A woman who was assaulted at a Travelodge hotel when a man was given a key card to her room was treated in a “disgraceful” way and “fundamentally failed” by the hotel chain, an independent review has found.
The report said the case uncovered problems with room security not just within the business but across the entire hotel sector.
The review was commissioned earlier this year, and conducted by Paul Greaney KC, after a guest was sexually assaulted at a Travelodge in Maidenhead, Berkshire, by a man who had been given a key card to her room.
Mr Greaney said the woman assaulted, referred to in the report as “Lily”, was “fundamentally failed by Travelodge as an organisation at every stage”.
She was “treated by Travelodge in a way that was inappropriate and unfair; indeed, it was disgraceful”, he concluded.
Ray Reidy, the interim chief executive of Travelodge, said: “I apologise unreservedly on behalf of Travelodge to all guests where we have failed, and particularly to Lily.”
Kyran Smith was jailed in February for seven-and-a-half years following the assault in December 2022.
The review found he had lied to a junior member of staff at the hotel desk that he was Lily’s boyfriend and given a key to her room less than three minutes later.
Lily sent an email of complaint to Travelodge in January 2023, asking bosses to review security processes, but this did not come to the attention of former chief executive Jo Boydell until more than three years later.
The complaint was handled by the customer services team and investigated by a senior manager of the hotel, which Mr Greaney described as “inadequate and downplayed to a substantial extent the seriousness of what had happened”.
Lily was subsequently made an “insulting offer of a reimbursement of her night’s stay” which she “understandably interpreted as an offer of £30”.
The report read: “Travelodge’s treatment of Lily, following her complaint in writing, fell short of every standard the public would expect of an organisation such as Travelodge.
“It was simply appalling.”
Ms Boydell stepped down as chief executive in August and was replaced on an interim basis by Mr Reidy.
She had been criticised for how she handled the incident and concerns over safety across the chain, prompting former prime minister Sir Keir Starmer to step in earlier this year and urge her to “seriously engage” with the Government on the issue after an MP said she refused to attend a meeting.
Travelodge responded to say that she had met with MPs and a follow up meeting had not been agreed.
The review said that Ms Boydell led an immediate drive for change and improvement once she became aware of the 2022 assault.
Mr Reidy on Thursday acknowledged the independent review “makes it clear that there were failures in Travelodge’s room access security policies and procedures and in the way customers have been treated”.
He added: “We have made significant progress in preventing and addressing these issues over the past six months, and we recognise we still have further to go.”
He said Travelodge is dedicating “significant resources” to the overhaul and making changes to its governance in order to make the improvements.
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