Receiving and queuing requests from hospitality customers

What is this patent about?

’958 is related to the field of mobile request management and hospitality services. Specifically, it addresses the logistical friction in environments like hotels or large retail complexes where customers need to request specific goods or services, but often lack real-time information about what is available or a direct line to the specific staff members capable of fulfilling those needs.

The underlying idea behind ’958 is to bridge the gap between a customer’s physical location and a business’s internal workflow by using geolocation-triggered service menus. Instead of a static app interface, the system dynamically identifies which business location a user is currently at and serves a customized catalog of requests—such as housekeeping or valet—that are then automatically routed to specialized staff queues based on the specific nature of the request.

The claims of ’958 focus on a server-side architecture that establishes concurrent connections with both customer and staff mobile devices. The system uses a geolocation service to filter and provide a selectable data set of goods or services relevant to the user's specific coordinates, then manages the lifecycle of a request by assigning it to a targeted queue that is pushed directly to the mobile devices of a designated staff group.

In practice, the invention functions as a digital concierge that automates the dispatching process. When a guest enters a hotel lobby, the system recognizes their location and updates their mobile interface with relevant options like room service or maintenance. When the guest submits a request, the system doesn't just send a generic notification; it evaluates the request type and geolocation to place the task into a specific bucket—for example, a 'cleaning' queue—which is then instantly accessible to the housekeeping team on their own mobile devices.

This approach differs from prior solutions by eliminating the need for manual dispatching or centralized switchboards. By utilizing a two-way communication line between the customer and the specific staff group, the system allows for real-time status updates, such as estimated times of arrival (ETA) and direct messaging. This creates a highly responsive environment where service fulfillment is tracked from the moment of the geolocation-based selection through to the final closing of the task in the management queue.