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Following a disturbing incident at one of its locations, the Travelodge hotel chain has announced immediate revisions to its door key issuance procedures. This decision comes after a woman was sexually assaulted by Kyran Smith, a man who had falsely obtained a key card to her hotel room. Smith was sentenced to seven and a half years in prison in February for the attack, which occurred at the Maidenhead Travelodge in Berkshire in December 2022.
Travelodge’s chief executive, Jo Boydell, issued a public apology to the victim on Sunday and outlined the steps the company is taking to prevent a recurrence. She explained that from now on, replacement or additional room keys will only be issued directly with the approval of the guest staying in that room. Boydell acknowledged the company’s shortcomings, saying, “We got things wrong and we should have acted sooner and I am truly sorry for that.”
Before Boydell’s statement, the victim spoke to the BBC about her dissatisfaction with how Travelodge initially handled the situation. She indicated that while the matter was escalated within the company, their response was slow and lacked sufficient seriousness. “It was escalated in their company a little bit… but they still didn’t take the right precautions to deal with the situation,” she remarked. She stressed the importance of learning from mistakes, emphasizing, “You need to then think, OK, that’s not what should have happened, what can we do better to make sure that doesn’t happen again?”
Boydell also revealed that an independent review of room security policies has been commissioned, with new procedures already rolled out across all Travelodge hotels. Staff training measures have been introduced for around 12,000 customer-facing employees to reinforce the changes. She expressed her willingness to meet the victim personally to discuss what occurred and to learn from these failings, highlighting that guest and employee safety remains the company’s top priority.
The circumstances of the attack involved Kyran Smith, who was at the same party as the victim on the night of the incident. After socializing, guests returned to their rooms. The victim reported that hotel staff had handed Smith a key card after he convinced them by providing the woman’s name, despite not having her consent. The victim criticized this practice, stating, “I think it doesn’t overly matter what someone knows about someone else, like personal details. It wouldn’t be OK for you to issue a key to my room without my consent.”
In addition to calling for stricter key control policies, the woman noted that her hotel room did not have a door chain, suggesting that such a feature should be mandatory in all hotels to enhance security. She voiced concerns about how frequently unauthorized access to rooms occurs, emphasizing the need for hotels to contact guests prior to issuing keys to anyone else. The woman expressed cautious optimism about travel companies’ acknowledgment of this issue, noting it is unfortunate that it often takes a serious incident to prompt change, but that the current focus on the problem is a positive step forward.
Travelodge, which operates out of Thame in Oxfordshire, confirmed that Jo Boydell has requested a meeting with the safeguarding minister to further discuss the matter and ensure comprehensive safeguarding improvements are made
Read the full article from The BBC here: Read More
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