MAIDENHEAD INCIDENT – UPDATE:

Jo Boydell, CEO at Travelodge, said:

“The safety and security of customers in our hotels is extremely important and we want everyone to be safe, and feel safe, in our hotels. I am deeply sorry for the significant distress experienced by the victim and for our handling of her case. We got things wrong and we should have acted sooner, and I am truly sorry for that.

We have made some immediate changes to our room access security policy to ensure that any additional or replacement room keys are only issued with explicit permission from the person (or people) staying in the room, and this has been rolled out to all of our hotels, supported by training for our 12,000 customer-facing colleagues.

We have also commissioned an independent review which will be led by Paul Greaney KC, a leading barrister specialising in public inquiries concerning security, serious violent crime, and health and safety. We also plan to appoint a leading violence against women and girls expert who can work closely with Paul on the review. The review will look at the lessons we can learn to help us improve the way we handle complex and sensitive cases, as well as how we can improve our room security procedures and what additional training we can offer to our colleagues over and above our existing health and safety, security and safeguarding training, including a specific focus on violence against women and girls.

Travelodge takes this situation incredibly seriously and we are focused on progressing this important work at pace, and further strengthening our processes.”