Travelodge has changed its door key policy after staff gave a sex attacker access to a woman’s room.
The hotel chain also apologised after Kyran Smith was handed the access card of his victim before he went on to sexually assault her as she slept.
She awoke to find Smith attacking her as she lay in bed, Thames Valley Police said.
At Reading Crown Court in January, the 29-year-old was jailed for seven-and-a-half years after tricking hotel workers into giving him access to her room at the Travelodge in Maidenhead, Berkshire.
He was found guilty of one count of trespass with intent to commit a sexual offence and one charge of sexual assault.
Bosses at the firm said they were “deeply sorry for the significant distress” caused to the victim and told Sky News it was meeting with ministers and MPs on Monday to explain the steps it was taking to “further strengthen our room security measures for customers”.
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In December 2022, Smith, of London Road, Staines, and the victim had attended the same party before “they left to stay the night in a hotel”.
“When the victim, and others, retired to their own individual rooms at around 2am, Smith went to the reception and obtained – by deception – the victim’s hotel room key,” police said.
“The victim, who was asleep, awoke to Smith carrying out his sexual assault in her bed.”
The victim “shouted at Smith to get out” and he left to return the room key to reception before going to his own hotel room, police said.
Jo Boydell, Travelodge chief executive, said: “I am deeply sorry for the significant distress experienced by the victim.
“We have apologised to her for the way this has been handled and I would welcome the opportunity to meet with her to personally apologise and discuss what happened, and to hear her thoughts on how we can improve our processes, if she would like to.
“We have made some immediate changes to our room access security policy following an initial internal review.
“This ensures that any additional or replacement room keys are only issued with explicit permission from the person (or people) staying in the room and has already been rolled out to all of our hotels, supported by training for our 12,000 customer facing colleagues.”
Travelodge has also commissioned an independent review of its room security measures.
She added she was meeting with MPs and the minister for safeguarding and violence against women and girls, Jess Phillips, “to listen to their concerns and lay out the steps we’re taking” to improve hotel security.
