Skip to the story
All StoriesPoliticsConflict & SecurityBusiness & EconomyScience & TechHealthClimateMedia
All stories
Business & Economy18 outlets ran this4 min read

Travelodge staff gave abuser key to woman's room after similar 2022 attack

Reception handed over a key after the man provided the guest’s full name and room number, the chain said.

AI-assisted coverage comparison, editor-supervised · How this was made

Published Updated
Travelodge. <i>(Image: PA)</i>

What this story says

  • A woman was attacked in her Travelodge hotel room in London in October 2023 after reception staff gave her abuser a key.
  • The attacker had previously been jailed for seven and a half years for a similar attack at a Travelodge in Maidenhead in December 2022.
  • Travelodge apologised, acknowledged its room-access policy was not followed, and said it had since changed its security procedures.
  • No right-rated outlet reported the incident.

Who covered it

Left 46%(6)Centre 39%(5)Right 15%(2)

Percentages are shares of the 13 outlets carrying a published leaning rating. 5 of the 18 outlets we know ran this story carry no rating and are not counted in them. Coverage measured .

Trust

33/100

Craft

85/100

Hype

30/100

18 sources · methodology

Missing from the right

Only 2 of the 13 outlets with a published leaning rating that ran this story are rated right.

A reader who follows the right would not have seen this. We report the absence rather than explain it: outlets choose what to cover for many reasons, and we have no evidence about which one applies here.

A woman was attacked in her Travelodge hotel room in London after reception staff gave her abuser a key. The incident took place in October 2023. The woman told the BBC the attacker kicked the hotel room door off its hinges. Travelodge issued a statement apologising and said its room-access policies were not correctly followed at the time.

The attacker had previously been sentenced for a similar attack at a Travelodge in Maidenhead, Berkshire, in December 2022. Kyran Smith received a seven-and-a-half-year jail term in February 2024 for that incident. The Press Association reported that in both cases, the individual provided the guest’s full name and room number at reception.

Travelodge said it had made changes to its security policy after Smith’s sentencing. The chain now requires explicit permission from guests before issuing additional or replacement keys. Freddie van Mierlo, the MP for Thame, Oxfordshire, where Travelodge’s head office is based, called for the chief executive to step down, saying the changes had not gone far enough.

What the coverage left out

No right-rated outlet ran the story. None of the digests mentioned the cost of the security changes or whether Travelodge faced any regulatory action or fines over the incidents. The woman’s name was not published in any of the reports.

Tags:#DomesticViolence#HotelSecurity#CorporateAccountability#Travelodge#UKCrime

Coverage settled. We checked this 11 times and stopped on 15 Aug 2026, 20:00. The figures above are what it finished at.

How other outlets pictured it

Which photograph to run is each newsroom’s own choice. The leaning beside a name is that outlet’s published rating, not a claim that the pictures divide along it. Every picture is shown from the outlet’s own server and links to the article it ran in.

Travelodge said it was 'deeply sorry' [file photo]
Daily RecordLeft

How each side covered it

Our own reading of the reporting listed below, written from the outlets’ articles rather than quoted from them. The reasoning is set out on our methodology page.

Left

6 rated outlets

  • All six left-rated outlets reported that a woman was attacked in her Travelodge room after staff gave her abuser a key. The Daily Record, Irish Mirror, The Independent, Metro News, IBTimes UK and The Daily Boulder led on the breach of security policy by hotel staff. The accounts agree the incident occurred in London in October 2025, following a separate 2022 attack at a Maidenhead Travelodge where a man was jailed for a similar offence.
  • The Daily Record’s full report carried the woman’s account of how her abuser gained access: he told reception she was having a seizure and provided her full name and room number. She described staff handing him the key without verifying his identity or calling police. The outlet quoted her words for the attack: “He kicked the hotel room door completely off the hinges” and “I was begging for help.”
  • Five digests and the Daily Record included Travelodge’s apology and statement that room access policies were not followed. The Independent’s digest noted the company had made immediate changes to its security policy after the 2022 attack. The Daily Record quoted Freddie van Mierlo MP calling for the chief executive to step down, saying the changes had not gone far enough.

Centre

5 rated outlets

  • The centre-rated reports focused on the chain’s response and the broader security failures. The BBC’s digest led with the woman’s statement that her attacker kicked the hotel room door "off its hinges" after being given the key. The Oxford Mail, which also carries a centre rating, included Travelodge’s apology and its admission that room-access policies were not followed.
  • Both centre-rated reports quoted Freddie van Mierlo’s call for the chief executive to step down. The Oxford Mail included his statement that Travelodge had failed in its "most basic duty to look after the safety of its guests" and that the changes made were insufficient. The BBC’s digest did not mention the woman’s background or the receptionist’s response.

