[Anh_Minh]

Originally Posted by Deconstructor

It's not hard to figure out who stays at an inn frequently. They could have scouts watch the exit, learn through word of mouth, or already know who comes due to past visits (the mystery guest stayed over 2 years ago at Kissuiso as well).

So now you want that magazine to hire private eyes to put that inn under surveillance for a year or more. That's not expensive at all, sure. And, more importantly, not creepy at all. Who are you, Jiroumaru?

Well, if people are told in advance, then they can easily schedule an overnight stay among their other activities.

Easily relative to what? It is, still, on overnight stay at the back end of nowhere. Not something you do for a random stranger.

I seem to remember most of the customers were regulars... but if there are many new customers all coming on the exact same day, wouldn't that be even more suspicious?

It's a spike in reservations. They do happen. Conspiracies by magazines to fill inns, though? Never heard of that. It makes no economic sense.

I never said Kissuiso would have known about the day everyone was visiting. Kissuiso may have known the mystery guest was recruiting cohorts to keep her identity secret, but they probably didn't know when she was visiting until the many calls for one specific day came in.

They never mentioned any of that. If they'd seen an ad asking for "cohorts", I think they'd have said as much.

How is it impossible? People don't say anything, and Kissuiso doesn't know. They have to resort to guessing and sending Jiroumaru to barge into people's rooms.

Exactly. People leak. People friendly to the inn would have told if some creepy reviewer had asked them to plan their vacation around their own investigation of the inn. (Which, according to the old woman, was a bit of a last minute decision, too...)

These families can be on vacation. Their presence at the inn hides the mystery guest's identity; they can enjoy their stay without having to do any work for the mystery guest. Simply having enough people staying over is all the reviewer requires to see if the inn treats every customer equally, and how well the inn fares under pressure.

How many families plan their vacations for the sake of magazines?

No, I got it. The mystery guest could have been over at someone else's inn - you previously assumed the mystery guest was at Kissuiso because the magazine announced they would be in that particular region. But Yuina's inn is also in the region.

No. My point is, many inns in that region got a mystery guest. It's almost certain Yuina's got its own. It's a ranking.

Sure, there is no prior reason.



They said they were booked full, and no reservations were turned down.

He said he didn't turn down people as long as he had free rooms. Even though, according to the owner, he should have, because staffing was the real bottleneck there.

Even if they had to turn down people, isn't it a little too many people for Kissuiso's typical customer load?

As I said, weird spikes happen. Magazine conspiracies don't. (At least not for that. I wouldn't put it past a tabloid to hire a hooker to put someone in an embarrassing position. That makes sense, money-wise. Your theory doesn't.)

I'm operating under the impression the reviewer isn't bad enough of a reviewer to try and evaluate an inn when there's only one customer to attend to.

Ah, yes, because artificially inducing a full booking at the last minute is so much better. If a place in unpopular, you say so in your review and move on to whether it's good or not.

You can have your vacation - you just need to do it on a specific day. If I tell you weeks in advance, that shouldn't be too much of a problem. And you don't need to do anything for me - simply staying over gives me a crowd to hide in. It also means the inn staff have to work harder to fulfill your needs, giving me a clear picture of how good the inn really is.

I have zero reason to do you that favor. And one not to: I don't like crowds. And one to freaking spill the beans to Kissuisso's staff: I want into Tomoe's pants. So, there. Your troublesome scheme, completely destroyed.