They checked into the Verandah Resort. Each person had his/her own suite for the duration of the show. Brian and Samantha both saw a note on their pillows. "Meet at the pool at ten o'clock. Dress casual."
As they walked by the pool, they saw thirty chairs, each one with a name tag, forming a circle. Guys were seated on one side, ladies on the other.
As the last of the guests filed in, Austin Davies, the host, dressed in a tuxedo, stepped to the center of the circle.
"Good morning, and welcome to the Heartbreak Hotel. Some of you may find happiness; others may find heartbreak. All of you will find something here. As you can see, we've arranged the men on one side here, and the ladies on the other. Now, let's take a minute and introduce ourselves."
One by one, each person told their name, age, where they were from, and what they liked to do. They were not allowed to discuss their career.
"Okay. Now that we know a bit about each other, let's get to know more. If you look behind you, you will see fifteen tables. Each table has two notepads. Ladies, if you will, please go to the table with your name on it."
The ladies went to their tables. Samantha went to table eight. Brian didn't even notice those when he was coming to the pool.
"Now, men, I want you each to choose a table and join its lady."
Each guy got up and sat at a table. Brian leafed through the empty notepad.
"Now, each of you will get ten minutes to get to know your table mate. We've provided the notepads so you can take notes about him/her. After ten minutes, the guys will rotate one table to the left. When it is all done, you should have notes on all fifteen. You will need to take notes, and I will explain why afterward. Okay. Start the clock."
As Brian hopped from table to table, he took a lot of notes about each lady. Samantha also jotted notes on each man as they came and went. As Brian jotted down the last notes on lady fifteen and Samantha jotted down the last notes on her last man, Austin came back.
"Okay. Now that we've gotten to know each other even better, I hope that you all took good notes. Each of you will go to your room and choose five of the fifteen. These five will be the only ones you will be able to have final dates with. It is 12:40 now. We will meet back here at five o'clock. Take your time in choosing, because once you've made your choices, there's no changing them."