JP2001243285A - Method for lending rental merchandise, its collecting method and merchandise rental system - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To lend and collect a rental merchandise while sufficiently obtaining convenience in an electric communication line such as the Internet. SOLUTION: When the rental merchandise is lent between a server device 20 and terminal equipment 11, 12, 13... which are mutually connected via the electric communication line 40, a storage destination after lending the merchandise is designated, the rental merchandise is transmitted to the storage destination through the line 40 and, then, the merchandise is lent. When the merchandise is collected, the merchandise is erased from the storage destination of the merchandise through the line 40 so that it is collected.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a method of lending a rental product, a method of retrieving the rental product, and a product rental system for lending and collecting the rental product. And the like, and a method for renting and collecting rental products via a telecommunication line, and a product rental system.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, a wide area network called the Internet has been widely used, and its use has been spreading in a rental industry for renting rental products such as music CDs (compact discs) and video videos. The usage form in the rental industry is, for example, a rental company accepts a rental product rental request from a customer through the Internet, and when a rental request is made via the Internet, the rental product according to the request is specified by mail or home delivery. For example, it can be sent to a location or rented directly to a customer at a rental agency's store.

[0003]

However, in the above-mentioned conventional use mode, when renting out rental products to a customer, it is necessary to deliver the rental product or to visit the customer. Is not fully utilized. This is exactly the same when the customer returns the rental product to the rental agent.

In addition, in the conventional usage mode, considering that a customer visits a store of a rental company, many stores are opened, a lot of rental / return windows are set up in the store, and business hours are extended. It is necessary to take measures such as In addition, a space for stocking rental products is required at each store, and if the space is limited, it is necessary to replace new products with old products.

In the conventional use mode, rental products are lent to customers together with storage media such as CDs and video tapes. Therefore, the rental products may be deteriorated depending on the number of rents or the number of elapsed days, and may not be used as rental products. There is. Furthermore, theft of the rental product (shoplifting) must be considered. In addition, since the storage medium is lent to the customer as a rental product, the management of the product requires a great deal of trouble. In particular,
It is possible to manage each rental product by attaching a barcode etc. to each rental product and reading the barcode at the time of lending and returning, but in such a case, a system (barcode and Such a reading device) and manual work are required.

On the other hand, recently, for example, music, video, and the like are converted into digital information by digital data, and the electronic information is distributed through the Internet, so that the music, video, and the like are provided to customers. I have. However, in this case, it is assumed that the customer purchases a product such as music or video. Therefore, the customer must pay a higher purchase price than when renting a rental product from a rental company.
In other words, in the rental industry where it is necessary to return goods, rental goods are not rented and collected through the Internet.

[0007] Therefore, the present invention provides a rental product exchange through a telecommunication line such as the Internet.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a rental product lending method and collection method and a product rental system that can fully utilize the convenience.

[0008]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a rental product lending method devised to achieve the above object.
A method of lending rental goods used when lending rental goods composed of electronic information from the server device to the terminal device between a server device and a terminal device that can be connected to each other via a telecommunication line, When there is a request from the terminal device to rent a rental product through the telecommunication line, the server device causes the requesting terminal device to specify the storage destination of the rental product after the rental, and the storage destination is specified. Then, the server device transmits the rental product according to the request to a designated storage destination through the telecommunication line, thereby lending the rental product.

The present invention also provides a method for collecting rental articles devised to achieve the above-mentioned object, wherein the server apparatus and the terminal apparatus which can be connected to each other via an electric communication line are connected to the server apparatus. A method for collecting rental products used when the server device collects rental products made up of electronic information lent to the terminal device, wherein the server device sends the rental product to a designated storage destination from the terminal device. After renting the rental product by transmitting the rental product through a communication line, the server device recovers the rental product by deleting the rental product from the storage location through the telecommunication line. It is characterized by doing.

Further, the present invention is a merchandise rental system devised to achieve the above object, comprising a server device which holds and stores rental merchandise composed of electronic information, and a telecommunication line provided to the server device. The terminal device can be connected to the terminal device via the. Then, when the server device receives a request to rent a rental product from the terminal device through the telecommunication line,
A storage location specifying means for designating the terminal device of the request source after the rental product has been delivered, and transmitting the rental product pertaining to the request from the terminal device to the designated storage location through the telecommunication line. By means of the product lending means for lending the rental product, the rental product is deleted by deleting the rental product from the storage location after lending through the telecommunication line. And a merchandise collecting means to be collected.

