Travelodge hotel rooms are fitted with deadbolts and electronic key-card locks for guests’ safety, but one domestic abuse victim was attacked in a place she believed would protect her.
A woman (whose identity remains anonymous) has told the BBC that Travelodge gave a room key to her abuser, who then physically attacked her.
She was staying at a branch of the hotel in London last year for ‘a night away from the fear’ following a period of abuse that left her ‘frightened and exhausted’.
‘He walked into the hotel and told the receptionist that his girlfriend was upstairs having a seizure,’ the woman said. ‘He asked what room I was in and what floor I was staying on.’
Staff then handed the man a key and showed him to her room, where he kicked down the door, assaulted the woman and tried to take her phone. The victim added: ‘I couldn’t believe it. The one place I thought he could never get to, he had somehow reached. I felt sick with panic. My safe place disappeared in an instant.’
When confronted by her abuser, the woman said she was ‘crying and begging for help’, but staff just offered her another room in the hotel.
Previously, we’ve worked with Woman’s Trust to help raise awareness for domestic violence. Commenting on the Travelodge news, Alice Piller-Roner, CEO of the charity, told us: ‘What happened in this case shows why organisations need to understand domestic abuse as a safeguarding issue.
‘For a woman trying to escape abuse, keeping her location secure can be fundamental to her safety, and giving an abuser access to the place where she is staying can have potentially devastating consequences.’
‘Hotels and other organisations need clear security procedures alongside domestic abuse informed training, so staff understand the risks and know how to respond safely,’ Alice continued. ‘Women escaping abuse should be able to trust that somewhere they have gone for safety will remain safe.’
A pattern of safety concerns
On the face of it, this news is devastating. But what makes it worse, is that it is not an isolated incident.
In March this year former prime minister Keir Starmer wrote to the Travelodge CEO urging it to review its policies around women’s safety. The letter read: ‘I urge you to seriously engage with MPs and my government to address the concerns that remain around best-practice interventions for prevention, the training being made available, and the pace of Travelodge’s response.’
The letter came after a man named Kyran Smith was sentenced in February 2026 to more than seven years in prison after sexually assaulting a woman in a Travelodge room in Maidenhead. Smith told staff he was the woman’s boyfriend and was given a card to her room, without staff checking with her first.
After the tragedy, the victim was later offered what she described as an ‘insulting’ £30 refund.
A Travelodge spokesperson said: ‘Customer safety and security is – and remains – a priority for us. Earlier this year, we 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 access security policies and escalation procedures.
‘We are deeply sorry for the significant distress experienced by the customer and we apologise for the way the incident has been handled. Customer safety and security is – and remains – a priority for us.
‘Any case of an unauthorised person entering a guest’s room is a significant cause for concern and we want to be clear that this should not have happened – our room access security policies at the time were not correctly followed, which is not acceptable.’
Image: Shutterstock
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