FR3042628A1 - - Google Patents

Abstract

Systems, methods, and computer program products for forming a travel group. A first travel record containing a travel reservation for a first user of a social network is stored in a travel record database. The travel booking is published as a travel publication on a social networking system. A request for publication of the trip is received via the social networking system of a client device associated with a second user of the social network. In response to receiving the request, the one or more processors generate one or more offers for a second trip based on the data in the first travel file. A second travel file containing said one or more offers is stored in the travel record database. A link between the first travel record and the second travel record is assigned to a booking directory stored in the travel record database. Said bid or offers are communicated to the client device of the second user of the social network.

Description

SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR TRAINING A TRAVEL GROUP

CONTEXT

In general, the invention relates to computers and software and, in particular, systems, methods and computer program products to form a travel group.

[0002] Computer technology is increasingly used in the travel industry to manage and support travel reservations, as well as the data associated therewith. In particular, third parties making reservations, such as travel agents and / or customers (eg travelers), often use computer devices to connect to a travel booking system such as a GDS, to book trips and / or or travel related services for the client. In general, the travel booking system facilitates the ordering / booking of one or more travel inventory items for a traveler, where a travel inventory item refers to a sales unit associated with a travel service ( for example, a ticket for a flight, a ticket for a train trip, a night for a hotel stay, etc.) maintained in an inventory of such items.

Individual reservations may be difficult to coordinate for a group of travelers with a common destination. For example, a person may plan a trip, wishing to be accompanied by other travelers. This person may attempt to organize a group trip by sharing information about the trip (eg departure airport, destination, dates and times) individually (eg in person, by telephone, texting or by e-mail) with other potential travelers.

As a result of these notifications, each individual wanting to join the organizer of the group trip can make his own reservation. Individual bookings allow for specificities (eg another departure airport or departure date than the tour operator), improving personal flexibility in the organization of the trip. However, the travel group lacks consistency because travel records created by individual bookings are unrelated and unrelated to the travel database.

[0005] Another way of approaching group travel is to unite all travelers sharing the same itinerary in a single booking so that the details of all travelers appear in a unique travel record. According to this model, the group of travelers is coherent, but the specificities of the different travelers can not be taken into account when the reservation is made. Consistency is achieved by sacrificing the flexibility of individual bookings.

[0006] Better systems, methods and software for forming a travel group are needed to improve the speed and accuracy with which trips can be organized between several individual travelers while taking into account the constraints of each traveler in the group. SUMMARY [0007] Embodiments of the invention provide systems, methods, and software for forming a travel group. A first travel record containing a travel reservation for a first user of a social network is stored in a travel database. The travel booking is published on a social networking system. A publication request is received via the social networking system of a client device associated with a second user of the social network. In response to receiving the request, one or more processors generate one or more offers for a second trip based on the data in the first travel record. A second travel file containing one or more offers is stored in the travel database. A link between the first travel record and the second travel record is assigned to a booking directory stored in the travel database. Said bid or offers are communicated to the client device of the second user of the social network.

SUMMARY DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification, illustrate various embodiments of the invention and, accompanying the general description of the invention given above and the detailed description of the modes of realization given below, serve to explain the embodiments of the invention.

[0009] FIG. 1 is a schematic representation of an exemplary operational environment, including a group travel management system in communication with other systems via a network.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart illustrating a method for a travel owner to share a trip on a social network with the help of the group travel management system.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating a method for a social network user to join the shared trip using the group travel management system.

FIG. 4 is a schematic representation of an exemplary computer system for hosting the group travel management system or the other systems shown in FIG.l

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Embodiments of the invention may be implemented by a processing and database system. The processing and database system may include one or more computerized subsystems that cooperate to automatically calculate proposals that are presented as offers to relationships and social network connections (eg, friends) wishing to participate in a subscription. Travel based on the tour operator's reservation and the constraints of each participant, and who can cooperate to check the consistency between the bookings of all participants in the tour group. Group management is simplified by connecting to the social network and its relationships and connections. Relationship and connection management is a basic feature of a social network, and can be used to manage group travel.

[0014] In accordance with the embodiments of the invention, the flexibility of group travel can be improved by creating individual travel records for the different travel bookings (which facilitates the flexibility and management of the specifics) and by linking individual travel records via a booking directory. The use of the reservation directory can improve the ability to manage consistency between individual travel records.

[0015] Referring now to FIG. 1, an operating environment 10 in accordance with one embodiment of the invention may include a reservation system 12, a travel agency system 14, client peripherals 16 associated with travelers, a travel management system, group 18, and a social network system 20 which are connected to each other by a network 22. The network 22 may include portions of one or more private or public networks (eg the Internet, a network). virtual private, a local area network (LAN), a wide area network (WAN), a cellular network, etc.) that provide interconnections and facilitate the exchange of data containing information. The social networking system 20 may be operated by a different business entity from the entities operating the reservation system 12, the travel agency system 14, the client devices 16, and the group travel management system 18. embodiment, the group travel management system 18 can be integrated in the reservation system 12 and operated by the same commercial entity.