[0011] The method of renting and collecting rental products according to the above-described procedure, and the product rental system having the above-described configuration, include, for example, digital data of images such as music and movies, information service contents, and electronic information such as document creation software. Rental products are to be rented or collected. Then, when lending the rental product, the user specifies the storage destination of the rental product after the rental, and then downloads the rental product to the specified storage destination through the electric communication line. As the storage destination of the rental product, for example, a storage medium included in the terminal device or a storage medium connected to the terminal device, and a storage medium that can be accessed from the server device side via an electric communication line can be considered. On the other hand, when collecting rental goods, the rental goods are deleted from the storage destination designated at the time of lending through the telecommunication line. Thus, it is assumed that the rental product has been collected. Therefore, according to the method for renting and collecting a rental product according to the above procedure, and the product rental system having the above configuration, the rental product can be rented or collected via a telecommunication line.

[0012]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, a method for renting and collecting a rental product and a product rental system according to the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

First, a schematic configuration of a product rental system according to the present invention will be described. FIG. 1 is an explanatory diagram showing a schematic configuration of an example of a product rental system according to the present invention.

In the commodity rental system of the present embodiment, rental goods composed of electronic information, that is, rental goods that can be exchanged via a telecommunication line such as the Internet, are to be rented (rented and collected).
Specifically, for example, products that are newly released periodically, such as video data such as digitalized music and movies, information service contents, and document creation software, are targets. However, although it is not currently rented in the rental industry, if it can be exchanged via a telecommunication line, it is used in units of several years, such as an OS such as a personal computer.
(Operating systems), APs (application programs), and other OA tools can also be considered rental products. Furthermore, parts for software development such as OLE custom control (commonly known as OCX) announced by Microsoft Corporation in the United States can be rented.

In order to rent such a rental product, the product rental system according to the present embodiment comprises:
The terminal devices 11, 12, 13,... Operated by the customer who receives the rental service, the server device 20 on the rental agent side, and a copyright holding company that holds the copyright of the rental product (for example, a manufacturer of the rental product) And the server device 30. And each terminal device 1
.. And the server device 20 can be connected via the Internet 40.

The terminal devices 11, 12, 13,... May be devices that can access the Internet 40. That is, all devices that can access the Internet 40 can be the terminal devices 11, 12, 13,. Specific examples include a personal computer 11 installed in a general household, a company, a store, and the like, a mobile terminal 12 such as a mobile phone and an information portable terminal, or an information terminal 13 installed in a convenience store, a station square, or the like. However, in each of the terminal devices 11, 12, 13,..., MO (magneto-optical disk), memory stick, FD
(Floppy disk), I / O (Input / Ou) that can read / write to storage media such as HD (hard disk)
tput) device or connected to its I / O device.

On the other hand, the server device 20 comprises a WWW (World Wide Web) server 21 and a mail server 22
, A CTI (computer telephony integration) server 23, a rental product DB (database) server 24, and a trial rental product DB server 2
5 and a customer information DB server 26. Note that these may be owned by the rental company itself, or may be constructed and operated by an Internet provider. Further, since the configuration described here is a logical image, there is no problem even if the configuration changes depending on the system scale.

The WWW server 21 provides information on the Internet 40 through a so-called homepage, and sends each terminal device 11, 12, 1 to the homepage.
3 to enable access.

The mail server 22 is connected to each of the terminal devices 11, 1
The electronic mail can be exchanged with the Internet 2, 13,... Through the Internet 40.

The CTI server 23 integrates a computer system and a telephone system (including a FAX system). More specifically, for example, it converts digital data processed by a computer into analog voice data and transmits the analog voice data over the public telephone network 50.

The rental product DB server 24 stores and stores a plurality of types of rental products in a database. Also, the trial rental product DB server 25
Stores and stores rental products as in the rental product DB server 24. Unlike the rental product DB server 24, stores and stores so-called "trial version" rental products that customers can try. .

The customer information DB server 26 is a database for storing and storing information on the customers who have received the rental service and the contents of the rental service.

