A woman has said she was “failed” by Travelodge after staff gave a man a key card and her room number before he sexually assaulted her while she slept.

The victim, who is now in her 30s and cannot be named for legal reasons, had been staying at a Travelodge hotel in Maidenhead following a night out in December 2022.

Earlier in the evening she had attended the same party as Kyran Smith. After the event, guests went back to their respective hotel rooms.

In the early hours of the morning, Smith approached the hotel reception and asked staff for access to the woman’s room. He falsely told employees that he was her boyfriend and requested a key card.

Staff gave him both a key card and her room number, allowing him to enter the room while she was asleep.

The woman later woke up to find Smith sexually assaulting her in her bed.

Speaking about the incident, she said it had been the first time she had ever stayed in a hotel alone and that the situation left her feeling deeply frustrated with the hotel’s response.

“I feel like they failed me,” she said. “It makes me more frustrated that they haven’t said ‘OK yes we did this wrong’. Instead they’ve put the blame aside.”

She said hotel staff later told her that Smith had passed their security checks by providing her name.

“The only thing he would know about me was my name,” she said.

“They said he was able to show them text messages, but I didn’t have his phone number and he didn’t have mine.”

The victim also questioned why reception staff did not attempt to contact her before allowing someone into the room.

“If I checked in on my own and the room booking is just for me why would you think it’s OK to let someone in in the middle of the night while I’m asleep?” she said.

“At least wake me up or phone the room or come up to the room. Anything is better than just giving someone a key card.”

She added that she had made sure to lock the door before going to sleep and was shocked to discover someone had been able to enter.

“I double checked I locked the door. I couldn’t work out how he was in my room because I did everything that I would deem to be correct when you stay in a hotel.”

The woman reported the incident to hotel staff, but said the response left her feeling even more upset.

She was later offered a £30 refund by Travelodge.

“I saw it as very insulting. It would have been better if they hadn’t offered it,” she said.

Following a four day trial at Reading Crown Court, Smith was found guilty of sexual assault and trespass with intent to commit a relevant sexual offence in November last year. He was later jailed for seven and a half years.

Travelodge has since apologised for how the £30 refund offer was handled and confirmed that it is carrying out a review of its room security policies in response to the incident.

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