Travelodge staff gave domestic abuser key to his victim’s room

Another woman, Jo from Leeds, contacted BBC News following coverage of the Maidenhead attack.

In July, she woke in her room to an unknown man standing at the end of her bed, and screamed for help.

“It was just horrible, it was horrendous. Terrifying. I was shaking so badly,” she said.

Her friend who was staying in the room heard him say, “I’m sorry, they gave me this key,” she said.

Jo considered staying elsewhere following the reports of the attack in 2022, but was reassured by Travelodge’s chief executive Jo Boydell, who previously said: “The safety and security of customers in our hotels is extremely important and we want everyone to be safe, and feel safe, in our hotels.”

Jo said: “What happened to us shouldn’t have happened. And the assurances [Travelodge] gave are not accurate. The systems are failing.”

In response, Travelodge said an investigation found “our updated room access security policies, which were in place at the time, were not correctly followed, which is not acceptable.

“We have retrained the hotel team on our current room security and check-in procedures.”

Andy Smith, who has travelled the country with his band and stays in dozens of Travelodge hotels a year, said he had been given keys to other people’s rooms recently.

“On Friday, we went up to the room and there was a guy already asleep in there in a state of undress,” he said.

It followed another incident about 18 months ago where another man had gained access to his room by telling reception staff he was checking in under a common name such as “Mr Smith”, Smith said.

“I think he just chanced it. Because my name’s Smith, I think it’s just the pure luck of it. I mean, why wouldn’t anyone be asking for ID or anything, like a booking reference or an email address. It’s beggar’s belief.”

Travelodge responded by saying “any case of an unauthorised person entering a guest’s room is a significant cause for concern and we want to be clear that these incidents should not have happened”.