# US 10,771,470 B2 · Automatic room check-in upon detecting device identifier of new guest on network of hospitality establishment > Agents: this data is available as JSON from the patentgrep API and MCP server — see https://patentgrep.com/llms.txt - Number: US 10,771,470 B2 - Document ID: US10771470B2 - Status: Granted - Kind: B2 - Application number: 16/027,662 - Filed: 2018-07-05 - Published: 2018-12-20 - Granted: 2020-09-08 - Earliest claimed: 2012-05-08 - Assignees: Guest Tek Interactive Entertainment Ltd. - Applicants: Guest Tek Interactive Entertainment Ltd. - Inventors: Peter S. Warrick; Joshua M. Wookey; David T. Ong; Ian S. McBeth; Darren T. Ziebart; Andrew T. MacMillan - Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US10771470B2 ## CPC - H04L 63/102: {Entity profiles} - G06F 16/951: Indexing; Web crawling techniques - G06F 16/953: Querying, e.g. by the use of web search engines - G06F 16/955: using information identifiers, e.g. uniform resource locators [URL] - G06F 21/31: User authentication - G06Q 10/02: Reservations, e.g. for tickets, services or events - G06Q 50/12: Hotels or restaurants - H04L 61/103: across network layers, e.g. resolution of network layer into physical layer addresses or address resolution protocol [ARP] - H04L 63/02: {for separating internal from external traffic, e.g. firewalls} - H04L 63/0876: {based on the identity of the terminal or configuration, e.g. MAC address, hardware or software configuration or device fingerprint} - H04L 63/10: {for controlling access to devices or network resources} - H04L 61/5014: using dynamic host configuration protocol [DHCP] or bootstrap protocol [BOOTP] - H04L 2101/622: Layer-2 addresses, e.g. medium access control [MAC] addresses - H04L: TRANSMISSION OF DIGITAL INFORMATION, e.g. TELEGRAPHIC COMMUNICATION (arrangements common to telegraphic and telephonic communication H04M) - G06F: ELECTRIC DIGITAL DATA PROCESSING (computer systems based on specific computational models G06N) - G06Q: INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY [ICT] SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES; SYSTEMS OR METHODS SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR ## Abstract A service controller includes a network interface for coupling to a local area network of a hospitality establishment, and one or more processors coupled to the network interface. The one or more processors are configured to detect a device identifier of a user device on a local area network of a hospitality establishment, determine whether a guest of the hospitality establishment is associated with the device identifier, and automatically activate a service for the user device at the hospitality establishment in response to detecting the device identifier on the local area network when a guest of the hospitality establishment is determined to be associated with the device identifier. ## Claims ### Claim 1 An apparatus for controlling automatic check-in at a hospitality establishment, the apparatus comprising: a storage device; a network interface for coupling to a computer network of the hospitality establishment; and one or more processors coupled to the storage device and the network interface; wherein, by the one or more processors executing a plurality of software instructions loaded from the storage device, the one or more processors are configured to: detect a device identifier of a user device in network traffic transmitted on the computer network of the hospitality establishment; search a set of authorized user devices to determine whether the device identifier corresponds to any locally recognized user device at the hospitality establishment; in response to determining that the device identifier corresponds to a locally recognized user device, take no further action because a firewall at the hospitality establishment has already been configured with one or more device-specific rules for the locally recognized user device; in response to determining that the device identifier does not correspond to any locally recognized user device at the hospitality establishment, query one or more databases of the hospitality establishment to determine whether the device identifier is associated with a new guest registered for a particular room of the hospitality establishment; and send a room access key to the user device via the computer network and configure the firewall with at least one rule allowing Internet access for the user device in response to determining that the device identifier is associated with the new guest registered for the particular room; wherein the room access key allows the new guest registered for the particular room to open a door lock of the particular room. ### Claim 2 (depends on 1) The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the one or more processors are further configured to generate the room access key to be different for each new guest registered for the particular room. ### Claim 3 (depends on 1) The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the room access key comprising a QR code for display on a user interface and acceptance by an optical scanner near the door lock of the particular room. ### Claim 4 (depends on 1) The apparatus of claim 1, wherein, when querying the one or more databases of the hospitality establishment to determine whether the device identifier is associated with the new guest registered for the particular room, the one or more processors are configured to query a reservation database of the hospitality establishment to determine whether the device identifier corresponds to a registered device of an active reservation of the hospitality establishment. ### Claim 5 (depends on 4) The apparatus of claim 4, wherein a particular reservation of the hospitality establishment is defined as the active reservation when a start-time of the particular reservation has been reached and an end-time of the particular reservation has not yet been reached. ### Claim 6 (depends on 4) The apparatus of claim 4, wherein a particular reservation of the hospitality establishment is defined as the active reservation when a current time is within a first predetermined duration before a start-time of the particular reservation or when the current time is within a second predetermined duration after an end-time of the particular reservation. ### Claim 7 (depends on 4) The apparatus of claim 4, wherein the reservation database stores a plurality of guest reservations of the hospitality establishment and each of the guest reservations may include one or more registered devices. ### Claim 8 (depends on 4) The apparatus of claim 4, wherein the reservation database is a property management system (PMS) of the hospitality establishment. ### Claim 9 (depends on 1) The apparatus of claim 1, wherein, when querying the one or more databases of the hospitality establishment to determine whether the device identifier is associated with the new guest registered for the particular room, the one or more processors are configured to: query a user profile database via an external network to find a particular user identifier that is