packages available for minimising over or underselling inventory. As an example, a supplier can package accommodation to include:

Room only availability

Room with breakfast availability

Room with dinner availability

Room with breakfast and dinner availability

Room with specified inclusion availability The components for packaging can be made available on a "supplier type"basis, thereby giving opportunities to market packages based around individual supplier types. For example, a package consisting of room with a round of golf can be made available to suppliers who have registered as "Golf resorts" and who wish to offer this package without the need to reduce availability of other packages. By entering pricing based on each component of the package, the invention can list: individual components; a mixture of components; and a package of all components Suppliers can also nominate different pricing dependant on the length of stay.

For example a price for a one night stay may be priced higher than a 7 night stay thereby offering the most competitive rate to consumers. Similarly, the pricing may be different for Web-site rates and additional market-segment rates dependant on marketing strategies of suppliers. As an example, it allows a supplier to use the same allotment and price for Web-site rates, Corporate rates, Inbound rates, and other rates as needed.

In one form, the extension procedure is arranged to extend the data of the inventory items and any associated package components allocated in a week into allocations of corresponding inventory items and any associated package components allocations for 51 subsequent weeks. The extrapolation arrangement provides the ability to maximise exposure of supplier products as each inventory item from the same or different suppliers can be combined with components into different packages, then extrapolating it out to various market segments.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OR THE DRAWINGS

In order that the present invention can be more readily understood and be put into practical effect reference will now be made to the accompanying drawings which illustrate non-limiting embodiments of the present invention and wherein:- Figure 1 is a schematic diagram of an embodiment of the online inventory distribution system according to the present invention;

Figures 2A and 2B are partial views of an example of an inventory set up page of the inventory allocation arrangement appearing on a supplier terminal shown in Figure 1 ; Figures 3A and 3B jointly show a schematic arrangement for transferring the inventory data for a period of time as defaults into corresponding fields in a database;

Figure 4 shows an example of the inventory allocation management procedure for managing changes in items populated over a range of dates based on the set up page shown in Figures 2A and 2B; Figure 5 is schematic diagram of the steps employed in an example of the extrapolation arrangement for a supplier to include components as packages;

Figure 6 is a schematic diagram showing some components allowable for selection to form packages;

Figure 7 shows an example of a user search page appearing on a user terminal shown in Figure 1 ;

Figure 8 shows an example of the search result for the search parameters entered on the search page ;

Figure 9 shows some of the packages available from one of the suppliers on the search result; Figures 10 and 1 1 show an example of the booking form for a selected package of inventory items;

Figures 12 and 13 show an example of the booking confirmation page; Figures 14A and 14B are partial views of another example of the search page for the system of the present invention;

Figures 15A and 15B are partial views of a result page showing a list of accommodations matching the search parameters entered using the search page shown in Figures 14A and 14B;

Figures 16A and 16B are partial views of the search page in Figures 14A and 14B being used for searching a conference room;

Figure 17 is a flow diagram for the search and booking modules of the search page shown in Figures 14 to 16; and

Figure 18 is a flow diagram showing information passing between the packaging module, the booking module, the gift voucher module and the transaction module.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Referring to the Figures and initially to Figure 1 , there is shown an embodiment of the online inventory distribution system 10 according to the present invention. The system 10 includes a computer server 14 arranged for user communications terminals 12 and supplier communications terminals 1 3 to access over the Internet 18. An administration terminal 16 is provided to maintaining the server 14.

The server 14 has an inventory allocation arrangement 20 shown in Figures 2A and 2B. The allocation arrangement 20 allows a supplier from his communications terminal 13 to setup default values to be used for populating allocation slots for a period of days. In this example, the inventory item is a standard double room in a hotel. The supplier allocates in the rooms allotment field 22 the number of rooms available for each day of the week , specified complimentary articles in the inclusion field 24, rates for website bookings for 1 , 2 and 4 or more days in the fields 26, 28 and 30, and indications of components for packaging in the fields 32, 34 and 36. The supplier also provides comments for components for packaging in fields 38,40 and 42, and their prices in fields 44, 46 and 48 for each of the rate fields.

A copy command 50allows the fields for a particular day to be coped into corresponding fields for one or more subsequent days.