The reservation system 12 can manage information and perform transactions relating to the availability, pricing, booking and ordering of travel products, such as flights, hotels, car rentals, etc. The reservation system 12 may allow users, such as agents related to the travel arrangement system 14, to search for travel products, book and then order travel products and issue tickets. The reservation system 12 may also respond to requests received from the travel agency system 14, the client devices 16, or the group travel management system 18 for producing or retrieving route data. In the context of air travel, the reservation system 12 can respond to requests from the travel agency system 14 by identifying particular flights that satisfy a set of travel route features, and make or make travel reservations. air. The reservation system 12 can be integrated into a GDS system, being a type of reservation system that reserves and orders travel products and issues tickets for multiple travel service providers.

The reservation system of 12 and / or the group travel management system 18 may include or have access to a travel record database 24. The travel record database 24 stores travel (eg a passenger name record), where each travel record includes items representing traveler information and a travel reservation detailing one or more booked travel products, additional services, and other information related to trip for one or more travelers. As will be appreciated, when travel products are reserved to create a reservation, the reservation system 12 may generate a travel record in the travel record database 24 which contains reservation related items and information related to the reservation. travel booking. Each travel file can be identified and followed by a unique identifier assigned by the reservation system 12. The travel file database 24 can use reservation directories to group multiple travel files and to perform unified actions on each booking directory.

[0018] The reservation system 12 and / or the group travel management system 18 may include having access to a database 26 which facilitates the pre-booking activities for an agent linked to the travel agency system. 14. The bid database 26 maintains records which contain information on travel product quotes, namely travel proposals, sent to travelers before bookings are made. Pre-booked travel proposals stored in a file may be based on real-time availability and pricing, and may be updated to ensure that the information is current. However, the proposals are not confirmed bookings. The travel proposals stored in the bid database 26 can be accessed and used by the reservation system 12.

The reservation system of 12 and / or the group travel management system 18 may include or have access to a traveler profile database 28 which includes and retains data characterizing travelers, such as associated travelers. to the client devices 16. The profile data in the traveler profile database 28 may be retained by the travelers using the client devices and / or the travel agency system 14, and may be shared with authorized parties, like the travel agency system 14.

The travel agency system 14 may be used by a travel agent to book travel by remote communication with the reservation system 12 which, in turn, communicates with inventory systems of one or more travel product suppliers to find availability and book one or more travel products. The travel agent may use the travel agency system 14 to create and / or modify a travel record by initiating a reservation session with the reservation system 12.

Each client device 16 may be an electronic device comprising computer hardware, software or logic components integrated and capable of performing supported features. Representative customer devices may include a computer system such as a desktop computer or a mobile electronic device such as a laptop, tablet, mobile phone, smartphone, etc. Each client device 16 may allow its user to communicate with other users linked to other client devices 16, the travel agency system 14 and the group travel management system 18 via the network 22.

[0022] The social networking system 20 allows users of an online social network to communicate and interact with other users. Users can join the social network online through the social networking system 20 and then establish connections or relationships with a number of other users of the social networking system 20. A user of the social networking system 20 can be classified as a friend of another user of the social networking system 20 with whom the user has established a connection, association or relationship through the social networking system 20. The social networking system 20 can store social graphs integrating connections, associations, and user-defined relationships into one or more remote data stores of the client devices 16 of the users.

The social networking system 20 may include or have access to a database of user profiles 29 containing a profile for each user adhering to the social networking system 20. A user's profile includes data fields. containing information describing various characteristics of the user of the corresponding social networking system. For example, the user profile may contain biographical, demographic, and other types of descriptive information (employment, education, personal preferences, interests, location, images, videos, etc.). A unique identifier may be assigned to each user of the social networking system 20 and may be associated with the user's profile in the user profile database 29.

The social networking system 20 may give users the ability to act on various types of items or objects supported by the social networking system 20. For example, items and objects may include travel reservations made with the client devices 16 and shared with friends using the group travel management system 18. Each client device 16 can through the actions of its user and the group travel management system 18 access social networking features by interactively communicating with the social networking system 20. For example, each user has the opportunity to interact with the social networking system 20 by posting comments on the social networking system 20, which are stored by the social networking system 20 as user-generated content objects. The social networking system 20 can provide a platform that enables the group travel management system 18 to provide social networking and functionality services to the users related to the client devices 16 through the network 22.