associated with the device identifier, wherein the user profile database is remote from the hospitality establishment and stores associations between one or more device identifiers and one or more user identifiers; and in response to finding the particular user identifier that is associated with the device identifier from the user profile database, query a guest database of the hospitality establishment to determine whether the particular user identifier is associated with a current guest of the hospitality establishment, wherein the guest database of the hospitality establishment stores user identifiers of currently registered guests for guest rooms of the hospitality establishment. ### Claim 10 (depends on 1) The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the one or more processors are further configured to activate Internet access for the user device at the hospitality establishment in response to determining that the device identifier is associated with the new guest registered for the particular room, thereby preventing the user device from needing to display a login portal before gaining Internet access from the computer network. ### Claim 11 A method of automatic check-in at a hospitality establishment, the method comprising: detecting a device identifier of a user device in network traffic transmitted on a computer network of the hospitality establishment; searching a set of authorized user devices to determine whether the device identifier corresponds to any locally recognized user device at the hospitality establishment; in response to determining that the device identifier corresponds to a locally recognized user device, taking no further action because a firewall at the hospitality establishment has already been configured with one or more device-specific rules for the locally recognized user device; in response to determining that the device identifier does not correspond to any locally recognized user device at the hospitality establishment, querying one or more databases of the hospitality establishment to determine whether the device identifier is associated with a new guest registered for a particular room of the hospitality establishment; and sending a room access key to the user device via the computer network and configuring the firewall with at least one rule allowing Internet access for the user device in response to determining that the device identifier is associated with the new guest registered for the particular room; wherein the room access key allows the new guest registered for the particular room to open a door lock of the particular room. ### Claim 12 (depends on 11) The method of claim 11, further comprising generating the room access key to be different for each new guest registered for the particular room. ### Claim 13 (depends on 11) The method of claim 11, wherein the room access key comprises a QR code for display on a user interface and acceptance by an optical scanner near the door lock of the particular room. ### Claim 14 (depends on 11) The method of claim 11, wherein querying the one or more databases of the hospitality establishment to determine whether the device identifier is associated with the new guest registered for the particular room comprises querying a reservation database of the hospitality establishment to determine whether the device identifier corresponds to a registered device of an active reservation of the hospitality establishment. ### Claim 15 (depends on 14) The method of claim 14, wherein a particular reservation of the hospitality establishment is defined as the active reservation when a start-time of the particular reservation has been reached and an end-time of the particular reservation has not yet been reached. ### Claim 16 (depends on 14) The method of claim 14, wherein a particular reservation of the hospitality establishment is defined as the active reservation when a current time is within a first predetermined duration before a start-time of the particular reservation or when the current time is within a second predetermined duration after an end-time of the particular reservation. ### Claim 17 (depends on 14) The method of claim 14, wherein the reservation database stores a plurality of guest reservations of the hospitality establishment and each of the guest reservations may include one or more registered devices. ### Claim 18 (depends on 14) The method of claim 14, wherein the reservation database is a property management system (PMS) of the hospitality establishment. ### Claim 19 (depends on 11) The method of claim 11, wherein querying the one or more databases of the hospitality establishment to determine whether the device identifier is associated with the new guest registered for the particular room comprises: querying a user profile database via an external network to find a particular user identifier that is associated with the device identifier, wherein the user profile database is remote from the hospitality establishment and stores associations between one or more device identifiers and one or more user identifiers; and in response to finding the particular user identifier that is associated with the device identifier from the user profile database, querying a guest database of the hospitality establishment to determine whether the particular user identifier is associated with a current guest of the hospitality establishment, wherein the guest database of the hospitality establishment stores user identifiers of currently registered guests for guest rooms of the hospitality establishment. ### Claim 20 A non-transitory processor-readable medium comprising a plurality of processor-executable instructions that when executed by one or more processors cause the one or more processors to perform steps of: detecting a device identifier of a user device in network traffic transmitted on a computer network of a hospitality establishment; searching a set of authorized user devices to determine whether the device identifier corresponds to any locally recognized user device at the hospitality establishment; in response to determining that the device identifier corresponds to a locally recognized user device, taking no further action because a firewall at the hospitality establishment has already been configured with one or more device-specific rules for the locally recognized user device; in response to determining that the device identifier does not correspond to any locally recognized user device at the hospitality establishment, querying one or more databases of the hospitality establishment to determine whether the device identifier is associated with a new guest registered for a particular room of the hospitality establishment; and sending a room access key to the user device via the computer network and configuring the firewall with at least one rule allowing Internet access for the user device in response to determining that the device identifier is associated with the new guest registered for the particular room; wherein the room access key allows the new guest registered for the particular room to open a door lock of the particular room.