Hotels should verify who is requesting room access, obtain authorization from the guest staying in the room before issuing access to someone not listed on the booking, protect guest and room-number information, and make sure staff apply the same procedures. Travelodge says it has introduced several safeguards, but an independent review published on 21 September 2026 found that important procedures were still not consistently followed in practice.
Two separate incidents raised concerns about room access
Maidenhead: a false claim led to a keycard
In December 2022, a woman was assaulted at a Travelodge in Maidenhead after a man falsely claimed to be her boyfriend and obtained a keycard to her room. Irwin Mitchell reported that the attacker was convicted and sentenced in January 2026. In March 2026, the woman called on hotels to review their safety policies and said they should get consent from the person staying in a room before giving access to someone who is not listed on the booking.
York: a separate incident involving a room number
ITV reported a separate incident at a Travelodge in York in June 2025. The woman, identified by the pseudonym Sarah, said a man who had harassed her in the lobby obtained a key after learning her room number. ITV also reported that Travelodge acknowledged its room-access policies at the time had not been followed correctly.
The incidents happened in different cities, at different times, and involved different circumstances. Together, they illustrate why knowing a guest’s details—or appearing familiar with them—should not by itself be enough to obtain room access.
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What Travelodge says it has changed
In company updates, Travelodge says additional or replacement room keys now require explicit permission from the person or people staying in the room. It says the rule was rolled out across its hotels and customer-facing staff received training. Its September 2026 update also listed other measures:
- A full audit of deadbolts in UK rooms, and secondary deadbolts on doors operated by keycard.
- Reception staffed 24 hours a day and regular security walks overnight.
- Room numbers written or shown to guests rather than spoken aloud.
- Room-allocation practices for women travelling alone, where possible.
- Ongoing audits and mystery-shopping activity.
These are measures Travelodge says it has introduced; they are not, by themselves, independent confirmation that every measure is consistently in place or effective at every property. The company also said it had published an independent review led by Paul Greaney KC, set up a board committee to oversee implementation, and committed to independent progress assessments after six and twelve months. As of 3 October 2026, those assessments were future commitments, not completed findings.
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What the independent review found—and what its figures mean
Paul Greaney KC’s review, dated 21 September 2026, made 38 recommendations. It concluded that Travelodge had made meaningful reforms but that material room-security weaknesses remained and procedures were not sufficiently embedded in day-to-day practice.
| Review finding | What it shows—and does not show |
|---|---|
| In stress tests at five hotels, the review team obtained room access through housekeeping at all five without being redirected to reception or asked to prove entitlement. | This describes a limited red-team exercise at five properties. It is not an estimate of how often the same weakness occurs across the whole chain. |
| In the small number of replacement-key cases tested, the correct procedure was not followed in 50% of cases. | Greaney cautioned that the sample was small. The figure should not be treated as a representative failure rate for all replacement-key requests. |
| During the four weeks before 6 August 2026, 91% of Travelodge hotels had no customer-reported room intrusion; reports nevertheless covered nearly one in ten hotels. | This concerns customer reports in a specific period, not every actual incident or the general likelihood of an intrusion during a hotel stay. |
The review’s recommendations address both policy and execution. They include a comprehensive violence-against-women-and-girls policy and training; clearer key-security procedures; rules for housekeeping access; better protection of guest details, including at breakfast; broader mystery shopping; technology and access-control changes; and independent reviews after six and twelve months. It also calls for a risk-benefit assessment of secondary door locks rather than treating one type of lock as suitable for every property.
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Greaney’s wider assessment was that room-intrusion risk is not unique to Travelodge and deserves attention across the accommodation sector. That is a call for sector-wide attention, not a quantified estimate of how often intrusions happen at hotels generally.
What good hotel room-access practice looks like
UKHospitality’s Guest Security: Hospitality Industry Principles and Good Practice, published on 27 August 2026, is voluntary sector guidance, not legislation or a binding universal standard. It says operators should adapt their approach to their setting through risk assessment, staff training, and operational planning; it does not prescribe one solution for every kind of accommodation. Its principles put guest security first, treat privacy as part of security, call for proportionate but effective verification, emphasize trained staff, and recommend continual improvement.
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Verify requests for keys or room access
A replacement key or digital credential is a fresh access request, not a routine handover. The guidance recommends effective, proportionate verification. It describes photo ID as the most secure form of verification, while noting there is no legal requirement for a guest to show photo ID and that a guest may not have it available. If a requester is not named on the booking, staff should not rely only on appearance, familiarity, or knowledge of booking details. They should seek appropriate verification and confirmation from the named guest before granting access.
Keep guest presence and room information private
As a general rule, staff should not confirm whether a named person is staying at the property, and they should avoid unnecessarily disclosing room numbers. These precautions reduce the chance that information shared casually can be used to seek access.
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Make procedures consistent across teams
Reception, housekeeping, and other staff need clear, consistent rules for room access. They should know when to stop and escalate an unusual request, and managers should support them in doing so. A policy is not a reliable safeguard if it is familiar only to one team or is difficult to follow during a busy shift.
Review incidents and adapt safeguards
UKHospitality advises operators to learn from incidents, near misses, guest feedback, and reviews of their procedures. Controls should fit the property’s risk assessment and operating context. For physical measures such as secondary locks, the independent review specifically calls for assessing benefits and risks rather than assuming a single device is appropriate everywhere.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What guests can reasonably expect
Guests can ask a hotel to explain how it verifies someone requesting a replacement key or access to a room, and how it protects room-number and guest information. A guest may also choose to use an additional door lock if one is available and suitable, but a personal device cannot replace the hotel’s responsibility to control who receives keys and credentials. The independent review states that no law mandates one particular method for hotels to achieve room safety; it also notes that general criminal, civil, and employment law still applies.
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