Each client device 16 may include a web browser that may be used to enter a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) or other address directing the web browser to a particular server, such as a server of the social networking system 20 or a server. of the group travel management system 18, and the web browser can generate a Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) request and communicate the HTTP request to the specific server. In response to the HTTP request, the server communicates one or more Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) files, Extensible Markup Language (XML) files, etc., to the client device 16. Based on the received files, the client device 16 can render and present one or more web pages to the user. A web page can execute scripts written in a scripting language such as JavaScript, Java or another dynamic programming language.

The social networking system 20 may be able to link a variety of entities, such as the group travel management system 18 and the client peripherals 16. Notably, the social networking system 20 may allow users to interact with each other, as well as receive content from the group travel management system 18, and can enable users related to the client devices 16 to interact with the group travel management system 18 through a programming interface (API) or other communication channel. The group travel management system 18 can also publish content to the client devices 16 and receive content from the client devices 16 via the social networking system 20 through a communication channel, such as a programming interface (API ). For example, the group travel management system 18 may be instructed by the user device 16 of a user to share a travel reservation with other users of the social networking system 20, which is routed through the networking system. social 20 to be published on the client devices 16 of other users. Another example: the group travel management system 18 can receive coordinates and constraints from the client device 16 of another user routed via the social networking system 20 to make a travel reservation to join the trip of the user who ordered the publication of the travel booking.

Each user of the social networking system 20 can subscribe or subscribe to an application to the group travel management system 18. The group travel management system 18 may allow a user of the social networking system 20 to share a reservation with other users of the social networking system 20 and allow these other users of the social networking system to join the trip associated with the reservation of the owner of the trip as participants. A social network user can navigate to the group travel management system application 18, for example by searching the name in a search bar or application center of the social networking system 20. Before using the group travel management system 18, a user can authorize the application to allow the use of personal data, such as first name, last name, e-mail address, friend list, profile picture, etc., of his social network profile.

During the authorization process, the group travel management system 18 can access the identification of the subscribed user in a data store in the social networking system 20. The travel management group 18 can search the list of traveler profiles in the traveler profile database 28 to try to identify a profile corresponding to the identification of the user subscribed to the social network. The traveler profile can contain basic data, such as the real identity (first name, last name) to ensure the consistency of the travel file for use in real bookings and trips, an e-mail address for sending details of travel details. offers to the social network user in a notice of offer, contact details (for example, a phone number) that can be used by the travel agency to contact the user, etc.

If a corresponding traveler is not identified in the traveler profile database 28, a new traveler profile can be created for the subscribed user and stored in the traveler profile database 28. The elements of the new traveler profile may be filled with personal data provided by the subscribed user. User identification on the social network can be included as an element in the new traveler profile in the traveler profiles database 28. Due to this link with the traveler profile in the traveler database passenger profiles 28, the user of the social network will not have to provide personal data for future uses of the application related to the group travel management system 18.

In FIG. 2, an organization chart shows a method 200 allowing a trip owner to share a trip on the social networking system 20 with the help of the group travel management system 18. While FIG. 2 shows exemplary functions, actions and / or operations corresponding to one embodiment, other embodiments may omit, add, rearrange and / or modify any of the functions, actions and / or operations represented. in FIG. 2. One or more of the functions, actions and / or operations represented in FIG. 2 may be performed by any component or combination of components in the operational environment 10.

In block 202, a user of the social network can use his client device 16 to initiate a session with a travel agency system 14 to make travel reservations (eg an excursion). During the session, the social network user can interact with his client device 16 to reserve one or more travel products to create a reservation, recorded as a travel record for the social network user in the database. Travel records 24. The travel record may include traveler information and booking information for one or more booked travel products, additional services, and other travel related information for which travel products are made. The travel file can store the information in one or more data fields using one or more of a plurality of data structures, such as strings, numbers, or boolean flags.

In block 204, the social network user with the existing reservation may want to organize a travel group using the group travel management system 18. In particular, a user of the social network can use his client device 16 to initiate a session with the group travel management system 18. For this purpose, the trip represented by the existing reservation of the owner of the trip can be shared with other users of the social networking system 20 by a notification initiated by the group travel management system 18 using the social network API. The trip owner can share a trip publicly if this feature is available on the social networking system 20, or share it with a limited circle of users (eg, friends). The trip owner can also update the reservation with notification to other social network users using the social network API. For this purpose, if a travel owner decides to change their travel details, the trip owner can share an updated reservation with relationships and contacts through an updated publication.

When the reservation is published, this user of the social network becomes a travel owner designated by the group travel management system 18. A reservation can be added on the basis of the identifier of the travel file corresponding to the reservation and, if the reservation has several passengers, the name of the passenger in the travel file. Security checks can be made to ensure that the confirmation number and the name match. If the security check is good, the reservation is linked to the profile of the user in the database of the user profiles 29 of the social networking system 20 and also linked to the profile of the traveler in the database of user profiles. travelers 28. The owner of the trip may be designated by the group travel management system 18 as the social network user having permission to invite other users of the social network to join the trip.