The server 30 of the copyright holding company
Is for providing a rental product and a rental license in response to a request from a rental company. However, since the server device 30 is connected online with the server device 20 on the rental agent side, the provision of the rental product is performed by transferring the product online.
In addition, a license for the number of simultaneous rentals of the rental product is also provided.

In the example shown in the figure, the server device 30 is connected online with the server device 20 on the rental agent side, but it is not always necessary to connect them online. If you are not online,
It is sufficient that the rental company purchases the actual rental product to receive the rental license and installs it on the rental product DB server 24 on the rental company side.

Next, a description will be given of a processing operation example when renting a rental product in the product rental system constructed as described above, that is, a method of renting and collecting a rental product in the present embodiment.

First, a method for renting rental products will be described. FIG. 2 is a flowchart illustrating a procedure of an example of a rental product lending method according to the present invention.

The method of renting a rental product according to the present embodiment has a great feature in that, when renting a rental product, a storage destination, that is, a storage medium for storing the rental product is clarified.

Hereinafter, the procedure will be specifically described. However, here, for simplicity of explanation, a case where a customer who operates the terminal device 11 receives a rental service will be described as an example.

When renting out a rental product in the product rental system of the present embodiment, first, the customer operates the terminal device 11 to access the homepage of the WWW server 21 through the Internet 40, and on the homepage. A registered user ID and a password are input (Step 101, hereinafter, steps are abbreviated as "S"). The input of the user ID and the password is performed for customer authentication. Therefore, at this time, it is assumed that the user has already been individually given a user ID and a password. It should be noted that for a customer to which a user ID and a password have not been assigned, a new registration operation may be performed when accessing the homepage.

When the customer authentication is completed, the WWW server 21
Displays a rental product list screen on the terminal device 11 operated by the customer, and allows the customer to select a rental product desired to be lent out of the screen (S102).

Here, when the customer requests the "trial mode", the WWW server 21 responds to the request by
The “trial version” of the rental product selected from the list screen is extracted from the trial rental product DB server 25 and downloaded to the terminal device 11 (S10).
3). Then, the customer is allowed to try the "trial version" and confirm the contents (S104). This allows the customer to determine whether to rent the rental product (S105). That is, if the user does not wish to rent, the processing (such as access to the WWW server 21) can be ended at that point. The “trial mode” is not essential and may be omitted.

After that, when a request to rent a rental product (not a "trial version") is notified from the terminal device 11, the WWW server 21 checks the availability of the selected rental product. The availability of rental products is managed by the rental product DB server 24. Therefore, the WWW server 21 can store the rental product DB server 24
Contact to check availability. And
The WWW server 21 causes the terminal device 11 to display the confirmation result on the screen. This allows the customer to check the availability of the rental product (S106), and determine whether to rent the rental product immediately or make a reservation for rental (S107).

The same applies to a case where a reservation number, which will be described in detail later, is notified from the terminal device 11. That is, the WWW server 21 confirms the availability of the rental product corresponding to the notified reservation number, and displays the confirmation result on the terminal device 11 on a screen. Thereby, the customer can grasp the availability of the reserved rental product (S106, S107).

As a result of the above-described confirmation, if there is no vacancy in the rental product, that is, if all the simultaneous rentable license-licensed licenses have already been lent, the WWW server 21 displays the confirmation result on the screen. Subsequently, the reservation screen of the rental product is displayed on the terminal device 11. As a result, the customer can make a reservation for rental of a rental item that has no space. When making a reservation, the terminal device 11 is operated to input, for example, the contact information (e-mail address, telephone number, etc.) and the contact method (e-mail, telephone, etc.) of the customer (S108). When this input result is notified, WW
The W server 21 updates the reservation status managed by the rental product DB server 24 and the customer information DB server 26 based on the notification content. In other words, customer information DB
The server 26 stores information about the reservation as reservation information. Further, the WWW server 21 transmits the reservation number individually given to the notification to the terminal device 11 and notifies the terminal device 11 of the reservation number.

On the other hand, if there is a vacant rental product, WW
The W server 21 causes the terminal device 11 to display a rental product lending request screen after the screen display of the vacancy status confirmation result. Then, on the lending request screen,
The customer is prompted to input a rental intention confirmation, a rental period confirmation, a rental fee payment method designation, and a storage destination designation after rental product rental (S109).

