“I was in tears, shock and absolutely appalled this happened,” she wrote in the email, marked “serious complaint” and which Travelodge does not deny it received.
During Sunday’s interview, Boydell told the BBC: “The first time I became aware of this was after the court reported the incident, which is completely unacceptable and also shows there are issues with the way we handled the case.”
She also apologised, as she has done in previous statements, to the victim, both for the incident and how it was handled.
In the weeks following the attack, staff from the chief executive’s office offered the victim a £30 refund, an offer that the victim said was “insulting”.
Following the victim speaking with the BBC, Travelodge has committed to an independent review of their room security policies and has also made immediate changes to their door key policies, so that now the company will check with someone in the room before a new keycard is issued.
The firm has said it is also investigating more reports of strangers accessing rooms.