Jun 3, 2026 · 14 min · 7 segments
What happened at Travelodge sent alarm bells ringing across the industry - how do we keep guests safe and provide clear protocols to all staff? Keystep Solutions' Andrew Evans kicks off a discussion…
Ryan HaynesHost
Andrew EvansGuestRoundtable HotelierGuestStuartGuestAnoushkaGuestJennyGuest
A very hot topic at the moment that started off with a recent Travelodge incident, raising big concern in our industry, particularly with the safety of our guests.
How can hotels ensure that their teams don't put their guests at risk? I mean, what did start off with what seemed to have been an issue for one particular brand, the Travelodge, has sent...
I don't know if you're part of the Best Western franchise or some of the other big franchises, there have been some documents come out from the brands saying, for God's sake, don't give the wrong key card out, basically, in short terms.
So basically, this incident goes back to 2022 and obviously no one's been able to talk about it because there's been... legal action.
So basically, this travel lodge had an incident in 2022 where a key card was given to a female guest's room and this person got access.
If you go into the detail, these people were known to each other, they were all at a party, they all came back to the hotel and There's two points I'd really like to make.
I can imagine a person on the front desk at reception by themselves in the middle of the night, overwhelmed.
I don't know how long the person worked there for, trying to do the right thing.
And also you've obviously got this terrible incident that shouldn't have happened.
You know, you've got to empower your staff, haven't you? So, you know, even though they might have followed the process or the computer said yes...
Possibly a bit of common sense would have been, hang on, this doesn't feel right.
On the other side, the reputational damage to Travelodge has just been horrendous because obviously all the journalists have just gone back through every slight incident and dragged it.
I mean, bear in mind, this incident goes back to 2022 and now it's all being dragged back up and they're being, you know, obviously, so everybody's coming out the woodwork now, say I checked into a Travelodge, I had a bad incident, someone got into my room.
And it just shows you how we've talked about the benefits of social media, how quickly, you know, you can, a firestorm of publicity that can overwhelm your business and travel lodge probably needs someone like you, Ryan, to give them some advice.
I mean, my, you know, my, when we make a mistake as an organization, the best thing to do is we made a mistake.
A very hot topic at the moment that started off with a recent Travelodge incident, raising big concern in our industry, particularly with the safety of our guests.
How can hotels ensure that their teams don't put their guests at risk? I mean, what did start off with what seemed to have been an issue for one particular brand, the Travelodge, has sent...
I don't know if you're part of the Best Western franchise or some of the other big franchises, there have been some documents come out from the brands saying, for God's sake, don't give the wrong key card out, basically, in short terms.
So basically, this incident goes back to 2022 and obviously no one's been able to talk about it because there's been... legal action.
So basically, this travel lodge had an incident in 2022 where a key card was given to a female guest's room and this person got access.
If you go into the detail, these people were known to each other, they were all at a party, they all came back to the hotel and There's two points I'd really like to make.
I can imagine a person on the front desk at reception by themselves in the middle of the night, overwhelmed.
I don't know how long the person worked there for, trying to do the right thing.
And also you've obviously got this terrible incident that shouldn't have happened.
You know, you've got to empower your staff, haven't you? So, you know, even though they might have followed the process or the computer said yes...
Possibly a bit of common sense would have been, hang on, this doesn't feel right.
On the other side, the reputational damage to Travelodge has just been horrendous because obviously all the journalists have just gone back through every slight incident and dragged it.
I mean, bear in mind, this incident goes back to 2022 and now it's all being dragged back up and they're being, you know, obviously, so everybody's coming out the woodwork now, say I checked into a Travelodge, I had a bad incident, someone got into my room.
And it just shows you how we've talked about the benefits of social media, how quickly, you know, you can, a firestorm of publicity that can overwhelm your business and travel lodge probably needs someone like you, Ryan, to give them some advice.
I mean, my, you know, my, when we make a mistake as an organization, the best thing to do is we made a mistake.
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