You are Mario Castellanos Funes, chief executive of Golfo Hotels, five hotels spread across the tourist map of Honduras. It is Sunday 15 March, three days after the government closed the borders, and before the night is over you must decide what happens to your 280 employees.
The situation
On Thursday afternoon the government closed the borders, banned events of more than 50 people and capped hotels at 25% of capacity. Within 72 hours occupancy across your 420 rooms — in Tegucigalpa, San Pedro Sula, La Ceiba, Copán Ruinas and Roatán — fell from 75% to 5%. A company that billed about US$28 million a year (60% rooms, 25% food and beverage, 15% events) now takes in about US$128,000 a month.
The costs did not move. Fixed costs are still about US$1.8 million a month, and US$1.4 million of that is payroll. This afternoon your CFO, Irma Zelaya, handed you one figure: with US$3 million in the bank and a loss of US$1.67 million a month, the company has about seven weeks. Behind that sits US$12 million of bank debt, taken on to build the hotels.
Everyone around you has a view. Zelaya wants costs cut tonight. Doris Lanza, head of HR, reminds you that for many families the hotel wage is the only income, and that every dismissal triggers severance payable at once. Your hotel managers warn that a closed building in the tropics decays fast. Julio Rosales, for the shareholders, says they will put in capital, but only against a plan. HR has printed the options for the staff: some cost money this week and save a lot every month; others cost nothing today and save less.
At nine o'clock Lanza forwards a message from the receptionists in Tegucigalpa: they want to know whether Friday's fortnightly pay will come. You know many of them by name; you started out as a night receptionist in La Ceiba yourself.