Method and Apparatus for Improved Listings of Branch Locations for Booking Rental Vehicle Reservations On-Line

Abstract

Disclosed herein are techniques for permitting users to efficiently identify a desired branch location for a rental vehicle reservation. For example, a user-selectable link can be provided on a website page that, upon user selection, restricts a list of available branch locations in an area to only airport branch locations in that area.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . An apparatus for processing a rental vehicle reservation transaction between a customer computer and rental vehicle reservation-making entity, the apparatus comprising:
 a processor configured to communicate data to a remote customer computer over a network for populating a graphical user interface (GUI), the communicated data comprising data representative of a plurality of branch locations for a rental vehicle reservation transaction, wherein at least one of the branch locations comprises an airport branch location, wherein a plurality of the branch locations are non-airport branch locations, the GUI comprising (1) a list for display on the remote computer, the list comprising a plurality of the branch locations for selection by a customer for the rental vehicle reservation transaction, the listed branch locations comprising a plurality of non-airport branch locations, and (2) a selectable link for display on the customer computer, the selectable link being configured to, upon selection by the customer, cause the customer computer to display only the at least one airport branch location as a selectable option for the rental vehicle reservation transaction's branch location.   
     
     
         2 . The apparatus of  claim 1  wherein the GUI comprises a choose location page configured to solicit customer input for choosing the rental vehicle reservation transaction's branch location. 
     
     
         3 . The apparatus of  claim 2  further comprising a database in which branch location data is stored, and wherein the processor is further configured to (1) receive a search query from the customer computer over the network as location data for the rental vehicle reservation transaction, (2) access the database based on the search query to identify a plurality of branch locations as relevant to the search query, the identified branch locations including at least one airport branch location, and (3) communicate data representative of the identified branch locations to the customer computer over the network for populating the list of the GUI. 
     
     
         4 . The apparatus of  claim 3  wherein the search query comprises a metropolitan area. 
     
     
         5 . The apparatus of  claim 3  wherein the search query comprises a zip code. 
     
     
         6 . The apparatus of  claim 3  wherein the processor is further configured to communicate the data to the customer computer over the network by providing the GUI to the customer computer as a choose location page of a reservation booking website. 
     
     
         7 . The apparatus of  claim 6  wherein the branch location data in the database includes a plurality of flags for identifying the airport branch locations as such. 
     
     
         8 . The apparatus of  claim 7  wherein the processor is further configured to (1) receive input from the customer computer over the network that is indicative of customer selection of the selectable link, (2) in response to the received selectable link selection input, restrict the list to only airport branch location(s) based on the flag data from the database, and (3) communicate the airport branch location restricted list to the customer computer for display thereon. 
     
     
         9 . The apparatus of  claim 3  wherein the selectable link includes text for display through the GUI that describes a function of the selectable link to show only the at least one airport branch location, wherein the selectable link is further configured to, upon selection by the customer, cause the customer computer to display another selectable link, wherein the another selectable link is configured to, upon selection by the customer, cause the customer computer to return to the list of the branch locations that includes a plurality of non-airport branch locations, and wherein the another selectable link includes text for display through the GUI that describes a function of the another selectable link to show the previously listed branch locations. 
     
     
         10 . The apparatus of  claim 3  wherein the processor is resident within a server for a rental vehicle reservation booking website, and wherein the server is further configured to (1) receive a location input for the rental vehicle reservation transaction that represents an airport branch location selected by the customer through the GUI page, (2) receive temporal input for the rental vehicle reservation transaction from the customer through the website, (3) receive vehicle input for the rental vehicle reservation transaction from the customer through the website, and (4) book the rental vehicle reservation transaction for the customer in accordance with the received location, temporal, and vehicle inputs. 
     
     
         11 . A method for processing a rental vehicle reservation transaction between a customer computer and rental vehicle reservation-making entity, the method comprising:
 receiving a search query from a customer computer as partial location data for a rental vehicle reservation transaction;   accessing a database of branch location data based on the search query to retrieve data representative of a plurality of branch locations that are responsive to the search query, the plurality of responsive branch locations including at least one airport branch location and a plurality of non-airport branch locations;   communicating data representative of the responsive branch locations to the customer computer for display thereon through a graphical user interface (GUI) page, the GUI page including a list of a plurality of the responsive branch locations and a selectable link;   receiving input indicative of a selection by the customer of the selectable link; and   in response to the received selectable link selection input, restricting the list to the at least one airport branch location; and   wherein the method steps are performed by a processor.   
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 11  wherein the input receiving step comprises the processor receiving the selectable link selection input from the customer computer over a network, the method further comprising communicating the restricted list to the customer computer over the network for display thereon. 
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 12  further comprising:
 the processor receiving input from the customer computer indicative of a selection of an airport branch location from the restricted list as location data for the rental vehicle reservation transaction; 
 the processor receiving other input from the customer computer indicative of temporal data and vehicle data for the rental vehicle reservation transaction; and 
 the processor booking the rental vehicle reservation transaction for a customer based on the received inputs. 
 
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 13  wherein the processor is resident within a server for a rental vehicle reservation booking website. 
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 11  wherein the GUI page comprises a choose location page of a rental vehicle reservation booking website. 
     
     
         16 . The method of  11  wherein the branch location data in the database includes a plurality of flags for identifying the airport branch locations as such, and wherein the restricting step comprises the processor restricting the list based on the flag data. 
     
     
         17 . The method of  claim 11  further comprising:
 the processor, in response to the received selectable link selection input, including another selectable link in the GUI page for display in conjunction with the restricted list; 
 the processor receiving input indicative of a selection by the customer of the another selectable link; and 
 in response to the received another selectable link selection input, reverting to the list of branch locations that includes non-airport branch locations. 
 
     
     
         18 . The method of  claim 11  wherein the selectable link includes text for display through the GUI page that describes a function of the selectable link to restrict the list to only airport branch location(s).