In block 206, a user of a social network who is a travel owner can publish a trip to the client devices 16 via the social networking system 20 through a communication channel (for example a programming interface (API)). For example, the group travel management system 18 may be instructed by the client device 16 or the travel owner to share a travel reservation with other users of the social networking system 20, which is routed through the travel system. social networking 20 to be published on client devices 16 of other users. When a travel owner wants to invite a specific friend to join his trip, the travel owner can target one or more friends by sharing his trip directly with each friend. In this situation, each targeted friend has the opportunity to join the trip to the exclusion of other social network users who are not classified as friends.

In block 208, users of the social networking system 20 can view and comment on the published travel of the owner of the trip if the security conditions defined at the level of publications by the users themselves allow it. Once a user of the social network has authorized the application related to the group travel management system, the user has the opportunity to interact (eg join, clone, etc.) with the travel published by the owner of the trip using the application related to the group travel management system 18.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating a method 300 that allows a user of a social network to join a shared trip using the group travel management system 18. While FIG. 3 shows exemplary functions, actions and / or operations corresponding to one embodiment, other embodiments may omit, add, rearrange and / or modify any of the functions, actions and / or operations. represented in FIG. 3 One or more of the functions, actions and / or operations represented in FIG. 3 may be performed by any component or combination of components in the operational environment 10.

In block 302, a user of a social network can choose to join a trip that has already been shared by the owner of the trip via the publication on the social networking system 20. The publication of the trip by the owner of the Social Network System Travel 20 represents for other social network users the entry point to the Group Travel Management System application 18. The ability to join a trip may depend on privacy settings defined by the owner of the trip on his social network account, which is typical for publications. A social network user can use his client device 16 to initiate a session with the group travel management system 18 via the social networking system 20 to view details of the published trip owner's travel and, upon request, to receive offers to join the published trip.

In block 304, a user of the social network seeking to join the trip as a participant in the trip may provide constraints (for example geographical constraints and / or date constraints) and / or coordinates as basic data to the system. Group Travel Management 18 during the session as a preparatory action to receive offers. If the social network user is recognized having a pre-existing traveler profile in the traveler profile database 28, the personal information can be retrieved automatically from his or her traveling profile. The user of the social networking system 20 may not have a traveler profile in the traveler profile database 28. In this case, the social network user may be invited by the group travel management system. 18 to provide personal information to subscribe to the application related to the group travel management system 18.

In block 306, if a user of the social network (for example a friend) reports during the session that he or she wants to join the trip of a travel owner as a participant in the trip, the management system group travel 18 will send a request to the reservation system 12 to create one or more travel offers that are presented to the potential participant in the trip. The reservation system 12 can automatically define travel proposals based on the existing reservation itinerary stored as items in the travel owner's travel record and the constraints provided by the potential participant in the trip. The reservation system 12 can retrieve travel proposals for the potential participant in the travel of the offers database 26.

Said or said offers defined by the reservation system 12 may attempt to reproduce the details of the itinerary of the owner of the trip to make travel proposals to the potential participant in the trip with identical or similar booking details. For this purpose, when creating offers from the trip owner's travel file, the reservation system 12 may attempt to reproduce the items (eg travel segments) of the reservation in the owner's travel file. according to their availability in the inventory. The reservation system 12 may copy one or more reservations from the existing trip owner's travel record into one or more offers. If an item is not available, the reservation system 12 may search for a travel product that shares a level of similarity threshold with the comparable travel product in the itinerary of the travel owner.

The reservation system 12 may take into account geographical constraints provided by the user of the social network who seeks to join the trip as a participant in the trip when creating travel proposals for the offers. In particular, the potential participant in the trip may want to depart from a different departure point from that specified in the trip published by the owner of the trip. For example, if the potential participant in the trip does not reside in the same city or country where the trip owner resides, the group travel management system 18 may receive a departure city or departure airport different from reservation of the owner of the trip as a geographical constraint, and provide this geographical constraint to the reservation system 12 in the application. The reservation system 12 will search for travel products and create travel proposals based on the geographic constraint that the group travel management system 18 will present to the potential participant in the trip in one or more offers.

By way of example relating to flights as travel products, the reservation system 12 may attempt to create one or more offers for a travel participant comprising the same one-way flight segment as the recognized one-way flight segment. being an element in the travel record of the owner of the trip. Alternatively, if the trip participant wants to move from another location, the reservation system 12 may attempt to create travel proposals for one or more offers including another departure flight segment departing at a different departure time from the same airport. trip segment of the trip owner, or travel proposals for one or more offers including a different departure flight segment from the same airport to a departure time close to the departure time of the owner of the trip.

