Automatically allowing internet access for plurality of guest user devices triggered upon detecting device identifier of one of them on network of hospitality establishment

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.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . An apparatus for controlling Internet access 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 first 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 to allow Internet access 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 user identifier of any current guest of the hospitality establishment; and 
 in response to determining that the device identifier is associated with the user identifier of a current guest of the hospitality establishment, a) query a user profile database to determine a second user device associated with the user identifier, the second user device being different than the first user device, and b) configure the firewall at the hospitality establishment to allow Internet access for both the first user device and the second user device. 
   
     
     
         2 . 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 user identifier of any current guest of the hospitality establishment, 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. 
     
     
         3 . The apparatus of  claim 2 , 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. 
     
     
         4 . The apparatus of  claim 2 , 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. 
     
     
         5 . The apparatus of  claim 2 , 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. 
     
     
         6 . The apparatus of  claim 2 , wherein the reservation database is a property management system (PMS) of the hospitality establishment. 
     
     
         7 . The apparatus of  claim 1 , 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 for a plurality of different users. 
     
     
         8 . The apparatus of  claim 7 , wherein, when querying the one or more databases of the hospitality establishment to determine whether the device identifier is associated with the user identifier of any current guest of the hospitality establishment, the one or more processors are configured to:
 query the user profile database to find a particular user identifier that is associated with the device identifier of the first user device; 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 any current guest of the hospitality establishment, wherein the guest database of the hospitality establishment stores user identifiers of currently registered guests of the hospitality establishment.   
     
     
         9 . The apparatus of  claim 1 , wherein, by configuring the firewall at the hospitality establishment to allow Internet access for both the first user device and the second user device, the first user device and the second user device are both thereby prevented from needing to display a login portal before gaining Internet access from the computer network. 
     
     
         10 . The apparatus of  claim 1 , wherein, in response to determining that the device identifier is associated with the user identifier of the current guest of the hospitality establishment, the one or more processors are configured to a) query the user profile database to determine a plurality of additional user devices associated with the user identifier, the additional user devices being different than the first user device, and b) configure the firewall at the hospitality establishment to allow Internet access for both the first user device and the plurality of additional user devices. 
     
     
         11 . A method of controlling Internet access at a hospitality establishment, the method comprising:
 detecting a device identifier of a first 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 to allow Internet access 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 user identifier of any current guest of the hospitality establishment; and   in response to determining that the device identifier is associated with the user identifier of a current guest of the hospitality establishment, a) querying a user profile database to determine a second user device associated with the user identifier, the second user device being different than the first user device, and b) configuring the firewall at the hospitality establishment to allow Internet access for both the first user device and the second user device.   
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 11 , further comprising, when querying the one or more databases of the hospitality establishment to determine whether the device identifier is associated with the user identifier of any current guest of the hospitality establishment, 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. 
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 12 , 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. 
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 12 , 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. 
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 12 , 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. 
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 12 , wherein the reservation database is a property management system (PMS) of the hospitality establishment. 
     
     
         17 . The method of  claim 11 , 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 for a plurality of different users. 
     
     
         18 . The method of  claim 17 , further comprising:
 when querying the one or more databases of the hospitality establishment to determine whether the device identifier is associated with the user identifier of any current guest of the hospitality establishment, querying the user profile database to find a particular user identifier that is associated with the device identifier of the first user device; 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 any current guest of the hospitality establishment, wherein the guest database of the hospitality establishment stores user identifiers of currently registered guests of the hospitality establishment.   
     
     
         19 . The method of  claim 11 , wherein, by configuring the firewall at the hospitality establishment to allow Internet access for both the first user device and the second user device, the first user device and the second user device are both thereby prevented from needing to display a login portal before gaining Internet access from the computer network. 
     
     
         20 . The method of  claim 11 , further comprising, in response to determining that the device identifier is associated with the user identifier of the current guest of the hospitality establishment, a) querying the user profile database to determine a plurality of additional user devices associated with the user identifier, the additional user devices being different than the first user device, and b) configuring the firewall at the hospitality establishment to allow Internet access for both the first user device and the plurality of additional user devices.