Abstract: Improved techniques and systems for assigning resources in a service industry are described herein. These techniques and systems replace the first-come-first-served model traditionally used in airline seating, restaurant table placement, entertainment venue ticketing, hotel room location, and other industries with a two-part system incorporating virtual tracking of available resources and a rules-based assignment system for allocating the available resources amongst the customers. Such a system allows optimization of the resource allocation from a customer perspective (who can select resources based on personal preferences) and from a service provider perspective (who can monetize certain resources and/or allocate the resources to best meet other business goals, such as loyalty preservation, operational requirements, efficiency, etc.).