Another example relating to the flights as travel products: the reservation system 12 may consider date constraints provided by the user of the social network seeking to join the trip as a participant in the trip during the creation travel proposals for offers. In particular, the potential participant in the trip may want to depart on a different date from the departure date of the trip owner specified in the published trip.

Another example of hotels as travel products: the reservation system 12 can attempt to create travel proposals for one or more offers for a trip participant, including a room reservation in the same hotel as the hotel listed in the travel record of the owner of the trip. If the same hotel is not available on the dates of the trip, the group travel management system may attempt to expand the geographical criteria by searching for other hotels to include in travel proposals close to the hotel listed in the travel record of the owner of the trip. For example, the group travel management system may search for alternative hotels based on their proximity (eg the same street or city area) of the hotel listed in the trip owner's travel record. If proximity-based search succeeds, other hotels may be included as travel proposals for one or more offers. If address-based search is unsuccessful, reservation system 12 may expand the search for alternative hotels to a larger geographic area in subsequent searches. For example, the group travel management system may search alternative hotels in the same postal code as the travel owner's hotel or alternative hotels with the same city code as the travel owner's hotel.

The travel file containing the elements of the reservation of the owner of the trip may include one or more segments that have not been reserved by a GDS system, said non-GDS segments. The reservation system 12 may create one or more identical non-GDS segments in a travel proposal associated with an offer that correspond to the non-GDS segments in the travel file associated with the owner of the trip. These non-GDS segments may be characterized by a pending status because the travel agent may need to perform additional actions to complete the reservation. When the travel agent has booked the non-GDS segments in the external booking system, the status can be converted from pending to confirmed.

In block 308, the reservation system 12 can generate a travel record for the potential participant in the journey travel database 24. The travel record contains items relating to the offers that are created. The travel record of the potential participant in the trip may be linked to the corresponding traveler profile in the traveler profile database 28. In one embodiment, the unique identifier of the travel record of the potential participant in the trip may be recorded. as an item in the corresponding traveler profile in the traveler profile database 28.

In block 310, the reservation system 12 can create a reservation directory in the travel file database 24. The travel file of the potential participant in the trip containing the offers created and the travel file of the owner The trip containing the pre-existing reservation can be stored as associated items in the common booking directory. In one embodiment, the unique identifiers of the multiple travel folders can be registered as items in the common reservation directory. The shared location in the booking directory provides a tangible link between the different users of the social network who belong to the travel group, including the owner of the trip and each trip participant.

In the block 312, a notification is transmitted from the reservation system 12 to the travel agency system 14. The notification informs the travel agency system 14 of the offers in the travel file of the potential participant in the trip. where the travel agent is contacted by the potential participant in the trip to book a specified trip in one of the offers.

In block 314, said bid or offers are transmitted from the reservation system 12 to the group travel management system 18, which subsequently communicates said bid or offers to the client device 16 of the potential participant in the trip. Said bid (s) may be communicated to the traveler in a notice of offers sent to an e-mail address, an e-mail, a text message, etc. Offers may include bid details, including pricing information and segments.

In block 316, the potential participant in the trip receiving one or more offers on his client device 16 may examine said bid or offers with the possibility of choosing one of them to join the journey of the owner of the trip. If the potential participant in the trip chooses to accept one of the offers, the potential participant in the trip is put in contact with the travel agent. In a session established between the client device 16 and the travel agency system 14, one of the offers may be verified and confirmed in a reservation by the trip participant.

In block 318, the group travel management system 18 can check the consistency of the travel records in the reservation directory to ensure the integrity of the trip. The group travel management system 18 can perform on-demand monitoring, at regular intervals without asking, or whenever a participant's itinerary changes. More specifically, to ensure the consistency of a trip, the group travel management system 18 can perform several checks at the folder reservation directory in the reservation directory, and decide whether the travel record of each participant in the Trip must be maintained in the same booking directory as the trip owner's travel record.

For example, the group travel management system 18 can check if the travel records in the common reservation directory of potential participants in the trip contain canceled offers. The social network user seeking to join the trip may reject all offers received in the notice of offer. In this case, the group travel management system 18 will find that the trip potential travel file will contain only canceled offers, which means that this social network user no longer participates in the trip owner's trip, and can unlink the social network user's travel record from the common booking directory which contains the travel owner's travel record and the travel records of all other trip participants.

Another example: the group travel management system 18 can check if there is a travel record of a participant who canceled his trip, even if the reservation has already been confirmed. Since the travel record of such a trip participant is no longer associated with the trip owner's trip, the group travel management system 18 can dissociate the participant's travel record from the common booking directory containing the travel record. the travel owner and travel documents of all other participants.

