BigEndBob,
Just out of curiosity, what makes you sway this way?
Have you tried to rent an aeroplane for 5 or 6 days to tour around Europe from a flying school? I can tell you that I have tried, and despite agreeing to flying 2+ tacho hour average per day, I have been told that it was not possible due to instructing requirements by many schools / clubs.
In a school with many aeroplanes which will remain nameless, I was given a talking to about booking one of their planes for 1 full day of flying (a Friday may I add). I extended my booking the evening before to cover the whole day as I saw nobody else had booked the plane. I had anticipated flying over 5 hours and going to 5 or 6 different airfields. I was told that it was unfair to other members to book a plane for the whole day, and that I shouldn't have done so. It was very patronising... They then gave me a hard time about the destinations I had anticipated going to, and required signatures from an instructor to state that it was acceptable for me to land at these places (Popham, Sandown, Laddingford... in a piper supercub (with flaps) and I had around 350hours on my PPL at the time). I only did 4.5hours in the end because I had wasted so much time before flying to be "approved" to fly to different airfields. With that mindset, I decided that renting from that particular school was simply never going to be my first choice. I suddenly became aware that having a share was the best thing I could have ever done.
Having a big group paying the bills is fantastic, making flying cheaper and more fun for everyone and I am glad that these requirements are no longer in effect! :-)