Chinese Whispers

If one person tells three people, who tell three people, who tell three people, very quickly  1+3+9+27=40 people are spreading the same, but slightly different story (because everyone telling a story likes to add their own slant to make it more interesting, thus there are 40 different stories going around, even in this simple example).

So if you’ve heard a similar story lots of different people, maybe you’ll want to believe it because you’ve heard it so many times.

However, can you now see that one person sharing a fictional story can mean that very quickly more than 40 people then have the same story (and they in turn tell lots of other people which can mean hundreds).

In the days of social networking, as you may have seen when a story goes ‘viral’ it can reach thousands in a matter of minutes!

If you then hear the same story from 12 different people, who you think are unconnected, you may want to believe it, even though there was never any truth to the first story!

But there’s no smoke without fire?

Actually, there’s often smoke without fire.  A car tire wheel spinning on a road surface produces smoke without fire.  Kicking your foot into dry dirt produces a cloud of smoke.  Smoke is solid particles suspended in a gas.  So there is often smoke without fire.

In our case, Hotel de Vie is a regular luxury hotel, and we cater to a wide range of guests on a daily basis.  The stories are just that.. fictional stories, twisted logic, and it seems lies by some of our competitors trying to raise their own profile by bringing down our own.

Just like virtually every other hotel and guest accommodation in the world, we’ve probably had swingers stay at the hotel.  We also have gay couples, lesbian couples, married couples, people having an affair, single men, single women, and probably just about every other type of person staying with us over the years.

Yes, we’re open minded, and yes we welcome guests from a wide variety of backgrounds, including CEOs, CFOs, military officers, musicians, actors, company directors, vicars, doctors, accountants, sales men and women, private jet pilots, computer experts, solicitors, etc.

We welcome everyone who doesn’t make our other guests uncomfortable, everyone who treats our staff with respect, and everyone who doesn’t damage our hotel.

We don’t discriminate in line with our legal responsibilities, just as businesses are not allowed to discriminate based on sexuality, gender, religion, etc.

But does one type of guest occasionally staying with us make us exclusively cater for that one type of guest?  If two guys eat at a restaurant together, does that make it a gay restaurant?  If an office block lets one of their offices to an IT firm, does that make the office block an IT company? If a local taxi driver regularly picks up young women after a night out drinking, or picks up young children from school, does that make him a danger to women and children?

If you want the truth, ask us directly.  Don’t trust local gossip regardless of where else you may have heard it.  Please do tell us though where you’ve heard any defamatory stories about the hotel, so we can take action to reeducate the people involved.