Travelodge boss steps down amid fallout from sexual assault in hotel room

Travelodge’s chief executive Jo Boydell has stepped down, the hotel chain has announced.

It comes amid the fallout of a 2022 sexual assault at a Maidenhead Travelodge hotel, where staff mistakenly issued a key card to a woman’s attacker.

Travelodge said it is continuing to “overhaul its safety procedures” after the assault.

In February, Kyran Smith was given a seven-and-a-half year prison sentence for the attack.

In March, Ms Boydell apologised to the victim, who cannot be named, in a statement.

She added that the company had made “immediate changes” to its door key policy.

Ms Boydell was meant to meet with MPs that month about safety issues at the hotel chain, but that was cancelled – a decision that the victim said she was “shocked” by.

She told Good Morning Britain: “I think if you are the CEO of a company, then you have a responsibility to answer these questions and engage in that situation, and say how you’re going to now improve.

“You’re not protecting people and I mean, I personally find it quite shocking.”

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