Right

2 rated outlets

  • The two right-rated outlets that ran the story led on the assault and the hotel staff’s decision to hand over a room key. Both accounts state that the attacker gained access by claiming the woman was having a seizure. Neither digest mentions the 2022 incident at the same hotel chain.
  • Globo’s digest specifies the attack occurred in London last October and that the victim had previously experienced domestic violence. GB News’s digest does not include these details. Neither digest names the victim or the exact hotel location, nor do they quote any sources directly.

Questions about this coverage

How did the left and right cover Travelodge staff gave abuser key to woman's room after similar 2022…?
Of the 13 outlets on this story carrying a published leaning rating, 46% are rated left, 39% are rated centre, 15% are rated right. Those percentages are shares of the rated outlets, not of every outlet that ran it, which was 18. The sections above set out what each side emphasised, in its own terms.
Is Travelodge staff gave abuser key to woman's room after similar 2022… left or right?
Neither side dominates it. Of the 13 rated outlets on this story, 46% are rated left, 39% are rated centre, 15% are rated right, and no side holds the 70% this site would want before calling a field one-sided. A story is not left or right in any case; the outlets that carried it are what carry ratings.
Is the coverage of Travelodge staff gave abuser key to woman's room after similar 2022… biased?
Travelodge staff gave abuser key to woman's room after similar 2022 attack is one event reported by 18 outlets, and this page does not rate the story as biased or unbiased. What it publishes is the spread: which outlets ran it, where named rating organisations place each of them on the spectrum, and what each side chose to lead with. A leaning rating describes an outlet's record over time, not this article, and the two should not be run together.
Which side is not reporting Travelodge staff gave abuser key to woman's room after similar 2022…?
When we first saw this story, outlets rated right had barely covered it. Coverage accretes for hours after an event, so that is where to look rather than a verdict — the split above is the current count, and it is the one to read.
Which outlets covered Travelodge staff gave abuser key to woman's room after similar 2022…?
18 that we know of, every one of them listed further up this page with a link to its own report and to what we hold on the publisher. Nothing here is a summary of somebody else's summary: the outlets are named so the original reporting can be read.
What happened in the London Travelodge attack?
A woman was attacked in her Travelodge hotel room in London in October 2023 after reception staff gave her abuser a key. The woman told the BBC the attacker kicked the door off its hinges. Travelodge apologised and said its room-access policy was not followed at the time.
Who was Kyran Smith and what was he jailed for?
Kyran Smith was jailed for seven and a half years in February 2024 for attacking a woman in a Travelodge in Maidenhead in December 2022. He had also been given a key to her room by reception staff. The Press Association reported he provided the guest’s full name and room number in both cases.
What changes did Travelodge make after the incidents?
Travelodge said it had changed its security policy to require explicit permission from guests before issuing additional or replacement keys. The chain also said it had strengthened its incident escalation procedures and provided training for customer-facing staff.
Which outlets reported the story and which did not?
The story was reported by left-rated outlets (Daily Record, Irish Mirror, The Independent) and centre-rated outlets (BBC News, Oxford Mail). No right-rated outlet carried the story.

Read it at the source

18 outlets, grouped by the leaning a published rating gives them. Every headline links to the original; an underlined outlet name opens our profile of that publisher.

Left

6

Centre

5

Right

2

Not rated

5

How did this read?

About the coverage, not about the story. We do not ask whether you agree with what happened — we have no honest use for that answer.

More in Business & Economy

All Business & Economy →
Indian stocks suffer worst day in 10 weeks amid global turmoil4 min readIndian stocks suffer worst day in 10 weeks amid global turmoilRead storySensex down 600 points as Brent hits $102.5; Pezeshkian remarks cited2 min readSensex down 600 points as Brent hits $102.5; Pezeshkian remarks citedRead storyWall Street Ends Lower as Oil Prices and Treasury Yields Climb4 min readWall Street Ends Lower as Oil Prices and Treasury Yields ClimbRead story

Elsewhere on the site

Far-right activist Danny Tommo arrested over Channel boat damagePolitics•3 min readFar-right activist Danny Tommo arrested over Channel boat damageKremlin criticises UK PM Burnham's UN speech on disinformationPolitics•3 min readKremlin criticises UK PM Burnham's UN speech on disinformationFar-right activist Tommy Robinson claims he was detained by Counter Terrorism Policing on Wednesday Wikimedia Commons/Anything Goes With James English/CC BY 4.0Politics•3 min readTommy Robinson claims detention by counter-terrorism policeJamaica's slavery reparations case referred to UK's highest courtPolitics•1 min readJamaica's slavery reparations case referred to UK's highest court
Travelodge staff gave abuser key to woman's room | MediaBias News