Unauthorized room entries occurred at nearly one in 10 Travelodge hotels — about 60 properties — even after a months-long safety overhaul began cutting incident rates, according to an independent review led by barrister John Greaney KC.

The review, commissioned after a woman was sexually assaulted at a Travelodge in Maidenhead, Berkshire, in December 2022, found the problem extends far beyond one chain. Greaney said the phenomenon is so common across the UK hotel sector that it has its own name: "room intrusions."

"The evidence I have received reveals that room intrusions are not a type of occurrence restricted to Travelodge hotels, but instead are a problem across the hotel sector," Greaney wrote. "Change needed to occur, and still needs to occur, across the sector, not just within Travelodge."

What happened at Maidenhead?

Kyran Smith was jailed for seven-and-a-half years in February for the assault. The review found he lied to a junior member of hotel staff, claiming to be the victim's boyfriend, and received a key card to her room less than three minutes later.

The victim, referred to in the report as "Lily," emailed a complaint to Travelodge in January 2023 asking executives to review security processes. That email never reached then-chief executive Jo Boydell until more than three years later. Customer services handled it, and a senior hotel manager investigated — an approach Greaney called "inadequate and downplayed to a substantial extent the seriousness of what had happened."

Travelodge then offered Lily reimbursement of her night's stay, which she "understandably interpreted as an offer of £30." Greaney's report concluded her treatment "fell short of every standard the public would expect of an organisation such as Travelodge. It was simply appalling."

Greaney said Lily was "fundamentally failed by Travelodge as an organisation at every stage" and "treated by Travelodge in a way that was inappropriate and unfair; indeed, it was disgraceful."

How widespread is the problem?

Greaney gathered evidence from other hotel companies, though he could not name many of them because the conversations were confidential. He also spoke with trade bodies, charities, MPs and a police organisation.

Within Travelodge, guest-reported room intrusions have fallen significantly since the end of May as the chain has tightened safety procedures. Still, the review found reports across roughly 60 of its hotels — nearly 10% of the estate.

Greaney said he hopes other hotel bosses will take the findings on board when reviewing their own policies and procedures.

What is the industry doing?

UK Hospitality has already published new guest security guidance for the hotel industry. It covers:

• How to respond to requests for replacement room keys
• Handling access requests from people not named on bookings
• Managing group and corporate bookings

How has Travelodge responded?

Interim chief executive Ray Reidy apologised on Thursday: "I apologise unreservedly on behalf of Travelodge to all guests where we have failed, and particularly to Lily."

He acknowledged the review "makes it clear that there were failures in Travelodge's room access security policies and procedures and in the way customers have been treated."

"We have made significant progress in preventing and addressing these issues over the past six months, and we recognise we still have further to go," Reidy said, adding that Travelodge is dedicating "significant resources" to the overhaul and changing its governance structure to drive the improvements.

Boydell stepped down as chief executive in August after criticism of her handling of the incident and safety concerns across the chain. Former prime minister Sir Keir Starmer had urged her earlier this year to "seriously engage" with the Government on hotel security. The review noted Boydell led an immediate drive for change once she learned of the 2022 assault.

With sector-wide guidance now in place and an independent review explicitly framing room intrusions as an industry failure rather than a single operator's, hotel groups across the UK face pressure this year to audit their own key-access and complaint-handling procedures.