Restaurant yield management portal

Abstract

A system and method to optimize the yield of a restaurant having perishable inventory is described. Through a card company, a restaurant can market incentives to make reservations during an off-peak time to enrolled card members. Offer marketing is based on stated customer preferences, and conducted via, for example, a website, email, or text message. Reservations are made, for example, via a centralized booking service. The incentive is fulfilled to the card member in a coupon-less manner. The card company receives a commission from the participating restaurant for every such sale.

1 . A method comprising:
 applying, by an inventory allocation computing device, a first portion of consumer preferences data to information regarding perishable inventory of a merchant to identify available inventory information from the perishable inventory information, wherein the perishable inventory is identified as being within periods of low demand;   applying, by the computing device, a second portion of the consumer preferences data to the available inventory information;   forming, by the computing device, an available inventory offer list, wherein the available inventory offer list is ranked based on the second portion of consumer preferences;   communicating, by the computing device, the available inventory offer list to a consumer;   receiving, by the computing device, a reservation made by the consumer for a portion of the perishable inventory from the available inventory offer list; and   notifying, by the computing device, the merchant of the reservation.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising providing details of the perishable inventory to a reservations portal that is accessible by at least one of the merchant and the consumer. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising displaying on a website at least a portion of the available inventory offer list for the consumer. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the consumer preferences data is received from a preferences database. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the receiving the reservation includes receiving via at least one of real-time, online, text message, Interactive Voice Response and telephone reservation. 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising debiting, by the computing device, the consumer for a full price of items associated with the reservation. 
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising crediting, by the computing device, the consumer with a difference between a full price of items associated with the reservation and a discounted merchant price. 
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising crediting, by the computing device, the consumer with loyalty points having an equivalent value of a difference between a full price of items associated with the reservation and a discounted merchant price. 
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising crediting, by the computing device, the consumer with a value of a merchant incentive. 
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising billing the merchant for a value of a merchant incentive plus a sales commission. 
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising billing the merchant via at least one of a reservations portal, an electronic mail communication, a telephonic message communication, and a paper statement. 
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising notifying the merchant in response to a cancellation of the reservation. 
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising updating an availability of the available inventory offer list. 
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising registering the consumer by linking a transaction account with a reservations portal, wherein a transaction account company hosting the reservations portal receives a commission from the merchant for every purchase made by the consumer. 
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising authenticating the merchant associated with the perishable inventory. 
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the available inventory offer list includes customized off-peak incentives. 
     
     
         17 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the reservation made by the consumer is based on a list of customized off-peak incentives. 
     
     
         18 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the reservation made by the consumer is based on a list of customized off-peak incentives, and wherein the off-peak incentives are ranked based on the second portion of the consumer preferences. 
     
     
         19 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein a number of offers in the available inventory offer list depends on a capacity of a communication channel of the available inventory offer list. 
     
     
         20 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the perishable inventory includes available tables at restaurants. 
     
     
         21 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising computing a number of communication messages to be sent to the consumer based on a number of items of perishable inventory. 
     
     
         22 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising providing additional information related to at least one of ratings of the merchant and driving directions to the merchant. 
     
     
         23 . A system comprising:
 an inventory allocation processor,   a tangible, non-transitory memory configured to communicate with the processor,   an allocation module configured to communicate with the processor and to apply a first portion of consumer preferences data to information regarding perishable inventory of a merchant to identify available inventory information from the perishable inventory information, wherein the perishable inventory is identified as being within periods of low demand;   the allocation module further configured to communicate with the processor and to apply a second portion of the consumer preferences data to the available inventory information;   a list formation module configured to communicate with the processor and to form an available inventory offer list, wherein the available inventory offer list is ranked based on the second portion of consumer preferences;   a communication module configured to communicate with the processor and to communicate the available inventory offer list to a consumer;   the communication module further configured to receive a reservation made by the consumer for a portion of the perishable inventory from the available inventory offer list; and   the communication module further configured to notify the merchant of the reservation.