A stranger walked into a couple’s room at a Travelodge hotel after being given their key card by staff, as the firm reportedly faces a series of complaints about its security measures.
Chris Adamson, 63, had been enjoying a mini-break with her husband in Lincoln on 8 April, when a man entered their room and appeared “startled”.
Travelodge has faced increased scrutiny in recent weeks after a man was jailed for sexually assaulting a woman at a hotel in Maidenhead, after staff handed him a key card.
The firm’s chief executive officer Jo Boydell has promised to improve security measures and said it had made “immediate changes” to their door key policy.
Mrs Adamson said she would no longer stay in a Travelodge by herself as a result of the incident.
She told the BBC that she and her husband had checked in shortly after 2.30pm and reported a fault with the television to staff members.
After the issue was resolved, one of the staff members suggested they could change rooms if their air conditioning, which was overly warm, did not improve.
However, the couple declined the offer and remained in their original room.
As they prepared to go out for the evening, a man entered with his suitcase before quickly leaving.
"We'd both just come out the shower and were ready to go out, but half-an-hour earlier and we wouldn't have been," she said. "That would have been very unpleasant."
Mrs Adamson followed the man to the reception to make a complaint, and questioned how such a mistake could have happened given recent criticism of the hotel.
"The people on reception said, all we can say is we're really sorry, accidents happen, and they were quite dismissive of it,” she said.
Since Kyran Smith, 29, was jailed in February for attacking a woman in 2022 in the Maidenhead hotel, dozens of people have contacted the BBC to report “industry-wide failings” in hotel security.
A spokesperson for Travelodge said it was "extremely sorry" about the couple's experience, which "should not have happened".
They said: "After Ms Adamson complained about a fault in her room, we offered to move her into another room and processed this room move on our systems.
"Subsequently we were able to fix the fault, and Ms Adamson made the decision to stay in her original room, but this was not reflected on our systems. This led to another guest being issued a key for Ms Adamson's original room in error.
"We are retraining the hotel team on room security and check-in procedures."
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