Importance

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Abstract

A reservations processing center is coupled by communication links to hotels in the vicinity of one or more airports and coupled by communication links to airline offices in the vicinity of the same airport(s). The methods of the invention include maintaining a database (at the processing center) in which each hotel indicates the rates it has contracted with each airline, the number of currently available rooms, and today's rate (if lower than the contracted rate). If the number of rooms requested is less than or equal to twenty, the processing center compiles a list of hotels having at least the requested number of rooms available and forwards the list to the airline agent. If the number of rooms requested is greater than twenty, the reservation request is copied to participating hotels as a request for a bid. The request for bid instructs the hotels to submit their bids to a designated airline agent. The bids designate a hotel agent to contact when accepting the bid. When the airline agent receives the bids, the most appropriate bid is accepted by transmitting a bid acceptance directly to the hotel.

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First Claim