The storage destination of the rental product which can be designated at this time is an I / O device of the terminal device 11 or a storage medium mounted on the I / O device connected to the terminal device 11, An item that can be accessed from the server 21 can be specified. More specifically, a script (program) of a homepage in the WWW server 21
A device that functions as a virtual device that can be controlled by a user can be specified. Specifically, for example, if the terminal device 11 uses Windows (registered trademark of Microsoft Corporation) as an OS, an MO and a memory functioning as virtual devices such as “A:”, “B:”, and “C:” Stick, F
A storage medium such as D or a predetermined area (for example, a folder) existing in the HD corresponds to this. Therefore, in specifying the storage destination, the I / O device name, volume name, and the like of the storage medium may be input. It should be noted that a well-known technique may be used for the control from the script on the homepage, and a detailed description thereof will be omitted here.

As described above, when the storage medium for storing the rental product is clarified, the WWW server 21 receives the rental product to be lent from the rental product DB server 24, and transmits the rental product to the Internet 40.
Through to the storage medium to be the storage destination.

At this time, however, the rental product DB server 24 transfers a copy (copy) of the held rental product to the WWW server 21. That is, the rental product DB server 24 stores the server device 3 of the copyright holding company.
The copy is generated and transferred to the WWW server 21 within the range of the number permitted for simultaneous rental by the rental license, not the rental product provided from 0. Therefore, the WWW server 21
A copy of the rental product is downloaded to the storage medium that is the storage destination. In addition, rental product DB
The server 24 updates the copy count number of the rental product every time a rental product is generated and a rental product is collected as described later, thereby complying with the simultaneous rentable number. I have.

At this time, a serial number individually assigned to each rental product is attached to the rental product to be downloaded. This serial number is for identifying the rental product lent to the customer.
In addition, the terminal device 11 is notified of a management number individually given for each rental service (S110). This management number is for identifying a rental service that has lent a rental product to a customer.

The WWW server 21 stores the download destination of the rental product, that is, the storage destination after the rental, the serial number attached to the rental product, and the management number for the rental service, respectively, in the customer information D.
It is stored in the B server 26. That is, the storage destination, the serial number, and the management number after lending are reflected in the management contents in the customer information DB server 26.

In this way, the rental agent server device 20 rents rental products desired by the customer through the Internet 40. Thereby, the customer is downloaded through the Internet 40,
In addition, the rental product installed in the designated storage destination can be used.

Next, a description will be given of a method of collecting the rental goods lent as described above. FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing a procedure of an example of a method for collecting rental products according to the present invention.

In the method of collecting rental goods according to the present embodiment, when collecting rental goods, the rental goods are deleted from the storage medium designated at the time of lending via the Internet, so that the rental goods are collected. There is a great feature in that it does.

Hereinafter, the procedure will be specifically described. However, also in this case, as in the case described above, a case where a customer operating the terminal device 11 receives a rental service will be described as an example.

In the case of collecting rental products in the product rental system of the present embodiment, first, the customer operates the terminal device 11 to make the W
The user accesses the homepage of the WW server 21 and inputs a registered user ID and password on the homepage in the same manner as when renting a rental product (S201). Then, after the customer authentication is completed, the rental return menu is called from the homepage.

In response to this call, the WWW server 21
Displays the rental return menu screen on the terminal device 11 operated by the customer and inputs the management number of the rental product to be returned by the customer (S202). As described above, this management number is assigned when the rental product is lent.

When the management number is input, the WWW server 2
Reference numeral 1 denotes a storage location and a serial number of a rental product corresponding to the input management number, based on the management content in the customer information DB server 26, and an I / O device name and volume for the recognized storage location. The name and the like are displayed on the terminal device 11 on the screen. Then, through the screen display, the customer is prompted to insert the storage medium storing the rental product into the I / O device or the like, and the customer prepares to return the rental product (S203).

Here, the WWW server 21 is connected to the terminal device 1
The contents of the storage medium inserted into the storage medium and the serial number stored in the storage medium are confirmed (S204), and it is determined whether or not the contents match the management contents in the customer information DB server 26 (S205). ). That is, customer information D
The storage location and the serial number after lending corresponding to the management number input by the terminal device 11 are referred to from the management contents in the B server 26, and the storage medium and the rental product corresponding to these are present on the terminal device 11. Confirm whether to do.

