Booking availability engine

An apparatus for generating a predicted optimal booking limit for a promotion and marketing service involving a promotional server in communication with an external merchant server associated with a merchant comprising a processor and a memory, the memory storing computer program code that, when executed by the processor, causes the apparatus to:

• query, by a booking optimization module of a promotional server of a promotion and marketing service, a promotion system database of the promotional server to retrieve promotional historical data associated with the promotion and marketing service;
• calculate, by the booking optimization module of the apparatus using an iterative reinforcement learning technique and based on an empirical cumulative density function, hidden demand for each time slot in a set of time slots based at least in part on the promotional historical data retrieved from the promotion system database of the promotional server, wherein merchant availability data stored at an external merchant server and associated with each of the set of time slots is inaccessible to the promotional server such that the hidden demand for each time slot in the set of time slots comprises a prediction of an unknown reserved number of external bookings for the particular time slot that have been placed from sources outside a promotion and marketing service, wherein each time slot in the set of time slots defines a time duration during which a performance of a service offered by a promotion and marketing service can be performed, and wherein each time slot in the set of time slots is identified by the booking optimization module in response to a selection of a particular promotion;
• determine, by the booking optimization module using the iterative reinforcement learning technique, a predicted optimal booking limit for each time slot in the set of time slots based on the calculated hidden demand for the time slot and a determined capacity for the time slot, wherein determining the predicted optimal booking limit for each time slot comprises increasing, by the booking optimization module, an initial booking limit for the time slot based at least in part on a slot penalty value generated based on a length of time during which a user does not purchase a promotion using the promotion and marketing service after a requested time slot is determined to be unavailable;
• determine, by the booking optimization module, that one or more time slots in the set of time slots comprise available time slots based on a comparison of the predicted optimal booking limit for each time slot in the set of time slots to a number of bookings reserved by the promotion and marketing service for each time slot in the set of time slots, wherein the number of bookings reserved by the promotion and marketing service for each time slot comprises a portion of the total number of bookings reserved for each time slot;
• and
• transmit, by a communications module of the apparatus to a consumer device, the one or more available time slots for display, by a consumer interface of the consumer device, in conjunction with the particular promotion.

A computer program product comprising a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing computer program code that, when executed by a processor of an apparatus, cause the apparatus to:

• query, by a booking optimization module of a promotional server of a promotion and marketing service, a promotion system database of the promotional server to retrieve promotional historical data associated with the promotion and marketing service;
• calculate, by the booking optimization module of the apparatus using an iterative reinforcement learning technique and based on an empirical cumulative density function, hidden demand for each time slot in a set of time slots based at least in part on the promotional historical data retrieved from the promotion system database of the promotional server, wherein merchant availability data stored at an external merchant server and associated with each of the set of time slots is inaccessible to the promotional server such that the hidden demand for each time slot in the set of time slots comprises a prediction of an unknown reserved number of external bookings for the particular time slot that have been placed from sources outside a promotion and marketing service, wherein each time slot in the set of time slots defines a time duration during which a performance of a service offered by a promotion and marketing service can be performed, and wherein each time slot in the set of time slots is identified by the booking optimization module in response to a selection of a particular promotion;
• determine, by the booking optimization module using the iterative reinforcement learning technique, a predicted optimal booking limit for each time slot in the set of time slots based on the calculated hidden demand for the time slot and a determined capacity for the time slot, wherein determining the predicted optimal booking limit for each time slot comprises increasing, by the booking optimization module, an initial booking limit for the time slot based at least in part on a slot penalty value generated based on a length of time during which a user does not purchase a promotion using the promotion and marketing service after a requested time slot is determined to be unavailable;
• determine, by the booking optimization module, that one or more time slots in the set of time slots comprise available time slots based on a comparison of the predicted optimal booking limit for each time slot in the set of time slots to a number of bookings reserved by the promotion and marketing service for each time slot in the set of time slots, wherein the number of bookings reserved by the promotion and marketing service for each time slot comprises a portion of the total number of bookings reserved for each time slot;
• and
• transmit, by a communications module of the apparatus to a consumer device, the one or more available time slots for display, by a consumer interface of the consumer device, in conjunction with the particular promotion.