Travelodge accused of not accepting wrongdoing

Travelodge customers felt dismissed and that the company was unwilling to accept wrongdoing after safety complaints, an MP has said.

In a letter sent to Travelodge's chief executive and the chair of a review into the hotel chain's safety, the MP for Henley and Thame, Freddie Van Mierlo, questioned if cost-saving measures had been prioritised over customer safety.

The BBC revealed in March how a woman staying at a Maidenhead hotel was sexually assaulted after a man lied to staff to get a key card to her room, triggering an independent review of security measures at the hotel giant.

Travelodge said it welcomed the MP's engagement with the review and that "customer and colleague safety and security is - and remains - a priority".

Kyran Smith was jailed for seven years and six months for the attack in December 2022.

The reporting of the Maidenhead case led to other people coming forward to report security concerns at Travelodge hotels.

The company has since updated its room access security policy and internal procedures around the escalation of complaints.

Travelodge's headquarters are in Thame, Oxfordshire, which is in Van Mierlo's constituency.

In the letter, the MP said he had been contacted by customers and company employees saying that guests felt "dismissed by boilerplate responses when raising a complaint and felt the company to be defensive and unaccepting of wrongdoing".

"My core concern remains to what extent Travelodge's business model is reliant on low staffing, low levels of training and low security to remain competitively priced, which raises safety concerns for customers and employees," he said.

"I do not believe that safety incidents affecting guests should be dealt with only in terms of procedure and process (for example, checking identities of guests requesting keys) but should examine how the business operates and whether it is too reliant on cost cutting measures that risk safety."

The MP has also encouraged others to contribute to the ongoing independent inquiry into Travelodge safety measures.

A spokesperson for Travelodge said: "We welcome Freddie van Mierlo's engagement with the independent review we commissioned to examine our room access security policies, escalation procedures and how customer concerns are handled.

"Customer and colleague safety and security is – and remains – a priority for us.

"In addition, we are also working closely with our industry body, UKHospitality, to help strengthen guest safety, privacy and room access for Travelodge and the wider sector.

"We want everyone to be safe, and feel safe, in our hotels."

There is currently no publication date for the ongoing independent review of safety measures at the company.