Overnight and multi-day aircraft rentals

The booking most software cannot express

Every other booking has to fit inside one contiguous free window, which is how you say “this aeroplane flies 08:00 to 18:00”. A trip is not a longer booking: an aeroplane taken away for a weekend is not available 08:00 to 18:00 on the Saturday, it is simply gone.

So schools work around it. They book the departure day and leave the rest of the weekend open, and somebody books over it. Or they make three back-to-back reservations and close out three flights for one trip.

With multi-day bookings on, the reservation runs from a departure date and time to a return date and time. The aircraft shows as unavailable for every day in between, on the dispatch board and in the app, and nobody can book over it.

A minimum for every night away

Pricing a trip off the Hobbs meter alone under-bills it. Four hours flown over three days is four hours of revenue from an aircraft that earned nothing else all weekend. An overnight minimum sets the least billable time per night away.

Why nights, and not days

Nobody should be surprised by the bill

The failure mode of a minimum is not a wrong number, it is a surprise. A member books a weekend, flies 1.5 hours, and gets an invoice for 4. That gets argued about at the front desk rather than reported as a problem, so the figure is shown at every point it matters:

• On the booking screen, before it is saved, in the console and in the phone app
• Through dispatch and close-out, so whoever picks the booking up midway sees it too
• At ramp-in, next to the hours flown: away two nights, so this bills 4.0 hours rather than the 1.5 flown
• On the invoice itself, as the hours it charged for

Per aircraft, or school-wide

Set one figure for the school and override it on any aircraft that needs its own. Zero on an aircraft is an exemption, not a fallback, so a club aeroplane you deliberately excluded stays excluded when you raise the school-wide minimum later.

Leave the minimum blank and nothing changes: trips bill exactly what they flew, which is what every booking did before you opened the screen.

Sharing a trip between two pilots

A minimum applies to the booking, then divides by whatever rule you have set for that booking type. Two renters sharing a weekend and splitting evenly owe half the floor each: a 4.0 hour minimum becomes 2.0 hours on each invoice, and you still collect the same total. See split billing and shared flights for the five ways a charge can divide.

Questions

Can a member book an aircraft for a whole weekend?

Yes, once your school turns multi-day bookings on. The booking runs from a departure date and time to a return date and time, and the aircraft is unavailable for the whole span rather than becoming free again the next morning. It is off by default, because a trip overrides the operating hours you set for that aircraft and that should be a deliberate choice.

What is an overnight minimum?

The least billable time you charge for each night an aircraft is kept away. Set 2.0 hours a night and a trip out Friday back Sunday bills at least 4.0 hours, however little it actually flew. It is a floor, not a surcharge: a trip that flew six hours is billed for six.

Why would I charge a minimum at all?

Because a member who takes an aeroplane away for a long weekend and flies four hours has denied every other member that aircraft for three days and paid for four hours. Every club and FBO handles that somehow. Without a minimum you silently under-bill your most disruptive bookings.

Can I set a different minimum for different aircraft?

Yes. Each aircraft can have its own figure, and it wins over the school-wide one. A twin sitting on somebody else's ramp costs its owner far more per night than a 152. You can also set an aircraft to zero, which exempts it entirely rather than falling back to the school's figure.

Does the member know before they book?

Yes, and this is the part that matters. The booking screen tells them how many nights the trip keeps the aircraft, what your minimum is per night, and what the booking will bill at the very least, in both the web console and the phone app. The same note follows the booking through dispatch and close-out, and at ramp-in it shows the actual figures: away two nights, so this bills 4.0 hours rather than the 1.5 flown.

How does a minimum interact with splitting the bill?

The minimum is applied to the booking once, then divided by whatever rule you use. Two pilots sharing a weekend owe one minimum between them, not one each. Charging it per person would multiply your revenue on exactly the bookings most likely to be shared, which is not what a minimum is for.

Why do overnight trips make my utilization look terrible?

Because a trip holds the aircraft for its whole span, so its booked hours are large next to its flown hours. The aeroplane was away earning, not sitting idle, so the utilization report lets you filter or group by Overnight to read the two apart, and points you at billed hours rather than flown hours for trips.

Do I have to set a time zone first?

Yes, and multi-day bookings will not switch on until you have. How many nights a trip spans decides what it bills, and that can only be counted in the airport's own time zone. Without one, two people booking the same trip from different places could be billed differently, so the setting is gated rather than merely warned about.