[0054] Another example: the group travel management system 18 can check whether the itinerary of a trip participant has been modified so that the itinerary no longer corresponds to the journey of the owner of the trip. When the reservation is finalized, a trip participant may edit the itinerary contained in the travel record in the common booking directory. For example, a travel product such as a flight or hotel may be removed from the itinerary. To ensure that the booking directory does not contain travel documents representing different trips, the group travel management system 18 executes an algorithm to check the match of the dates and destination in the trip record of the trip participant. trip and dates and destination in the trip owner's travel record. If the travel dates and the destination do not match, the group travel management system 18 can dissociate the travel record of the trip participant from the common booking directory which contains the trip owner's travel record and travel documents. trip of all other participants in the trip.

[0055] With reference to FIG. 4, the reservation system 12, the travel agency system 14, the client peripherals 16, the group travel management system 18, and the social networking system 20 of the operating environment 10 can be implemented. on one or more devices or computer servers, such as the computer system 30 which serves as an example. The computer system 30 may include a processor 32, a memory 34, a mass storage device 36, an input / output (I / O) interface 38, and a Human Machine Interface (HMI) 40. The computer system 30 may also be operably coupled to one or more external resources 42 via the network 22 or the I / O interface 38. External resources may include, but are not limited to, servers, databases, mass storage, peripherals, cloud network services, or any other appropriate computing resource that can be used by the computer system 30.

The processor 32 may comprise one or more devices chosen from microprocessors, microcontrollers, digital signal processors, microcomputers, central processing units, programmable gate networks in situ, programmable logic devices, PLCs. , logic circuits, analog circuits, digital circuits, or any other device that manipulates signals (analog or digital) based on operational instructions that are stored in the memory 34. The memory 34 may comprise a single memory device or a plurality of memory devices, including but not limited to ROM, random access memory (RAM), volatile memory, non-volatile memory, static random access memory ( SRAM), dynamic random access memory (DRAM), flash memory, cache memory, or any other capable device to store information. The mass storage device 36 may include data storage devices such as a hard disk, an optical drive, a tape drive, a volatile or non-volatile solid memory device, or any other device capable of storing information.

The processor 32 can operate under the control of an operating system 46 which resides in the memory 34. The operating system 46 can manage computer resources for the computer program code of one or several computer applications, such as an application residing in the memory 34, may contain instructions executed by the processor 32. In another embodiment, the processor 32 can execute the application 48 directly and the system exploitation 46 can be omitted. One or more data structures 49 may also reside in the memory 34, and may be used by the processor 32, the operating system 46, or the application 48 to store or manipulate data.

The I / O interface 38 can provide a machine interface that couples the processor 32 functionally to other devices and systems, such as the network 22 or the external resource 42. The application 48 can thus work in collaboration with the network 22 or the external resource 42 communicating via the I / O interface 38 to provide the features, functions, applications, processes, or modules comprising embodiments of the invention. The application 48 may also contain program code that is executed by one or more external resources 42, or otherwise rely on functions or signals provided by other system components or networks external to the computer system 30. since the possible hardware and software configurations are almost infinite, those skilled in the art will understand that embodiments of the invention may include applications that are located outside the computer system 30, distributed among several computers or other resources. external 42, or provided by computer resources (hardware and software) that are provided as a service on the network 22, such as a cloud computing service.

The HMI 40 may be operably coupled to the processor 32 of the computer system 30 in a known manner to allow a user to interact directly with the computer system 30. The HMI 40 may include video or alphanumeric displays, a touch screen, a speaker, and any other appropriate audio and visual indicators capable of providing data to the user. The HMI 40 may also include peripherals and input devices such as alphanumeric keypad, pointing device, keyboards, push buttons, control buttons, microphones, etc. capable of taking commands. or data entries of the user and transmit them to the processor 32.

A user interface can be made available on the HMI 40 of the client device 16 by an application linked to the group travel management system 18, and can be used to display travel and information relating to the trips concerned in a global view. The user interface can be a dashboard that collects trips that the social network user has organized or cloned, and trips that the social network user has joined. From the dashboard, a social network user can have a global view of other users of the social network having joined his travels, and of the social network user who has organized each trip that has been joined by this social network user. The information displayed on the dashboard can relate to active travel records or historical travel records. The contents of the itinerary (eg flights, hotels, leisure activities, etc.) of each travel file can be displayed on the dashboard. The dashboard can also serve as an entry point for adding and sharing new trips. The list displayed on the dashboard can be enriched with images obtained from the profiles of users of the social network.

The dashboard can be used to display the list of trips based on a traveler profile. For each reservation, a corresponding booking directory is retrieved, providing a list of participants and their identity in the social network, based on the link between the bookings and the traveler's profile in the traveler profile database 28. These data may be used to display a list of social network users who have joined an end-user organized trip and / or a list of package tours in which the end user participates.

