MP vows to avoid Travelodge after security breach

An MP says he would not stay at a Travelodge after a security lapse at his local hotel led to a woman being sexually assaulted in her room.

The woman was attacked by Kyran Smith - who was jailed in February for seven-and-a-half years - after he was given a key card to the room by staff in Maidenhead, Berkshire, in 2022.

Joshua Reynolds, Liberal Democrat MP for Maidenhead, told the BBC that Travelodge's initial response was "not acceptable".

Travelodge, which offered the victim an "insulting" £30 refund and has since apologised, said its chief executive had written to Reynolds to arrange a meeting.

Smith, from Staines, Surrey, had been at the same party as the woman during a night out in December 2022 when they and others retired to their rooms.

He went to reception in the early hours and was given the key card after lying to staff that he was her boyfriend.

The woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, claimed staff told her Smith, who was known to her, had passed their security checks by providing her name.

Jo Boydell, Travelodge's chief executive, will meet Labour MPs Matt Bishop and Jen Craft on Monday after they wrote a letter raising concerns about security that was signed by more than 100 other MPs.

Reynolds said he hoped to be part of the meeting.

He added: "I want to hear from her, what went wrong, what they're doing to fix it, how they could have procedures go so wrong, and if it was a procedure that was correct at the time... how that was ever allowed to be one of the procedures?"

Travelodge said Boydell wrote to Reynolds on Thursday morning to arrange a meeting.

Reynolds said he "probably wouldn't stay in a Travelodge".

"I think that's the same as thousands of people across the country because Travelodge haven't acted the way that it should have acted and it's clear things have gone completely, totally wrong," he said.

"I think there's a conversation for hotels across the country to review their policies, make sure that the policies are robust enough and they don't have the same issues that happen in Travelodge where things just went catastrophically wrong."

Travelodge said its focus was on taking actions to strengthen its room security measures and commissioning an independent review of its procedures.