Think twice before staying alone in a Travelodge

[MeridianB]

Just seen this on BBC:
How Travelodge in Maidenhead gave sex attacker key to woman's room - BBC News

I did search to see if anyone had already posted - apologies for any duplication.

Such an awful thing to happen and such a stunningly bad response from Travelodge - no accountability, no transparency of their security procedures, no apology.

Bloody hell.

If I’m staying in a hotel & it’s not possible to manually lock the door from inside, I always put a chair in front of it. It might not stop someone getting in if they really wanted to but at least I’d be awake & screaming.

That's unbelievable. Firstly that anyone would think it was even remotely appropriate to offer a paltry £30 refund by way of compensation to someone who had been sexually assaulted due to their security failures. And secondly, their statement that security protocols were followed...wtf??!

How on earth is it that travelodge isn't on a massive PR offensive here? They should be offering proper compensation to the woman and telling the media exactly what they're changing in their procedures to guarantee that this will never happen again.

I will certainly avoid staying at Travelodge again. Disgraceful.

That was mindblowing and to offer £30 compensation what part of that would seem acceptable.
Travel lodge haven't covered themselves in glory still saying security procedures were followed as per company policy at the time.
The woman has to live with their fuck up and that of a predator.

Travelodge - the same company that my single 20 year old daughter was staying at one night when the night manager (who knew she checked in alone) knocked on her door at 2am in the morning with some excuse or other 😟

Horrible situation. I have heard of Travelodge double allocating rooms before but nothing as bad as this. I actively avoid the chain. Staying anywhere, I do usually pile my luggage and anything else just inside the door. Thinking of adding a rubber door stop to my travel kit.

@mrbluebirdonmyshoulder that's creepy AF🤮

I saw this too. I travel with work solo and this is one chain I won't be using again. They handled it atrociously.

I read this too. I can’t believe Travelodge’s response - they followed protocol and did nothing wrong ?

I can’t believe they won’t back track on this now and change their protocols.

i am very sorry for the victim.

I stayed in Travelodge Kings Cross many years ago for work and the lock was broken on my door. I asked at reception but apparently there were no other rooms. Didn’t sleep much that night.

That's awful. That poor woman deserves a better apology and more than £30 for going through that.

We arrived at a Travelodge once and there were travellers and Police on the grass opposite the hotel. On checking in, they said the Police were not going to be there all the time and Travelodge would not accept any responsibility if my car was damaged or stolen by the travellers. I was warned that cars of other hotel guests had been targeted.

I decided not to stay but they refused a refund as it wasn't their fault that the travellers were present.

Ended up paying a small fortune for an alternative hotel elsewhere.

I will never stay in one again

All hotels need to take notice

How hard would it have been to take him to the room and check?

It is a total PR catastrophe for them.

Wow

I don't quite know what to say to this

This is worrying

It is making me think if I should stay in one yes

They cant back down and admit that they are directly responsible for allowing her sex attacked access to her because they are most likely being sued and if not will be soon, after their insulting £30 offer of compensation.
This is not going to go away for them and its going to cost them a fortune in compensation and legal fees. However they haven't thought through the PR disaster that claiming mearly knowing the name of the victim is enough to pass their security checks to allow any Tom, Dick or Harry access to sleeping victims in a locked hotel room.

It's appalling. I stay alone in Premier Inns quite often, I hope their security protocols are a bit tighter than, "I know her name, trust me bro".

The fact they gave him a key just because he knew her name, despite the fact she'd booked and checked in as a solo guest, is terrifying - and even more so when they claim this is inline with their security protocols!

The £30 refund would be funny, if the situation wasn't so abhorrent. "Sorry we gave a sexual predator direct access to you whilst you were sleeping, he's thirty quid! Also, we did nothing wrong".

Fucking hell.

That’s shocking.

Like she said, the room was booked for 1 person and was solely in her name with 1 keycard.
They could have asked that she come down to get the keycard for him as it was in her name.

Horrendous isn't it, I won't be using them again. There should be a better duty of care under health and safety laws. Surely they must know that lots of women use these hotels when fleeing domestic violence!

Just cancelled my upcoming booking and replaced it with premier inn. Hopefully others will do the same and they will start to see a drop in bookings by solo women. Bet they are too oblivious to even make the link though,no matter how many do it.

We stopped staying in Travelodge some time ago after finding out they double book rooms and it’s first arrivals who get them. Found out after moving my son to uni with a car full of stuff. Turned up to our booked room in the evening and well within the arrival time only to find it had been given to somebody else. Person on reception told me it’s done with all rooms and they can normally shuffle rooms about but sometimes can’t.

Imagine if you’re a woman alone arriving late at night! Avoid.They keep it very quiet. Everybody should be aware of the risk of no room on arrival.

It's fucking appalling that they're not profusely apologising and changing their, clearly useless, security protocols. They're basically saying they will give a key card to your room to anyone who knows your name. I try to avoid them anyway because they're shit but I certainly won't ever use one again now.

Thank you, I use them rarely but never will again. That’s utterly absurd of travelodge to suggest they did no wrong

Travelodge don't even admit that their security procedures need to be reviewed. They are showing no compassion or thought to the horrifying ordeal this woman went through.

They know that if they accept responsibility and apologise, they open themselves up to an expensive lawsuit. All about the money, sadly.

Also it is dreadful that it has taken so long for this to come to court. It happened in 2022. All that time waiting must have been awful for the victim. Hope she sues them.

Appalling.

but I have seen threads on here with people going I’ve booked a double/triple, can I sneak a another person in to sleep on the sofa and generally people are ok with it. With even staff saying they turn a blind eye. So the culture of staff not caring and people taking the piss leads to men like this being able to get in easily and without question. I’d prefer to see hotels properly vet who is coming into the building.

They would surely be better off accepting liability and sucking up the cost of compensation?

I can't see how they would have any kind of realistic defence if sued, so the chances are, they would lose the case anyway. By denying liability, they are adding the cost of a massive PR disaster on top of any compensation that they might need to pay out.