If the corresponding storage medium and rental product do not exist on the terminal device 11, the WWW server 21
This is displayed on the screen of the terminal device 11, and after the correct storage medium is reset (S206), the above-described processing is repeated again (S203 to S205).

If the corresponding storage medium and rental product exist on the terminal device 11, the WWW server 21
Under the control of the script on the homepage, the rental commodity and the serial number stored in the storage medium are deleted through the Internet 40 (S207), and it is confirmed whether or not the deletion was surely performed (S208). This deletion and confirmation may be performed, for example, by transmitting and receiving a predetermined command using a known technique. If the deletion of the rental product and the serial number is NG, the WWW server 21
Repeats the above-described processing after inducing the mounting of the storage medium storing the rental product again (S203 to S20).
8).

When the deletion of the rental product and the serial number is completed, the WWW server 21 determines that the return of the rental product has been completed, and checks whether the rental period has been exceeded based on the management contents in the customer information DB server 26. Then, if it exceeds, an additional fee is collected (S209).
It should be noted that the collection of the fee may be performed by using a known method using a credit card number, for example.

As described above, in the server apparatus 20 on the rental agent side, it is assumed that the rented merchandise is recovered by deleting the rented rental merchandise from the storage location, and the rental merchandise is lent out with this. Terminate the rental service for the customer. And
That effect is reflected in the management contents of the customer information DB server 26 (S210).

After that, the server device 20 on the rental agent side
Then, the reservation status of the deleted rental product is confirmed based on the content of the reservation information managed by the customer information DB server 26. Then, if there is a reservation, it automatically informs the customer with the highest priority (for example, the earliest reservation time) that the rental product can be lent (S211).

This communication is made by the mail server 22 or the CTI server 23 in the server device 20. Specifically, for example, the mail server 22 sends an e-mail notifying to the designated e-mail address to the designated e-mail address that the rental of the rental product relating to the reservation is possible, while following the contact method designated at the time of the customer reservation. Send or CTI server 23
A call is sent to the designated telephone number to notify that the rental of the rental product pertaining to the reservation is possible.

As a result, the mail server 22 or the CT
The customer contacted by the I server 23 accesses the homepage of the WWW server 21 from the terminal device 11 through the Internet 40, and then inputs the already notified reservation number, thereby obtaining the reserved rental product. You will be able to receive rental services.

If there is no reservation for the rental product at the time of collection of the rental product, the rental device DB server 2
4 makes the availability of the rental product available for rental. Alternatively, the simultaneous rental possible number of the rental product is counted up.

As described above, according to the method for renting and collecting the rental product and the product rental system described in the present embodiment, the rental company can use the Internet 4
Rental items can be rented or collected simply by opening a home page on the Internet, so that the convenience of the Internet 40 can be fully utilized.

Specifically, when renting or collecting rental products, delivery of rental products and visits by customers are not required. Therefore, it is not necessary for the rental company to open many stores, set up a lot of lending / return windows in the stores, or take measures such as prolonging business hours. In addition, there is no need to provide a space for stocking rental products at each store, or to replace new products with old products. That is,
Since there is no need for delivery of rental products, stores corresponding to customers, personnel engaged in these, and the like, rental service of rental products can be provided at low cost. Also,
Since the customer can receive the rental service at a low cost, the customer can use the rental product more easily than in the case of purchasing the product through the Internet 40, and it is not necessary to go to the store of the rental company. It will be very favorable.

Furthermore, since rental goods are lent or collected through the Internet 40, it is possible to handle rental goods as digital information in the form of digital information. Therefore, the rental company can hold and store various kinds of rental products without requiring much space, and can sufficiently cope with various customer needs. In addition, since it is not necessary to rent a rental product together with a storage medium such as a CD or a video tape to a customer as in the related art, there is no need to take measures against deterioration or theft of the product. Moreover, since the rental products are handled in the state of electronic information, the management of the products becomes much easier than before, and in addition, the rental ranking is announced by the unified management of the product lending status, etc. It is also possible to easily implement a reminder to the user.

