Harmony Hachey, 23, from Edinburgh, was having a shower when she noticed a small electronic device in the shower vent

A young woman went for a shower in her Travelodge hotel room... and found a hidden camera beside the unit.

Harmony Hachey, 23, spotted a small electronic device concealed in a ventilator pointing directly at her.

‘I was absolutely disgusted,’ she said. ‘I got a fork and stuck it in the vent. You could see so clearly it was a camera. I broke down at one point. I just felt so violated.’

After seeing the camera lens glinting, the business development executive informed staff at the Oxford Wheatley Travelodge of her disturbing discovery.

Bizarrely, it appeared that at one point the hotel’s management claimed the camera had been put there for maintenance purposes.

The webcam was attached to a USB cable which was found to be dangling inside what police described as ‘a maintenance unit’ behind the shower. This cupboard also contained pipes and other electrical wires.

Thames Valley Police dismissed reports that the cable was linked to a caretaker’s room and said it was simply dangling inside the maintenance unit.

The device has been recovered for examination by police. No one has been arrested or interviewed.

Ms Hachey, a food festival business development executive, had travelled to Oxford with colleagues last Friday as she was working at an event in the area over the bank holiday weekend.

She explained: 'It was on the first of my three nights. We had had a long day at work and went back to the hotel to have a shower.

'I put all my luggage down, checked into the room, got myself ready for a shower and as I got ready for the shower I noticed a vent next to the shower head.

'It looked a little suspicious to me, like a camera, but I tried to convince myself that I was crazy and that it wasn't the case so I continued to have a shower and got it over as quickly as possible because I wanted to investigate what was in the vent.

'When I got out of the shower I poked around in the vent a little bit and the camera was being held up by white tape and it looked like it was trying to be hidden.

'I pulled the tape away and it was blatantly obvious it was a camera pointing at me while I was showering.'

Trying not to panic, she went to alert hotel staff and asked for a second opinion from her colleagues, who were also staying in the hotel.

She prodded a fork into the vent and realised it was a hidden camera at the Oxford Wheatley Travelodge

The camera was pointing directly at where she had been standing naked in the shower cubicle (left) and she immediately informed staff

She continued: 'The manager came down to the hotel and inspected the camera and looked in the janitor's closet behind where the camera had been installed.

'He immediately took it out using a plastic bag and luckily it wasn't attached to anything at the time so hopefully it wasn't live streaming.

'I don't know how long it had been in there, I don't know how many people it had filmed before me. I just fell completely shocked and violated and it was disgusting.'

A receptionist went to investigate and found the camera linked up to a cupboard next door (left)

The camera, which was attached to a USB cable but had not been switched on, was discovered in a cupboard located in the main hallway at the back of the shower.

Ms Hachey, who had taken photographs of her discovery, said: 'After that the police came, they had a look at my pictures and looked at the camera itself and the vent.'

She then received a call from upper management, who told her it was there for maintenance.

'She told me to calm down and there was no footage on there. But no one had looked,' she said.

After giving a statement to Thames Valley Police, Ms Hachey tried to find another place to stay for the weekend, but ended up having to switch rooms.

She said: 'I didn't want to stay in that room. They moved the bed into another room. Later I got a call from customer services saying I was going to get a full refund and that was it.'

After the incident, Miss Hachey went on TripAdvisor to warn other potential guests. She wrote: ‘Who was in that shower before me? Families? Children? What would have happened if I didn’t find it!? ‘It’s obvious that the camera was put there for one reason and one reason only… Nobody knows what sick people are out there and even when you’re in a total moment of privacy you could be being violated.

‘Travelodge are supposed to provide a safe and secure environment which they evidently don’t!!! They can’t get away with this, please share and be careful!!!’ Miss Hachey said that after the incident she rang her mother. ‘She was furious that they had removed the camera because it was about to become a crime scene,’ she added.

A spokeswoman for Travelodge confirmed a device had been found in the room and apologised to Ms Hachey.

She added: 'We can confirm that on Friday 28th August 2015 a customer at our Oxford Wheatley hotel made us aware of the presence of what appeared to be a camera in their room.

'The privacy of our customers is a matter of the highest importance to us and the hotel team investigated immediately.

'While the camera appeared to be inoperative, we have reported this matter to the police and we are now supporting them fully with their ongoing investigations.

Travelodge has confirmed it was made aware of a device but that it 'appeared to be inoperative' and had reported the matter to police

'We would like to offer our sincere apologies to the customer affected and will remain in contact with them to ensure the matter is resolved.'

A spokesman for Thames Valley Police said: 'We can confirm that we did receive a report of a webcam being found in a hotel room at Travelodge, Wheatley on Friday night.

'A camera has been recovered for examination.

'Reports of this nature are very rare, but we always treat them very seriously.