You are Esteban, 49, CEO of Mediterránea Hoteles — 24 properties along the Spanish Costa del Sol and Costa de la Luz. Wednesday morning, 7:18 AM. A tweet posted last night at 21:42 has 2.1 million views. Your phone has been buzzing since 6:30.
The situation
The video is 38 seconds long. It shows the front-desk manager at your Marbella property refusing entry to a guest with a service dog. The manager — Mediterránea uniform clearly visible — says "aquí no se permiten perros" twice, then threatens to call the police. The guest is calmly holding up a guide-dog-handler accreditation visible on screen. The guest is a journalist for ElDiario.es with 80,000 followers.
By 7:00 AM the video has been shared by three competitor hotel chains (with statements about their own service-animal policies), the Málaga Ayuntamiento has tweeted "investigaremos," and ElDiario.es has published a piece. Your Director of Operations called the manager last night — she has been at the firm 9 years, no prior complaints. She maintains the dog "did not look like a real service dog."