The inventory allocation arrangement 20 has an extension procedure for extending the data of a relatively small number of allocations of the inventory items to populate a range of time period such as 52 weeks. In this embodiment, the extension procedure is activated by clicking a "Save Changes" command 52. By clicking the "Save Changes" command 52, the values for each day in a week of allocations are saved as default values for extending to the default values to corresponding days in 52 weeks, as shown schematically in Figures 3A and 3B.

The inventory allocation arrangement 20 also has a supplier allocation management procedure for managing any change to the data of the allocated inventory items. The management procedure includes a change extension means for selecting the data in dates as default values to be used to populate the fields for a range of dates as shown in Figure 4 through a "Copy Down" command 54.

In Figure 5, the extrapolation arrangement 56 allows the supplier to associate each inventory item such as a room in a hotel, or a time slot for a conference room with optional components as packages, and calculate the costs for the packages. As shown in Figure 6, the components for packaging are classified into exclusive categories 58 and 60. A component in one category can only be combined with a component in different category.

In the search page 62 shown in Figure 7, the user wishing to search for an accommodation is prompted to select an appropriate search parameter in each of the "country" box 64, the "region" box 66 and the "package type" box 68, as well as entering the number of nights in box 70. When the search button 72 is clicked with a pointing device. The system 10 searches the database for matching inventory items and generate a list of available rooms offered by suppliers. As shown in Figure 8, the system 10 provides the list in the form of a table having a column 74for the supplier name, a column 76 for the normal room rate, and a column 78 for the rate for each day in a period of two weeks. The user can check availability in the next fortnight by clicking the "Next 14 Days" button 80 or in the previous fortnight by clicking the "Previous 14 Days" button 82. Clicking the "Today" button 84 will return to the listing for the fortnight starting from this day.

When a supplier name in the column 74 is selected, the system 10 generates a table 90 showing available packages 86 and their rates on different dates as shown in Figure 9. On selecting a package for a particular day or days, the system 10 presents a booking form 92 for entering user details and credit card details. The user can cancel the selection by clicking on the "Cancel" button 94 or proceed to make the booking by clicking on the "Book Now" button 96 as shown in Figures 10 and 1 1 . A confirmation receipt 128 as shown in Figures 12 and 13 is generated following confirmation of the transaction

The example of the search page 98 shown in Figures 14 and 14B allows a user to select a search for accommodation or conference room by clicking on an accommodation button 100 or a meetings/conferences button 102. This Figure shows the search parameters 64, 66, 68 and 70 which are similar to those shown in Figure 7. In addition, the user can search holiday packages 104 and attractions 108, view calendar events 106 and order a gift voucher 1 10 by clicking on the appropriate links 104 to 1 10 on this page. The page also shows available special offers 1 12 of participating suppliers and major events 1 14.

Figures 15A and 15B together show a search result page which lists suppliers and accommodation for different dates which can be changed by a range of seven days by using the "next 7 days" button 80 or the "previous 7 days" button 82. The user can also use the "month" buttons 1 16 to select a particular month within 12 months. In this page, the dates in which rooms that no longer available are marked as "Sold". A booking form will be presented when the user clicks on the "book now" button for a selected supplier 74. Where the "meetings/conferences" search is selected the search page shown in Figures 16A and 16B is generated for presentation to the user. This page provides the search parameters 64 to 68 as for the accommodation search. But instead of the "number of nights" the user enters the number of attendees for the parameter 70.

Referring to Figure 17, the system 10 has an accommodation search module 100 and a meetings/conferences search module 102 for a user to select from the search page 98 at step 1 10. Inventory items that match the search parameters are provided at step 1 12. The extrapolation arrangement then extracts packages 120 for

the selected inventory item at step 1 14 and arranges the packages in a table form for the user to select for making a booking at step 1 16. The system 10 then performs the processes 122 and 124 for informing suppliers of the components in the selected packages of the booking. In step 126, the system generates a booking receipt 128 as shown in Figures 12 and 13 for printing and/or downloading at the user terminal 12.

A system administrator uses the administration terminal 16 to install and maintain application programs for the system 10. Generally, the Administrator specifies:

• Available Package components • Package component categories and exclusions

• Market Segments

Examples of Package components are: Conference Audio and Visual Equipment (Laptop, Projector), Food and Beverage options (Hot Breakfast, Continental Breakfast) and Events and Attractions tickets. Package components are specific to a Supplier Type and/or Region (e.g. "Hotel" and "Sydney") but may be replicated across all Supplier Types and Regions.

