No online club rental a/c booking?

[StarbucksOne]

Hi All
I'm bemused why clubs don't offer online booking systems for their a/c?..they are NOT expensive to set-up and would require minimal operating effort. Many syndicates have online booking these days for example.

Certainly no more expensive nor involved than the elaborate invoicing systems a lot of the clubs have...

It would be great to see aircraft availability over the next X weeks and work out when to book it, as opposed to ringing up and taking valuable op desk time whilst you interrogate the booking sheet via the person manning the phones!

If anyone reading works at a club/school and can offer views on this I would be very interested. I expect there are some operational concerns that dissuade clubs to set up such a system??

Cheers

[BEagle]

We have just such a facility!

It is all managed from a single PC by our Ops Manager - whether at home or using the WLAN system at the Club. This has revolutionised our utilisation rates.

The system came from http://www.what.ltd.uk/whattodo.htm and works very well indeed.

[Gulf Julliet Papa]

its quite simple...unreliable flyers.

Say a busy saturday a flying clubs aircraft will be filled up using an internet booking system...particuarly with self flys wanting an aircraft for 4/5 hours to do an half hour trip to get lunch.

Then suddenly the morning comes...and half the bookings will disapear (even with CAVOK), because it is easy to cancel. If the customer has to ring someone to cancel they are less inclined to cancel, or wont book the aircraft for an off chance they will actually want to go flying

Hope this helps a little...:)

[BEagle]

No, the e-booking system is monitored by an Ops Manager - and no-shows or late cancellations will be charged a cancellation fee unless there is good reason.

[Say again s l o w l y]

It is easy to build things into the software to stop people cancelling within a certain time period. Online booking is easy to implement and there is no reason that any school/club with a website can't have it.

It can be open to abuse, but this is easily monitored and stopped as Beagle points out.

[unfazed]

I imagine it is because the flight school or group looses control and that control is then passed along to the hirers which is not necessarily the most efficient way to manage the flight schedule

If somebody is continuously monitoring the electronic schedule for changes then why not just answer the phone ?