A database 44 may reside on the mass storage device 36, and may be used to collect and organize the data used by the various systems and modules described herein. The database 44 may include data and carrier data structures that store and organize the data. In particular, the database 44 can be arranged to any database or structure, including, but not limited to, a relational database, a hierarchical database, a network database, a database object-oriented data, or combinations thereof. A software application-based database management system executing instructions on the processor 32 may be used to access information or data stored in the database records 44 in response to a request, where a The query can be dynamically determined and executed by the operating system 46, other applications 48, or one or more modules. Although embodiments of the invention may be described herein using relational, hierarchical, network, object-oriented databases, or other terms in some cases, those skilled in the art will understand that embodiments of The invention can use any appropriate database management model, and is not limited to a particular type of database. In one embodiment of the invention, the database 44 may include the travel record database 24, the offer database 26, and / or the traveler profile database 28.

In general, the programs executed to implement the embodiments of the invention, whether they are implemented as part of an operating system or a specific application, component, program, object , module or sequence of instructions, or a subset thereof, may be referred to herein as "computer program code", or simply as "program code." Program code generally includes readable instructions by computer that resides at various times in various memory and storage devices in a computer and, when read and executed by one or more processors in a computer, cause the computer to perform the operations necessary to perform operations and or elements incorporating the various aspects of the embodiments of the invention Computer readable program instructions for carrying out operations of the embodiments The invention may be, for example, assembly language or either source code or object code written in any combination of one or more programming languages.

[0064] Various program codes described herein may be identified using the application within which they are implemented in specific embodiments of the invention.

However, it must be known that any particular program nomenclature that follows is used only for convenience, so the invention should not be limited to being used only in a specific application identified and / or induced by the nomenclature. Furthermore, given the generally infinite number of ways in which computer programs can be organized into routines, procedures, methods, modules, objects, etc., and the like, as well as the different ways in which program functionality can be divided between different software layers residing in a typical computer (for example operating systems, libraries, API's, applications, applets, etc.), it should be noted that the embodiments of the invention are not limited to the specific organization and the functionalities of the program described here.

The embedded code in any application or module described herein may be distributed individually or collectively as a program product in a variety of forms. In particular, the code may be distributed using a computer readable storage medium having program instructions for causing a processor to perform aspects of the embodiments of the invention.

Computer readable storage media, which are non-transient in nature, may include volatile and non-volatile, removable and non-removable tangible media used in any method or technology for storing information, such as instructions. computer readable, data structures, program modules or other data. Computer readable storage media may further include RAM, ROM, erasable programmable read only memory (EPROM), electrically erasable read only memory (EEPROM), flash memory, or other memory technologies in the state. solid, read-only compact disc (CD-ROM), or other optical storage, magnetic cassettes, magnetic tapes or other magnetic storage devices, or any other means that may be used to store the desired information and that can be read by computer. A computer-readable storage medium should not be interpreted as transient signals per se (for example, radio waves or other electromagnetic waves propagating, electromagnetic waves propagating through a transmission medium such as a light guide). wave, or electrical signals transmitted by a wire). Computer readable program instructions may be downloaded to a computer, another type of programmable data processing apparatus, or other device from a computer readable storage medium or to an external computer or external storage device via a network.

Computer readable program instructions stored on a computer readable medium can be used to operate in a particular manner a computer, other types of programmable data processing apparatus, or other such that the instructions stored in the computer readable product produce an article of manufacture, including instructions that implement the functions, acts, and / or operations specified in the flowcharts, sequence diagrams, and / or schemas. The instructions of the computer program may be provided to one or more processors of a general purpose computer, a specialized computer or other programmable data processing device for producing a machine, such that instructions executed through said one or more processors, cause a series of calculations to implement the functions, actions and / or operations specified in the flowcharts, sequence diagrams, and / or block diagrams.

In certain other embodiments, the functions, acts and / or operations specified in the flow charts, sequence diagrams, and / or block diagrams may be ordered, serially processed, and / or processed simultaneously in accordance with the modes of operation. embodiment of the invention. Furthermore, any flow chart, sequence diagram, and / or block diagram may comprise more or fewer blocks than those illustrated in accordance with embodiments of the invention.

The terminology used herein is intended to describe particular embodiments only and is not intended to limit the embodiments of the invention. As used here, the singular forms "one", "one" and "the" are intended to include plural forms unless the context clearly indicates the opposite. It will also be understood that the terms "includes" and / or "including", when used in this specification, indicate the presence of declared characteristics, integers, steps, operations, elements, and / or components, but do not exclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, integers, steps, operations, elements, components and / or groups thereof. Furthermore, to the extent that the terms "includes", "having", "a", "with", "consisting of", or variations thereof are used either in the detailed description or in the claims, these terms are intended to be inclusive in a manner similar to the term "comprising".