Some of the components are mutually exclusive. The system 10 has package calculation module as shown in Figure 6 to ensure that the mutually exclusive components are not included in a same package. Exclusions are "mutual exclusions" such that a Package component of that category (e.g. "Breakfast") cannot be combined with another Package component of the same category. As an example, if there was a Breakfast category with mutual exclusion, then it would be not possible to have a Package of "Room with 'Continental Breakfast' and 'Hot Breakfast/" whereas a Category of "Display Equipment" without mutual exclusion would allow a package of "Room with' Projector' and'Laptop'".

The system 10 applies prices for the calculation based on market segments and number of items or length of stay. Additional market segments are available to login customers who must be authenticated with the system in order to access specific market segment price and availability details (e.g. corporate or inbound customer).

A participating supplier may use a supplier terminal 12 to set up inventory items for distribution on the system 10. Generally, a supplier of hotel accommodation specifies the fallowings during the set up:

• The Property and its details • The Room and its details

• The room and inventory allocation, availability _/ price and comments

• The possible combinations of Package components for a room on a day

• Their participation and pricing of market segments • Their participation in accommodation and/or conference loading

Property and Room details include the features of the property and room as well as a description of what is offered. It is not related to the booking process except in that the customer will use these details along with price to select the product they wish to purchase. The dimensions of Allocation (room), Comments (room and package item), Price (room and package item), and Availability (package item) determine the products that are bookable by the customer.

The Supplier may select that different combinations of Package components are available on different days as appropriate. An example of this would be to deselect the availability of a Dinner Package Item for the rest of the week because of a function.

Additionally the supplier may opt in or out of participation of:

• market segments

• accommodation

• conferencing. When a Supplier adds a room and inputs the detail for the room, the data can be set as "default" values that apply to each weekday. The first time these are saved, they are extrapolated from each weekday to every day of the next 365 + 28 days. While the 365 days are the days that can be booked on the site, the remaining 28 provide a window where default values have been calculated out; this provides a window for the Supplier to 'block-out' certain days or change allocations in a timely manner before the customers can see them.

Additionally, as each day passes, not only are the 'old days' no longer accessible, but the saved "default" values are used to calculate the 365 + 28 ^th day's values. Note that this day's details are not immediately accessible to the Customer

- they are only accessible by the Supplier until sufficient days have passed to make that day a part of the 365 day bookable region.

A user accessing the system 10 on the server 14 can use the search page as shown in Figures 14A and 14B to search for a desired inventory item or package. In searching the user provides appropriate search parameters. The search parameters for a hotel accommodation may include the followings: • Country

• Region

• Package combination

• Number of nights stay

If the package includes a conference, the user may also specifies: • Room Layout

• Number of People

The system 10 has a Supplier Back-end Processing module. In this module applies a package extrapolation routine as follows:

For each room: For each of the Package components that are selected:

Use the Inclusion Category Mutual Exclusion to work out which Package components can be combined with which other Package components.

For each of the Package component combination sets (above): Calculate the Packages (discarding duplicates).

N. B. Note that the first Package is "Room Only." Update the Database with the Packages.

Package availability is based on the following routine:

For each Room:

For the Room Only package:

For the date range being updated:

Combine the Room availability with the Market Segment pricing information.

Update the database. For Packages with Package components: For the date range being updated: For each Market Segment: Calculate the Pricing for the Market Segment of the combined Package components.

Combine the Room availability with the Market Segment and combined Package component pricing information. Update the database. The system Front-end processing module performs the followings:

Search Processing

For Accommodation searches:

Gather the selected Customer, Region, Package (combination) Selection and Stay Duration. Find the cheapest room that matches the Package / Market Segment for each Supplier in that Country / Region For Conference searches:

Gather the selected Customer, Region, Room Layout Selection and Room Capacity requirement. Find the cheapest room that matches the Layout / Capacity for each

Supplier in that Country/ Region

Whilst the above has been given by way of illustrative example of the present invention many variations and modifications thereto will be apparent to those skilled in the art without departing from the broad ambit and scope of the invention as herein set forth in the following claims.