Abstract: An automated movie rental and notification system includes a computer having a movie database containing hold and reservation lists and movie records. The system receives rental requests, each request including a selected movie title, reservation mode, reservation time, and submitter contact information. If the reservation mode is a hold mode, the request is added to the hold list. If the mode is a reserve mode and the selected title will be available by the selected reservation time, then the request is added to the reserve list. When the movie title is available, submitters of the hold list requests associated with that title are successively contacted using respective submitter information to inform the submitter of availability until a positive response is returned from a submitter. Requests on the reserve list are selected for contact a predetermined amount of time before the selected reservation time.

Abstract: An automated movie rental and notification system includes a computer having a movie database containing hold and reservation lists and movie records. The system receives rental requests, each request including a selected movie title, reservation mode, reservation time, and submitter contact information. If the reservation mode is a hold mode, the request is added to the hold list. If the mode is a reserve mode and the selected title will be available by the selected reservation time, then the request is added to the reserve list. When the movie title is available, submitters of the hold list requests associated with that title are successively contacted using respective submitter information to inform the submitter of availability until a positive response is returned from a submitter. Requests on the reserve list are selected for contact a predetermined amount of time before the selected reservation time.