The budget hotel chain has come under fire in recent weeks after a female guest was sexually assaulted by a man who was given a key to her room.
Travelodge is hiring a string of experts to “embed change” and “transform cultures” – hours after the firm was hit with more sex abuse reports.
The budget hotel chain has come under fire in recent weeks after a female guest was sexually assaulted by a man who was given a key to her room. Since then more women have come forward, with one claiming a man performed vile sex acts outside her door.
We can now reveal the firm is scrambling to protect its reputation, by hiring four Change Delivery Coaches. The vacancies – posted a day before CEO Boydell made another public apology – involve “truly embed[ding] change into [Travelodge’s] DNA,” “growing behaviours,” and “understand[ing] root causes when things aren’t going to plan.”
Other key responsibilities include “identifying implementation gaps and risks early,” “influencing people and transform[ing] cultures.” Bosses are also looking for a Senior Change Programme Manager, who will “be responsible for the high-level design of complex change, ensuring every initiative has a rock-solid foundation.”
The ad continues: “With a proven ability to diagnose behavioural gaps in real-time, you use analytical insight and a “can-do” approach to solve problems, lead through collaboration rather than just a job title, and drive results across multiple sites.”
Travelodge came under fire after Kyran Smith was jailed in February for sexually assaulting a woman at a Travelodge in Maidenhead in December 2022. The victim revealed he had been given a key card to her room after falsely claiming to be her boyfriend.
Chief Executive Jo Boydell claimed she only learned of the incident when Smith appeared in court, but it has since emerged the victim wrote directly to her a month after the incident, in January 2023. Travelodge said the email was “handled on her behalf.” Boydell apologised to the victim in a statement in March, adding that the company had made changes to its door key policy.
But since then, more women have reported alarming experiences at the hotel chain. Marketing consultant Wendy Griffith told how she was “trapped” in her Travelodge room for an hour last summer while a naked man banged on her door and performed “vile” sex acts in the corridor. She said Travelodge’s response was “categorically not good enough” and she felt “palmed off.” The man, Trevor Reece, 40, pleaded guilty to outraging public decency in September 2025.
Another guest, Charlotte Bingley, told how a member of staff entered her room without knocking. “I’ve never been so scared in my life,” she said, “I really thought he was going to really hurt me and I was [shouting] ‘just get out of the room’.” She described the company’s response to her repeated complaints as “despicable.”
Keir Starmer last week wrote to Boydell urging her to “seriously engage” with the government on guest security at its hotels. The PM said he was “very concerned” some MPs did not hear from Boydell directly, adding it was “incredibly important” lessons were learned after the “utterly appalling” sexual assault at the firm’s Maidenhead branch.
When approached by the Mirror, Boydell said: “I am deeply sorry for the distress experienced by the survivor and I apologise for our handling of what happened to her. I have been very clear there were serious failures in our handling of every aspect of our response to her.
“We have made some immediate changes to our room access security policy and incident escalation procedures and have commissioned an independent review led by Paul Greaney KC, a leading barrister specialising in public inquiries concerning security, serious violent crime, and health and safety, to examine our room security procedures and the lessons we can learn from how this incident was handled.
“The safety and security of guests is extremely important to me and our whole team, and Travelodge takes this situation with the utmost seriousness. Last month I met with a number of MPs and Ministers – including Jess Phillips MP, Minister for Safeguarding and Violence Against Women and Girls; Alex Davies-Jones MP, Minister for Victims and Tackling Violence Against Women and Girls; Matt Bishop MP; Jen Craft MP; as well as Catherine Fookes MP and Helena Dollimore MP, Parliamentary Private Secretaries to The Prime Minister, Sir Keir Starmer, and the Chancellor, Rachel Reeves.
“We have offered that all MPs interested in this important issue can feed into the independent review in writing so their contributions can be fully taken into account. Our immediate priority is to progress this important work thoroughly and at pace, to learn from the independent review and further strengthen our processes.
“We also welcome the opportunity to work with Matt Bishop and MPs, and UK Hospitality, the body for the hotel sector, on his proposed ten-minute rule bill to help strengthen hotel security for Travelodge and also the wider sector. We have written to Matt to confirm that we want to work with him and MPs on his ten-minute rule bill.”
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