Travelodge investigates reports that strangers are being given access to rooms

The Travelodge hotel chain has launched a review into its security after a woman was sexually assaulted by a man who was given a key to her room.

The survivor, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was attacked by Kyran Smith in December 2022 after he had been given a key card to her room by the hotel’s reception.

Before the attack, Smith, from Staines in Surrey, had lied to reception staff at the hotel in Maidenhead, Berkshire, telling them he was the victim’s boyfriend.

He had been at the same party as the woman before they and others retired to their rooms.

The woman said staff told her Smith had passed their security checks by providing her name.

Following a four-day trial at Reading Crown Court in November, the 29-year-old was convicted of trespass with intent to commit a relevant sexual offence and sexual assault last month.

He was jailed for seven-and-a-half years.

When the woman initially raised the incident to the Travelodge, they offered her a £30 refund, which she said was ‘insulting’, before the company apologised.

She has now been calling for change to the hotel key procedures.

Responding to news of the other incidents, the survivor, who cannot be named for legal reasons, told the BBC: ‘It doesn’t surprise me.

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‘Imagine both sides of that equation where you’ve been given a room key and someone’s in there, or you’re in a room and someone comes in – it’s not exactly a nice experience for anyone.

‘That’s what I was trying to raise with them about their system. You are most vulnerable when you are asleep so you can’t have a system that’s not good enough.’

Following the trial’s conclusion, the company’s chief Jo Boydell, apologised to the victim and said the company had made immediate changes to its door key policy.

She later repeated her apologies in interviews with ITV and the BBC, telling the latter she was ‘genuinely sorry’ for the company’s handling of the incident.

Ms Boydell said she was aware of ‘other instances’ of unwanted people entering customers’ rooms, and had only found out about Smith’s assault this month after he was jailed more than three years on from the attack.

She said: ‘We’ve certainly heard of other instances, different to this one, in terms of not keys being obtained by deception, but you know, any instance of somebody entering a customer’s room that they haven’t given explicit permission to, we understand, would be upsetting.’

She added: ‘We’ve made some changes immediately in terms of how we handle serious incidents.

‘I would have expected it to be escalated. It wasn’t, so something went wrong.’

The chief executive said she ‘can completely understand’ that the survivor felt insulted after she was initially offered £30 in compensation by Travelodge.

The woman is taking legal action against the hotel chain, according to the BBC.

Earlier this month, MPs were told they can take part in an independent review into Travelodge’s room security measures – which will be led by barrister Paul Greaney KC.

The review, which will involve a leading violence against women and girls expert, will examine room security procedures and how the incident was handled, according to Ms Boydell.

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