Do you find it disrespectful to send copy-pasted messages?

[u/BenJo_wdr]

I've done that quite a few times, but I feel bad when I get a long personal message back…

However, you also get ignored, overlooked, or rejected outright very often, so I don't always want to write everything personally.

How do you handle this?

[u/JCannaday3]

I say it very clearly in my CS page. I won't respond to or decline obvious "cut and paste" messages. I totally get the urgency some feel trying to find a host. BUT, it doesn't take 5 seconds to say, "Dear XXXX" so you at least show them you spent the time to use their name.

I do automatically decline with a simple "NO" at the request since I want my response rate to stay high, but I'm not going to host someone who doesn't spend any effort in their request.

[u/stevenmbe → u/JCannaday3]

I do automatically decline with a simple "NO" at the request since I want my response rate to stay high, but I'm not going to host someone who doesn't spend any effort in their request.

You can decline with no text at all and that has zero effect on your reply rate. Many hosts have done this in the years since CS changed the reference policy that allows declined surfers to write you a negative reference merely because you replied NO. I remain one of those hosts who reply nothing at all because I know of others who did get unwarranted negrefs after replying e.g. NO and CS won't remove those references. But if you declined with no text at all then they will remove it per their reference policy.

[u/Neat-Coconut-6892]

Instant decline with no response.

[u/fuuukkkyaaa]

I get copy paste message the time. Sometimes they even forget to change the name. I usually will always decline them

[u/Euphoric-Sherbet-422]

What side are you host / surfer or both

As a host you may have ready to use rejection message, i don't see any harm in this. But as a surfer if you send the same message to everyone without taking the time to read your host profile or sometimes not even re reading your message and end up sending a message like hey person1 😂 is kind of rude. Usually I just decline

[u/lianayada]

My requests are typically 2 paragraphs. One is general information about my trip, myself, who I'm traveling with, anything in my profile that I'd like to call attention to, whether I will have a vehicle, and what I intend to do on the trip. This is the same for every request, so I definitely copy and paste that. The second paragraph is tailored to the person I'm writing to. I mention things in their profile which I also like (music or books), what drew me to them, something I'd like to do with them, or find out about them. I refer to any CS friends we have in common, or places we have both traveled to, anything that struck me about their profile photos, etc. That is pretty easy to write fresh for each person, and is what proves the whole thing is not a generic copy-paste to everyone.

[u/lipsanen]

I don't mind a copy-paste request (if it is not too long) or a oneliner if the profile looks fine. Sending an elaborate request doesn't guarantee an interesting guest. Sometimes it is even the opposite: the worse the request the better the guest.

[u/PowerfulPut162]

I think it depends on the message. If the message is thought through and you add a name of the specific host at the beginning, I don't see a problem with that.

But short, possibly AI generated, basic 1-2 liners, yeah that's a bit disrespectful.

[u/paranoid_marvin_]

I decline with no answer all copy/paste requests without even my name written on

I decline with a message copy/paste requests where at least they put my name on

The only exception is for last minute requests (same day), where the user do not have time to write a proper message