While the whole of the invention has been illustrated by a description of various embodiments and that these embodiments have been described in detail, it is not the intention of the Applicant to restrict or limiting the scope of the appended claims to such details. Those skilled in the art will see additional benefits and modifications. For example, a user of a social network can be inspired by his friends to clone a trip. The cloned trip may be based on a historical voyage of a travel file with historical segments or an archived travel file accessible by the application related to the group travel management system 18. The social network user can change the dates of the cloned travel itinerary, which adds flexibility if the social network user wants to make the same trip with other departure and return dates. The social network user can customize the activities in the itinerary of the cloned trip either by addition or subtraction. For example, the travel file for a cloned cultural and culinary trip may include activities in specific museums and restaurants. However, the social network user who cloned the trip may select culinary activities and remove them from the cloned trip, and may add activities, such as diving or cinema, to the cloned trip. When creating the corresponding travel file with offers for the social network user requesting the clone, the group travel management system 18 will not consider the travel file created as linked to the travel record containing the trip that was inspiring for the cloned trip because this would not respect the integrity checks. As a result, the details of the trip cloned in the travel file can be shared with other social network users (eg, friends) and the cloned trip can become a reachable trip. The invention in its broadest aspects is therefore not limited to the specific details, representative apparatus and process, and the illustrative examples presented and described. Therefore, deviations can be made from these details without departing from the spirit or scope of the Applicant's general inventive concept.

Claims (13)

CLAIMS What is claimed is: A method for forming a travel group, the method comprising: storing, by one or more processors in a travel record database, a first travel record containing a travel reservation of a first trip by a first user of a social network; the publication of the travel reservation as a travel publication on a social networking system; receiving, on said one or more processors, a request for the travel publication via the social networking system of a client device associated with a second user of the social network; in response to receiving the request, generating, by said processor (s), one or more offers for a second trip based on the data in the first travel file; storing by said processor or processors a second travel record containing said one or more offers in the travel record database; allocating, by said one or more processors, a link between the first travel file and the second travel file in a reservation directory stored in the travel record database; and communicating said one or more offers of said one or more processors to the client device of the second user of the social network. The method of claim 1, further comprising: receiving an update of the first travel record of said one or more processors; and in response to receiving the update of the first travel record, transmitting a notification to the second social network user based on the link between the first travel record and the second travel record in the reservation directory. . The method of claim 1 or claim 2, further comprising: receiving an update of the second travel record from said one or more processors; and in response to receiving the update of the second travel record, disassociating the second travel record from the booking directory to separate the second travel record from the first travel record. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the publication of a travel reservation as the publication of the trip on the social networking system further comprises: receiving an identification on the social network the first user of the social network; and retrieval of the travel booking for posting on the social networking system based on identification on the social network. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein said one or more offers for the second trip are generated on the provided database of the client device of the second user of the requesting social network. 6. The method of claim 5, wherein the data provided by the client device of the second user of the social network having made the request includes a constraint to be imposed on said bid or offers generated for the second trip. The method of claim 6, wherein the first trip and the second trip share the same destination, and wherein the constraint relates to a geographic location from a starting point for the second trip. The method of any one of claims 1 to 7, wherein the publication of the trip is published on the social networking system via a communication channel related to the social networking system. The method of any one of claims 1 to 8, further comprising: communicating a reported notification to the second travel file of said one or more processors to a travel agent's computer system. A computer system for forming a travel group, the computer system storing data including a travel record database and arranged to: store, in a travel record database, a first travel record including a first booking of travel for a first trip by a first user of a social network; publish the travel reservation as a travel publication on a social networking system; receiving a request for publication of the trip by the social networking system of a client device associated with a second user of the social network; in response to receiving the request, generating one or more offers for a second trip based on data in the first travel record; storing a second travel record containing said one or more offers in the travel record database; assign a link between the first travel record and the second travel record to a reservation directory stored in the travel record database; and communicating said one or more offers of said one or more processors to the client device of the second user of the social network. The computer system of claim 10 further being arranged to execute the method of any one of claims 2 to 9. A computer program for forming a travel group, the computer program comprising program code which, when executed by one or more processors, causes said processor (s) to store in a database of travel files, a first travel file including a first travel booking for a first trip by a first user of a social network; publish the travel reservation as a travel publication on a social networking system; receiving a request for publication of the trip by the social networking system of a client device associated with a second user of the social network; in response to receiving the request, generating one or more offers for a second trip based on data in the first travel record; storing a second travel record containing said one or more offers in the travel record database; assign a link between the first travel record and the second travel record to a reservation directory stored in the travel record database; and communicating said one or more offers of said one or more processors to the client device of the second user of the social network. The computer program of claim 12, wherein the program code, when executed by one or more processors, causes said processor (s) to execute the method of any one of claims 2 to 9.