Shirtless intruder wakes couple in Travelodge hotel room

Kim Hutchison, 60, and Harry Grieve, 57, were staying in a Travelodge in Dundee when the early morning incident happened last month.

Ms Hutchison said she was “petrified” before the man – wearing just shorts – left after about a minute of arguing over who was actually in the wrong room.

READ MORE: MP meets Travelodge bosses following room key assault case

Travelodge, which has headquarters in Thame, apologised to the couple and said room access security policies were not correctly followed.

Earlier this year, a man was jailed for sexually assaulting a woman in her hotel bed after Travelodge staff gave him a key card and her room number.

Kyran Smith had gone to the reception of the Maidenhead branch of the hotel chain in the early hours in December 2022 and said he was the woman’s boyfriend.

He was jailed for seven-and-a-half years following the assault.

The chain’s chief executive Jo Boydell apologised to the victim and said changes would ensure additional or replacement keys were only issued with permission from the person staying in the room.

In the latest incident, Ms Hutchison and Mr Grieve had been visiting relatives in Dundee and had gone to bed at the Strathmore Avenue branch of Travelodge, before they were disturbed at 2am on July 11.

“I just woke up, I had heard the door click, and sat up in bed,” Hutchison told the BBC.

“Here was a guy at the bottom of the bed, just standing with shorts on. He had something in his hand which I took to be the key card for the room.”

It is understood that the man had made a mistake regarding the room number, believing he was in room 316 not 313.

Mr Grieve, who works in Aberdeenshire, got dressed and went down to reception to try to find out what had happened and “get some answers” about why a stranger had been able to get into their room.

Following their complaint, the couple were given a room refund, as well as a £100 Travelodge voucher – which Mr Grieve said he doubted they would use.

The couple decided to publicise their case after becoming aware of the Maidenhead assault.

In April, Freddie van Mierlo, Liberal Democrat MP for Henley and Thame, met the senior leadership team at Travelodge’s headquarters in Thame to discuss guest and employee safety following serious concerns about hotel room security.

Henley and Thame MP Frieddie van Mierlo (Image: Contributed)

Travelodge said it was “very sorry” for what had happened, and that customer safety and security was a priority.

“Any case of an unauthorised person entering a guest’s room is a significant cause for concern and we want to be clear that this should not have happened,” a statement said.

“Our updated room access security policies were not correctly followed in this instance, which is not acceptable.

“We have retrained the team at our Dundee Strathmore Avenue hotel on our updated room security and check-in procedures, and would like to apologise again to Mr Grieve and Ms Hutchison for their experience with us.”

The previously-announced Travelodge safety review remains ongoing.