Inquiries without bookings

[Lisa1933]

Hello hosts,

Just an observation from our over a year as hosts. Despite an exhaustive listing and Guidebook we still get inquiries that can be answered by reading same. Without fail, if we get three questions the folks don't book, which is a time-wasting source of frustration. The key for us is adapting to ease stress so I recently put "please read entire listing before making inquiries" as the first line in our listing. I remember seeing that on another listing and wondering but now understand why. In addition, I answer the first question and then politely refer them to the listing for others. I recently answered all the questions for a 3-day, 3-person potential booking but the result was still no booking. Our rates are seasonally low, our place is  highly rated and we are Super Hosts, so go figure. However, my comment every time is "why don't people just read what I spent ours writing?" Thoughts?

[Marit-Anne0]

@Lisa1933   annoying as they are, I suppose many are just shopping around hoping for a discounted special offer.  

[Emilia42]

@Lisa1933 I have a similar amount of text on my listing and I hardly get any inquiries/questions. But you are likely getting quadruple the number of views as me. When I do get an inquiry, it is from someone who is definitely looking for something, as @Marit-Anne0 points out. These people want a discount or are looking to bend my rules without directly saying it. I am very short with inquiries and do not spend a lot of time on my answers because truthfully, I don't want these people to end up booking.