Further, according to the rental product lending method and the product rental system described in the present embodiment, a copy of the rental product is downloaded to the storage location of the rental product. Therefore, the rental product can be collected by deleting it from the storage destination. In addition, the rental merchandise DB server 24 in the server device 20 on the rental agent side stores the server device 3 of the copyright holding company.
It suffices if at least one rental product provided from 0 is held and stored. In other words, if the copyright holder provides a license for one rental product and the number of simultaneous rentals that can be performed, the rental company can reach many customers about the rental product without preparing many identical rental products. Since the rental service can be provided, the cost and space of the rental service can be reduced.

According to the rental product lending method and the product rental system described in this embodiment, if the rental product cannot be rented, a reservation for the rental product is accepted, and then the rental product is rented. When it becomes possible, the mail server 22 or the CTI server 23 automatically notifies the reservation source customer of the fact. Therefore, the service is very convenient for the customer, and the rental service is also very suitable because the use of the service by the customer is promoted.

In this embodiment, the Internet 4
Although the case where the rental product is exchanged through 0 has been described as an example, the present invention is not limited to this. In other words, as long as it can send and receive rental goods composed of electronic information, the present invention can be similarly applied to other telecommunication lines such as a telecommunication line constituting a local network.

[0063]

As described above, according to the method for renting and collecting a rental product and the product rental system according to the present invention, the rental and collection of a rental product composed of electronic information can be performed through a telecommunication line. It is supposed to do. That is, the delivery or collection of the rental product does not require the delivery of the rental product or the visit of a customer as in the related art. Further, it is not necessary to rent the rental product together with the storage medium such as a CD or a video tape to the customer. Thus, according to the present invention,
Rental products can be rented or collected while making full use of the convenience of the telecommunication line.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is an explanatory diagram showing a schematic configuration of an example of a product rental system according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart illustrating a procedure of an example of a rental product lending method according to the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating a procedure of an example of a method for collecting rental products according to the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 11, 12, 13 Terminal device 20 Server device 40 Internet

Claims (7)

[Claims] Claims: 1. A rental product used for lending a rental product composed of electronic information from a server device to a terminal device between a server device and a terminal device which can be connected to each other via a telecommunication line. The method, when there is a request for lending of rental goods from the terminal device through the telecommunication line, the server device causes the terminal device of the request source to specify the storage destination after lending the rental product, When the storage destination is specified, the server device rents out the rental product by transmitting the rental product according to the request to the specified storage destination through the telecommunication line. Lending method. 2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the server device transmits a copy of the rental product to a storage destination designated by the terminal device. 3. When a rental product is requested to be rented from the terminal device and the rental product cannot be rented, the server device stores the request as reservation information. 3. The rental product lending method according to claim 1, wherein the server device notifies the requester of the reservation information to the effect that the rental product can be lent. 4. When the server device collects a rental product composed of electronic information lent from the server device to the terminal device between the server device and the terminal device that can be connected to each other via an electric communication line. A method of collecting rental goods used in the method, wherein the server device rents the rental goods by transmitting the rental goods through the telecommunication line from the terminal device to a designated storage destination, A rental product collection method, wherein the rental device is collected by the server device deleting the rental product from the storage destination through the telecommunication line. 5. A product rental system comprising a server device which holds and stores rental products comprising electronic information, and wherein a terminal device can be connected to the server device via an electric communication line. When the server device receives a request to rent a rental product from the terminal device through the telecommunication line, a storage destination specification for designating a storage destination after renting the rental product to the requesting terminal device Means, a product lending means for lending the rental product by transmitting the rental product according to the request through the telecommunication line from the terminal device to a designated storage location, and It is assumed that the rental product that has been delivered is deleted from the storage location after the rental through the telecommunication line and the rental product is collected. Commodity rental system characterized by a collecting means is provided. 6. The product rental system according to claim 5, wherein the product lending unit transmits a copy of the rental product to a storage destination designated by the terminal device. 7. The server device, wherein when the terminal device receives a request to rent a rental product, if the rental product cannot be rented, the server device stores the request as reservation information. A storage unit, and a rental notifying unit that notifies a request source of the reservation information stored in the reservation information storage unit that the rental product according to the request becomes available for rental. The product rental system according to claim 5 or 6, wherein: