To round out our Great Minds in Travel series, we spoke with Pablo Delgado Díaz-Pache, CEO of hotelier solution platform Mirai to discuss not only the situation at hand but how his team is communicating with their customers and partners.

As things seem to be changing by the day, how do you prioritize the business decisions you are making?

We have to take care of the financial stability of the company. This is our top priority. Secondly, we’re working with our employees so that we are close to them and provide as much stability as we can. Third, we have our clients, with whom we have to be even closer. They need us much more than ever. We’ll do everything in our capability to help them.

Fourth, we’re also working with our third-party providers. We cannot pass to them all the cost reduction and cash flow difficulties. We should share all the efforts with them as we also need them as much as they need us. Fifth, we will work hard to identify and untap the opportunities that this crisis will generate.

Last, but not least, we’ll be working hard to improve our product and service. We want to be stronger when everything finishes and we go back to normality.

How are you working with your partners at Mirai to communicate and plan for the future?

We are being totally honest with them. They need to understand the extremely difficult situation the industry is undergoing and all partners need to share in the decisions and efforts all of us are making. Otherwise, it would not be sustainable and fair in the long run.

How are you communicating with your customers?

On a daily basis and with more empathy than ever. Our customers need us and we are doing everything we can to help them. We are extended in more ways than ever before.

What is your outlook for the next three to six months?

From a managing perspective, I prefer to be pessimistic regarding the economy – but not in attitude! We need to be ready to make bold decisions in order to prepare the company for a bad scenario. Otherwise, we might be at risk later on.

If everything goes well, the crisis will be gone in 4-5 months. However, given the different speeds of each country, recovery will be slow. At least 12-18 months to get back to pre-crisis numbers.

We thank Pablo Delgado Díaz-Pache for his thoughtful views on the industry. We hope you’ve enjoyed this executive interview series and that it has provided different lenses for viewing the current travel landscape as we’re all in this situation together.