In March 2020, Twiddy & Company, a vacation rental and sales company known for Southern hospitality rooted in personal interactions, needed to quickly adjust to contactless remote customer service during the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic. Local elected officials, in a bid to stop tourists from spreading the virus to the Outer Banks Island chain that hosted all of Twiddy's vacation homes, closed the two bridges that connected the Outer Banks to the mainland, panicking (and in some cases stranding) guests and homeowners alike. President Clark Twiddy felt a deep sense of responsibility to the company's network of homeowners who rented their homes through Twiddy-guests who had booked now-impossible vacations-and employees who had been recruited by Twiddy's reputation as a family company that treated staff well. Twiddy relied on finite summer revenue to sustain the company throughout the year, but with the upcoming vacation season thrown into chaos, Clark was unsure who, if anyone, he could afford to make whole and keep happy.