System and method for reducing excess capacity for restaurants and other industries during off-peak or other times
OwnerDazhi Chen, Elayna Bereaninventors
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A system and method for reducing excess capacity for restaurants and other industries during off-peak hours is provided. Customers or potential customers may bid on gift certificates redeemable at restaurants during a predetermined time. Users may register with the system and provide identification and demographic information which may be used by restaurants for targeted marketing strategies, promotions, and special offers. The system may include a registration module, an auction module, a restaurant guide module, a restaurant manager module, rewards and referral center module, restaurant reservation module, and advertisement displays.
Claims19
A computer-implemented system for reducing excess capacity for one or more restaurants that experience periods of peak demands and periods of non-peak demands and for collecting information about at least one user, the system comprising:
- a server configured to execute computer program modules corresponding to a website, the computer program modules comprising:
- a request module configured to transmit information to a client computing platform that causes the client computing platform to present an interface associated with the website to receive one or more user selected restaurant characteristics through the interface;
- an incentive determination module configured to identify incentives for dining at restaurants corresponding to the one or more user selected restaurant characteristics received at the server from the client computing platform such that the incentive determination module is configured to identify a first incentive and a second incentive responsive to:
- the first incentive being for dining at a first restaurant corresponding to the one or more user selected restaurant characteristics, and
- the second incentive being for dining at a second restaurant corresponding to the one or more user selected restaurant characteristics;
- an incentive module configured to transmit information to the client computing platform that causes the client computing platform to concomitantly present a plurality of incentives for dining at individual ones of a set of two or more restaurants that correspond to the one or more user selected restaurant characteristics included in the received user request for incentives such that the plurality of presented incentives includes the first incentive and the second incentive responsive to the first incentive and the second incentive being identified by the incentive determination module,
- the incentives being subject to restrictions that specify valid times of day, and
- the incentive module being configured such that the information transmitted to the client causes the plurality of incentives to be presented as being subject to the restrictions of the incentives such that, responsive to the first incentive being subject to restrictions that specify a first set of valid times of day and the second incentive being subject to restrictions that specify a second set of valid times of day that is different from the first set of valid times of day, the first incentive is presented with the first set of valid times of day and the second incentive is presented with the second set of valid times of day that are different from the first set of valid times of day.
A computer-implemented method of reducing excess capacity for one or more restaurants that experience periods of peak demands and periods of non-peak demands and for collecting information about at least one user, wherein the method is implemented in a server configured to execute one or more computer program modules corresponding to a website, the method comprising:
- receiving, at the server through the website from a client computing device, one or more user selected restaurant characteristics;
- identifying incentives for dining at restaurants corresponding to the one or more user selected restaurant characteristics received at the server from the client computing platform such that a first incentive and a second incentive are identified responsive to:
- the first incentive being for dining at a first restaurant corresponding to the one or more user selected restaurant characteristics, and
- the second incentive being for dining at a second restaurant corresponding to the one or more user selected restaurant characteristics
- transmitting, to the client computing device, information that causes the client computing device to concomitantly present identified incentives,
- the incentives being subject to restrictions that specify valid times of day, the first incentive being subject to restrictions that specify a first set of valid times of day, and the second incentive being subject to restrictions that specify a second set of valid times of day such that the first set of valid times of day is different than the second set of valid times of day, and
- the presentation of the incentives specifying the valid times of day for the incentives such that the first incentive is presented with the first set of valid times of day and the second incentive is presented with the second set of valid times of day that are different from the first set of valid times of day.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.