The crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic had an extremely negative impact on tourism activity and thus on hotel companies in the Republic of Croatia. Due to the drop in tourist arrivals and the sharp drop in income, the management of Croatian hoteliers had to make numerous decisions with the aim of reducing the impact of the crisis on business. In this paper, an attempt was made to investigate the decisions of crisis management during the COVID-19 pandemic in selected hotel companies, and in this way to gain an insight into which moves the management tried to preserve stability and maintain business continuity in difficult and uncertain circumstances. This was achieved through an analysis of available information, a comparative analysis of the financial results of operations in 2020 compared to 2019, and based on in-depth interviews with the management of three selected hotel companies: Arena Hospitality Group d.d., Valamar Riviera d.d. and Sunce Hoteli d.d. Thanks to prompt response, quick adaptation to the situation, cost reduction, measures to preserve liquidity and the state's reaction through numerous support measures, hotel companies managed to overcome the crisis year 2020 with minimal losses, so despite the unfavorable circumstances, Valamar Grupa and Sunce Hoteli d.d. achieved a positive adjusted EBITDA, while Arena Grupa had a minimally negative EBITDA. Precisely the latter measures of crisis management represent a kind of 'recipe' for business in times of crisis and a recommendation on how crisis management should react in unfavorable circumstances. Business optimization, cost control, analysis of business scenarios, quick adaptation and revision of plans in accordance with the intensity of the crisis are key moves that can enable organizations to prevent the crisis or solve it while minimizing the consequences.