A woman who delivers speeches on equality and inclusion says she was kicked out of a Hilton Hotel onto the streets of London in the early hours of the morning.
Helen May tried to book herself a £350 a night room at the Metropole branch at 1am on Wednesday morning after she missed her last train home to Oxford.
The 49-year-old realised she didn't have her laptop bag with her so she rushed back to the venue where she had been speaking but it was shut. To make matters worse, when she returned to Paddington Station her train had gone.
Seeking refuge at the Hilton, the Oxford woman was instead turned away by staff who insisted she needed the ID she believed had been stolen along with the laptop in order to book a room.
Helen was thrown out of the hotel after trying to reserve a room elsewhere while sat in the lobby, leaving her alone with nowhere to go at 1am.
Helen, who founded Belonging@Work, claims that staff asked where she'd been and if she had been drinking.
While Hilton's website does state that all guests require ID when checking in, Helen has argued this rule should be waived in circumstances such as hers.
"The whole thing was extraordinary, they crowded around me and one of the guys was smirking," Helen told the Mirror of the encounter.
"Anything could have happened to me. It was 1am. I'd like to know what their protection policy for women is, if they have safeguarding policies. I'd like to know what they're going to do about the manager, why they think it's okay for them to ask where I've been.
"It's like the 1950s. I wasn't dressed for a night club or anything."
She later added that she thought heading to a hotel was the "sensible" move as "it would be safe and I'd be able to get in".
When the manager asked her for ID she says she told them, "I don't understand, I'm just going to pay for the room".
When they refused Helen sat on the sofa in the lobby to search for nearby hotel rooms, only for several members of staff to ask her to leave.
"They said I need to leave now, but I didn't want to wander around. I was quite upset by this point," she claimed.
She alleges that they then threatened to call the police, and that she felt "absolutely terrified".
Helen videoed the encounter, which shows a man in a suit asking where she had been and why she arrived at 1am, before saying the hotel is fully booked and then suggesting Helen goes to another hotel.
The writer insists the hotel was not full and that she had been offered a room before she was unable to find her ID.
"It was humiliating and scary. I was in disbelief at first. I was very aware there were these three big men around me," Helen said. "I'm 49, clearly not a threat to anybody. They were threatening me with the police as well. The whole thing was extraordinary."
Luckily for Helen a kind black cab driver picked her up and drove her back to Oxford, a trip which cost £200. She managed to track down her belongings on Wednesday morning, discovering that the laptop bag had fallen out of a bigger bag at the club.
A spokesperson for Hilton Hotels said: “We pride ourselves on providing a hospitable and welcoming environment for all who enter our hotel and are sorry that we were unable to offer her a room without any ID or payment.
“When she arrived, we offered to help by calling the police so that she could report the robbery, and invited her to take a seat whilst offering her a glass of water. We are now in contact with her to discuss what happened.”
Helen has said she did have a means of paying which should have been clear to staff members, and that she does not believe the suggestion the police could be called was to help her.
