The maid was told the room was empty, was told to clean the room and she went in.
Not a slam against maids, but a lot of them aren't the sharpest people, especially when from a third-world country.
Consider:
Reports are he chased her and finally trapped her in a hallway. Seems we had a president that chased an unwilling female once and propositioned her (Paula Jones). . . and it is alleged he did commit a rape (Broderick).
How hard is it to believe that a self-centered french socialist with arrogance, a history of relentless womanizing and “power” would naturally force himself upon an illiterate third-world peon? After all, we had a president do basically the same thing (except the woman was a “friend”).
The question is, do you believe some third-world illiterate maid is quick enough to allege rape, to batter and bloody herself on the spur of the moment, immediately concoct a story that the hotel and police would find so believable they would pursue one of the world's most powerful man to a departing jet and arrest him? To me, that is highly unlikely.
Moreover, how likely is it the police at the scene conspired with the maid to put together a frame-up in moments (ala OJ Simpson). Hardly believable, after all, why would they. They probably had no idea who the guy was and didn't care, either.
Given the above context, and that the story from the guy (didn't happen, well, it did happen) changes, and applying the Bill Clinton standard of behavior (I can do anything against the less powerful because I can, after all, “who’s going to believe you anyway” defense).
I go with the guy raped her.
She has been in this country for 12 years. Next, no one ever said she was illiterate. Clinton at least knew Paula Jones before he did that. Africa is known for AIDS, so DSK wasn’t the sharpest tool for choosing an African woman to do this to. Next, just because someone is from Africa, doesn’t mean they don’t have intelligence. In terms of scamming, look at the huge scamming networks in Nigeria.
Sofitel no doubt told them exactly who he was. In any case, a simple google would have elicited, Hey, Lieutenant, get a load of this!