More than three years after the event, the chief executive only recently discovered Emily had been sexually assaulted in one of their hotel rooms, as correspondent Ashna Hurynag reports
The survivor of a sexual assault that happened in a Travelodge hotel room that her attacker had managed to gain a key to, has expressed her despair and cast doubt over whether security policies will improve following her experience.
It comes as Good Morning Britain and ITV News learnt that the survivor, ‘Emily’, whose name we have changed, wrote directly to the chief executive of the hotel chain in January 2023.
In an email sent just over two weeks after the incident at the Maidenhead hotel branch, the survivor details the horrors of that night and appeals directly to CEO Jo Boydell to investigate, saying the hotel in question “has completely failed at safeguarding”.
The letter sent on January 3 was titled “Serious complaint” and despite being sent to Ms Boydell’s personal email address, is understood to have been picked up by a member of her team and “handled on her behalf” according to Travelodge.
Ms Boydell says she did not see the email, nor was it escalated to her.
More than three years after the event, the chief executive only recently discovered Emily had been sexually assaulted in one of their hotel rooms.
In an interview with Good Morning Britain, broadcast this week, Ms Boydell makes it clear she only found out about the incident in early March, after another news organisation alerted her to it.
She told me: “I first found out about the details of the case when it was reported by the BBC, and that’s one of the issues that’s very clear to us. It absolutely should not have been the case, and we made mistakes. And that’s part of the review to understand why it took so long.”
But I have uncovered a further email exchange between the survivor and members of staff working in the ‘Chief Executive Office’.
It highlights that the incident was raised with the “Hotel Management team” and that there was found to be “no breakdown in procedure”.
In an email sent to the survivor on January 18, 2023, a staff member whose signature says she works in the ‘Chief Executive Office’ explains that the hotel chain “investigated this matter with both our Hotel and District Managers”.
She says “no step had been missed in the process” and there was “not one part of the proceedings that they had not followed correctly”.
She further tells the survivor: “The team member’s actions were completely compliant.”
More than one email – feels to Emily – like more than one opportunity to act on the assault.
“I think that perhaps she [the CEO] didn’t see the email I sent to her personal email address, because I imagine she probably has quite a few emails coming through,” Emily tells me.
“But I really don’t know how, you wouldn’t know if you’ve got people in your complaints department, in your chief executive’s office, dealing with emails on your behalf, how you don’t know at that point.”
The hotel strenuously deny this and say categorically, the incident only came to the CEO’s attention last month.
Since then, they have made immediate changes to the room access policy and have commissioned an independent review to look at room-security and address how serious customer incidents are managed.
When asked if Ms Boydell is the right person to enact the changes in policy, Emily is adamant, “not anymore”.
Otherwise, she says: “You would have done more in a month, and you would have said more. I mean, they have so many hotels that if safety isn’t top of the priorities, then they need to look at their top people.”
Travelodge has always acknowledged there were serious failures in their handling of Emily’s case and that their response was inappropriate.
Jo Boydell, CEO of Travelodge, told ITV News: “I am deeply sorry for the distress experienced by the survivor and I apologise for our handling of what happened to her. I have been very clear there were serious failures in our handling of every aspect of our response to her. The email sent by the survivor in January 2023 was handled on my behalf and I am clear this should never have happened.
“Our response was deeply inappropriate and our processes did not work as they should have done in this instance because what happened was not escalated to me. Since I became aware of what happened, we have conducted an internal review and made immediate changes to both our room security processes for additional key cards as well as our review and escalation processes. I have commissioned an independent review led by a leading KC, which is looking at every aspect of our handling of this case.
“The safety and security of guests in our hotels is my absolute priority. My focus is on putting this right, on learning from what happened and making changes to ensure our hotels are safe, and feel safe, for our customers.”
They have always maintained that the security of guests in their hotels is their priority.
They want everyone to feel safe, but for Emily, it’s too late.
Follow STV News on WhatsApp
Scan the QR code on your mobile device for all the latest news from around the country
