Travelodge complicit in sexual assault, say Labour MPs

Over 100 Labour MPs have co-signed a letter to the CEO of Travelodge to request a meeting to discuss a sexual assault that occurred in the hotel chain. According to the letter, a woman was sexually assaulted after making a solo booking at the hotel – only for staff to give her attacker a key to her room. The perpetrator of the sexual assault, Kyran Smith, told staff he was her boyfriend and needed another key card. Despite not being present on the booking, the hotel gave him that key which enabled his abuse.

Smith has since been convicted and sentenced to 7.5 years in prison. Nevertheless, the letter addressing this serious incident also refers to a woeful response from Travelodge in light of their security error was to offer a measly £30 compensation to the victim.

Travelodge have serious questions to answer

However, as these Labour MPs highlight, the Travelodge played an intrinsic role in enabling this abuse and their remedial response should be far stronger. Once again, corporates have little compassion for ordinary people even whilst they play a hand in their very real trauma.

This letter paints an appalling image of this corporate hotel company. It details how the abuse was able to have taken place, and highlights how little safeguarding is present for women, or frankly anyone, staying at Travelodge’s across the country. Apparently, despite the victim of assault having made a solo booking, the hotel staff didn’t think it was appropriate to double-check the abusive man’s claim by speaking directly to the guest. No, a man walking in and laying claim to her is enough to invade her privacy without question, according to shady-as-fuck Travelodge.

The MPs listed four areas of focused discussion:

We would also welcome the opportunity to discuss:

1. Travelodge’s security policies and procedures relating to providing a key card and/or room number to someone not named on a booking
2. Travelodge’s safeguarding training processes
3. Any training relating to Violence Against Women and Girls that Travelodge provides for staff
4. Changes that Travelodge will make to the above to ensure the safety of women staying at your hotel chain

‘We want to apologise to the victim’

Travelodge have said that they recognise the £30 compensation offer was ‘inappropriate’. Since, they have told the BBC:

The safety and security of our guests is our priority and we were deeply concerned to hear of this distressing incident and our sympathies are with the victim.

We want to apologise to the victim for the way this incident has been handled.

Travelodge adopts industry standard security procedures which were followed at the time of the incident in 2022.

We will carry out a full review of our room security policies to learn from this incident and further strengthen our procedures.

We covered the rising fear in women and girls as figures continually rise back in October, pointing out how men are seemingly more emboldened than ever. Discussing this terrifying rise, we wrote:

Domestic abuse is a serious issue, accounting for 54% of rape crimes between April 2024 and March 2025, with the remaining being committed by men over the age of 16. There is also a marginal difference between the likelihood of being attacked by a stranger or an acquaintance, making it a minefield for vulnerable women and girls.

In the last 20 years, sexual offences have increased: from 970 against young girls under-13, and 8,192 against women over 16 to 5,067 and 49,075 respectively. When looking at all rapes, crimes have increased by 511%.

In fact, rape offences doubled between 2014 to 2019, rising from 29,420 to a horrifying 59,999. There is a slight reduction seen in 2020/2021 down to 55,685, during COVID and lockdown periods, before shooting up to 70,031 the following year.

Women have enough to fear without fearing our safety and security in hotels

Privacy and security are human rights and protected by civil law. Nonetheless, women and girls have continually suffered abuse at some point, if not multiple times in their lifetimes. Abusive men have long believed they can do whatever they want to their victims, often getting off on the most invasive and traumatising ways they can do so.

This incident is horrifying and will spark fear in every woman across the country. Equally terrifying is the feeling that other men may see this and get ideas of their own, leaving more women in harm’s way. The fact Travelodge’s security procedure is supposedly ‘industry standard’ suggests this must be levelled across the hotel industry as a whole.

Therefore, Labour MPs are completely right to press this deplorable incident, but they must push further. We hope they push hard against the Travelodge to take action that truly shows they recognise the trauma inflicted by the sexual assault they played an essential role in making possible. As a woman myself, I know that I won’t feel safe until I hear all hotels have safeguarded against this life-changing risk of abuse.

Frankly, I’d have thought something as egregious as this could not be possible in the first place. More fool me, I guess.

Featured image via the Canary