@Debra48 Yeah, I had a dentist friend who got hooked on the pure liquid cocaine he had access to and went nuts one night, going to his office and smashing everything up.
When I get a request which is accompanied by a message that isn't informative or confidence-inspiring, such as nothing more than, " Arriving at noon", before I've even accepted the booking, my strategy has been to answer them like "Hi XX, Thanks for your request. I'm just checking as to whether you've read thoroughly through my listing description and are aware that it's a 20 minute walk to town and the beach, and that I have a large dog, in case you have allergies or are afraid of dogs?"
I use those two questions because those are things that could be deal breakers for guests for my particular listing, and because that info isn't front and center in my listing ad- they have to read through things to get to that info. So if they answer, "Oh, yes, I'm aware of that- I like to walk and am an outdoorsy type. And I love dogs and have one myself, although I won't be travelling with him", then I know that they haven't just looked at the photos and the price.
Other host's questions would be different, of course. I don't ask if they've read the house rules, because even though I have no children, no pets, and no parties checked off, as a home share host who only hosts one guest at a time, those rules aren't really an issue- no one could get away with those things.
Entire home listings are far more open to abuse, so if I had one, I'd definitely be really clear about whether they had read all the rules and agreed to comply.
I find that asking some questions designed to give you an idea of whether the guest has actually read things, coupled with a friendly, chatty tone, ellicits on-point responses, but YMMV.
I've actually got dates blocked to booking now, because of covid and some other things going on in my life at the moment, and had forgotten to block far enough out. So I got a request 2 days ago for late Dec. with a pretty nice message saying "they" liked the looks of my place and wanted to book. Within 5 minutes, before I had a chance to answer, another message came from him,, "Oh no, my girlfriend just noticed it's only a single bed ", followed by him immediately withdrawing the request. So luckily I didn't have to answer him at all or decline, but I did in fact message him, as hopefully a favor to other hosts, saying " Yes, it's a single bed and my listing also is titled "For Solo Traveler" and shows a one guest maximum. It's important to really read all the listing info before sending a request."
🙂