- Published
A couple woke to find a shirtless man in their hotel bedroom after he was mistakenly given a key card to their door, BBC Scotland News has learned.
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News → publish → door
Kim Hutchison, 60, and Harry Grieve, 57, from Buckie, Moray, were staying in a Travelodge in Dundee when the early morning incident happened last month.
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incident → stay → Dundee
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.
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who → say → room
Travelodge apologised to the couple and said room access security policies were not correctly followed.
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policies → apologise → couple
It is the latest in a series of similar incidents at Travelodge hotels reported to the BBC.
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It → report → BBC
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.
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staff → jail → card
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.
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he → go → December
Travelodge later said it was investigating more reports of strangers accessing rooms - after two women told the BBC that people they did not know came into their rooms while they were alone.
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they → say → rooms
Hutchison and Grieve contacted BBC Your Voice to share their story.
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Hutchison → contact → story
The couple had been visiting relatives in Dundee and had gone to bed at the Strathmore Avenue branch of Travelodge.
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couple → visit → Travelodge
The incident happened after 02:00 on Saturday 11 July.
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incident → happen → Saturday
"I just woke up, I had heard the door click, and sat up in bed," Hutchison said.
"Here was a guy at the bottom of the bed, just standing with shorts on.
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shorts → wake → bed
He had something in his hand which I took to be the key card for the room."
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I → have → room
The florist said she tried to appear calm but was "absolutely petrified" at the situation.
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she → say → situation
"I asked why he was in this room and he said 'this is my room' and I said 'this is ours'," she said.
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she → ask → room
"He kept saying '316' and I said 'no this is 313'.
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this → keep → 316
After a few polite words - I think I swore actually - he eventually went.
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he → think → words
The couple thought the man was in his mid-20s.
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man → think → mid-20s
Grieve said he 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.
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stranger → say → room
He said he did not find anyone at the reception desk.
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he → say → desk
Police later arrived due to a call about another disturbance at the hotel around the same time.
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Police → arrive → time
It is understood no arrests were made.
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arrests → understand → ?
The couple tried to get some sleep, with a chair against the room door, before getting up in the morning.
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couple → try → morning
"We cut our weekend short and headed back to Buckie," said Grieve, who works at the St Fergus gas plant, near Peterhead in Aberdeenshire.
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who → cut → Aberdeenshire
"It was a good two weeks before they got back to us, after various emails and attempted telephone calls.
"
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they → get → emails
The couple were given a room refund, as well as a £100 Travelodge voucher - which Grieve said he doubted they would use.
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they → give → refund
They decided to tell their story after reading of the previous sexual assault incident in the Maidenhead Travelodge on the BBC News website.
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They → decide → website
"It's quite concerning," Grieve said.
"
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Grieve → say → ?
It could have been so much worse, the potential for what could have happened is huge.
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what → happen → ?
It could have been anybody accessing the room, it could have been a female in the room on her own."
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it → access → own
He added: "We just thought it was right to speak out, hopefully the powers-that-be at Travelodge will get this sorted, and save something bad happening in the future."
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something → add → future
Travelodge said it was "very sorry" for what had happened, and that customer safety and security was a priority.
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safety → say → ?
"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.
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statement → enter → concern
"Our updated room access security policies were not correctly followed in this instance, which is not acceptable.
"
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which → update → instance
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."
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We → retrain → us
The previously-announced Travelodge safety review remains ongoing.
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review → announce → ?
The Aporia
