In December 2022, a woman was sexually assaulted in her bed at a Travelodge Maidenhead branch after staff gave her attacker a key card and her room number. Kyran Smith, 29, was jailed for seven and a half years in February 2025 for the sexual assault at the Travelodge Maidenhead. Smith lied to reception staff, claiming to be the victim's boyfriend, to obtain her room key and number. The woman claimed staff told her Smith had passed their security checks by providing her name, according to the victim's account. Travelodge initially offered the Maidenhead assault victim a £30 refund, which she described as insulting, and the victim is taking legal action against Travelodge, according to reports.
Travelodge CEO Jo Boydell apologized to the Maidenhead assault victim and others who had frightening experiences. Boydell acknowledged that Travelodge got things wrong and should have acted sooner, according to the CEO's statements. However, Jo Boydell cancelled or refused a meeting with MPs about the Maidenhead assault, drawing criticism from Prime Minister Keir Starmer, according to major media reports. Over 100 MPs have demanded a meeting with Jo Boydell to discuss Travelodge's security policies, multiple sources indicate.
In a separate incident, Wendy Griffith was trapped in her Travelodge London Stratford room in July 2025 while a naked man, Trevor Reece, banged on her door and performed sex acts in the corridor, according to Griffith's account. During the incident, Wendy Griffith's tormentor went to reception and asked for a replacement key, giving her room number instead of his own, Griffith reported. Trevor Reece, 40, pleaded guilty to outraging public decency in September 2025 and was sentenced to four months of alcohol dependency treatment and ordered to pay costs and compensation, major media outlets confirm.
Travelodge had ample opportunity to deal with the case better but took a long time to reply and didn't take it seriously.
Additional security breaches have been reported at other Travelodge hotels. Chris Adamson and her husband had a stranger walk into their Travelodge Lincoln room in April 2025 after staff gave him a key card, Adamson stated. Two more women, Philippa and Jan Palmer, reported strangers accessing their Travelodge rooms in separate incidents, according to their accounts.
Hotel security failures are not isolated to Travelodge and may be industry-wide, according to guests and MPs. Sarah was raped in a non-Travelodge hotel after a colleague tricked staff into giving him her room key by claiming to be her husband, Sarah reported.
In response to these incidents, Travelodge has changed its room access policy to require explicit guest consent before issuing extra key cards, the company announced. Travelodge has done an internal review of room access security policies and made immediate changes rolled out to all hotels, supported by training for 12,000 customer-facing colleagues, according to CEO Jo Boydell.
It wouldn't be OK to issue a key to her room without her consent, and hotels need to contact the person if not doing that.
Travelodge is conducting an independent review of its room security policies, the company confirmed. Travelodge is hiring change delivery coaches and a senior change programme manager to transform its culture and embed security changes, according to major media sources. The safety of guests and colleagues is the most important thing, and the company commissioned an independent review of room security measures, Boydell stated.
The specific security checks Travelodge staff performed before giving Kyran Smith the room key, and why they failed, remain unclear, as does the total number of similar security incidents at Travelodge hotels beyond these reported cases. Whether Travelodge's new policy requiring guest consent for key issuance is being consistently implemented across all hotels is still unknown, as monitoring and compliance mechanisms have not been detailed publicly. The outcome of the Maidenhead assault victim's legal action against Travelodge remains unresolved, adding to the uncertainties surrounding the company's liability and compensation processes.
Implications of these events extend beyond Travelodge, highlighting industry-wide security concerns and the need for enhanced corporate accountability.