I’ve always wondered how is every hotel not infested with these. With so many people coming and going you would think the chances of them being spread would be so high.
Do hotels have processes or protective mattresses that stop bed bugs taking over?
Work at a hotel. We have them occasionally. When a room is found to have them the room is put off market for 24 hrs as are any adjacent rooms either beside or above/below. They’re chemically treated at the beginning of the 24 hrs. This includes destroying ALL linens and chemically treating any fabric surfaces as well. The rooms are “flipped” with every headboard and painting removed from the walls during treatment. The mattresses have bedbug prevention (bedbug covers) already on them but they’re inspected and replaced regularly. At 16 hours the rooms are checked and verified there are no active bedbugs. The rooms are then steam treated for good measure. At 22 hours they’re cleaned with special vacuums to prevent relocation.
If a guest is in the room when they are found then all of their clothing and laundry are heat treated and inspected.
This seems to be the industry standard for large corporate hotels. I work for one of the largest in the world. This is our SOP. It’s expensive but we don’t end up with infestations so it apparently works.
That’s some good (and reassuring) information! I would see why you need to be on top of it, it would destroy a brand if it became known as bedbug infested.
I work for Travel and Leisure technically but specifically the Wyndham Resorts would be the line of hotels I work in. Even when I worked for Starwood Luxury Brand hotels it was similar but rather than chemical treatment it was whole room heat treatment which required removing nearly everything from the rooms first.
You’d hope so! But of course I went searching and found only ominous articles telling me all the places I could potentially pick up bed bugs, and zero personal repellents.
I already hardly ever go out, this is definitely not helping 😂
I’ve always wondered how is every hotel not infested with these. With so many people coming and going you would think the chances of them being spread would be so high.
Do hotels have processes or protective mattresses that stop bed bugs taking over?
Work at a hotel. We have them occasionally. When a room is found to have them the room is put off market for 24 hrs as are any adjacent rooms either beside or above/below. They’re chemically treated at the beginning of the 24 hrs. This includes destroying ALL linens and chemically treating any fabric surfaces as well. The rooms are “flipped” with every headboard and painting removed from the walls during treatment. The mattresses have bedbug prevention (bedbug covers) already on them but they’re inspected and replaced regularly. At 16 hours the rooms are checked and verified there are no active bedbugs. The rooms are then steam treated for good measure. At 22 hours they’re cleaned with special vacuums to prevent relocation.
If a guest is in the room when they are found then all of their clothing and laundry are heat treated and inspected.
This seems to be the industry standard for large corporate hotels. I work for one of the largest in the world. This is our SOP. It’s expensive but we don’t end up with infestations so it apparently works.
That’s some good (and reassuring) information! I would see why you need to be on top of it, it would destroy a brand if it became known as bedbug infested.
Also a good reason to avoid AirBNBs
How are not all AirBNBd infested? is almost a more interesting question.
They are infested, but with stupid people instead.
That’s way more thorough than I would have expected!
I’m guessing it depends on the hotel management.
This is why we avoid Airbnb’s now plus the price is pretty much the same. Much better peace of mind.
Can you say what hotel.group this is? I want to go there.
I work for Travel and Leisure technically but specifically the Wyndham Resorts would be the line of hotels I work in. Even when I worked for Starwood Luxury Brand hotels it was similar but rather than chemical treatment it was whole room heat treatment which required removing nearly everything from the rooms first.
Thank you for your reply!
After this my main worry is public transport, which has many more people using it every day, and has so many surfaces for them to take over.
I’m itchy just thinking about it…
*starts looking up bedbug repellent
Possibly trains, buses also get treatment on a schedule 🤷♀️
You’d hope so! But of course I went searching and found only ominous articles telling me all the places I could potentially pick up bed bugs, and zero personal repellents.
I already hardly ever go out, this is definitely not helping 😂
Look into movie theatres. That’s a big culprit as well.