How To Check Your Hotel Room For Bed Bugs

It’s a tough cookie to swallow; you’re on vacation and there to relax. Bed bugs are the last thing you want on your mind or body.

Consider that no one wants to bring home the vacation if it involved bed bugs.

Taking the time to scope out your hotel room is a key step in bed bug prevention that I espouse here at Debedbug.

There’s an exhaustive post on all you can do on that page; let’s take a moment to concentrate on hotels, motels, and holiday inns.

It is widely understood that travel – cheap travel specifically – has been a boon to the resurgence of bed bugs today.

Places of public lodging are one of the most productive vectors around, possibly second to none.

The Hotel Room Bed Bug Checklist

Here are a few easy steps you can take to drastically reduce your chances of bringing hitchhiking bed bugs home with you.

1. Seal luggage inside plastic. Even a trash bag will do.
2. Separate clothing and keep it sealed off from the rest of your suitcase’s contents. Consider a dirty and clean bag.
3. Inspect the room first, then unpack.
   • Look for black stains, blood spots, moltings, eggs and other signs, see: How do you know if you have bed bugs.
   • Check behind headboards, along the seams of mattresses, beneath nightstands, along zippers, seams, and joints of couches, love seats, and chairs.
   • Bed bugs aren’t picky about wood or upholstery as long as it’s dark. Also check closet space, around skirting boards, and along the seals of any furniture.
4. Store luggage and clothing away from the bed and off the floor. Use provided luggage stands, closets with hangers, or the bathtub to keep your stuff safe.
   • Bed bugs can’t climb smooth-sided bathtubs and have trouble with metal hangers.
5. Plan and do treat your luggage once you get home. A personal bed bug heater is an invaluable investment if you travel frequently.
   • One could save you thousands in professional treatment costs to your home and in lost clothing. Better safe than very sorry!
6. Be especially aware when staying in ultra-budget housing or hostels, always check ratings for mentions of bed bugs. They may be cheap for a good reason.

Wonder what a bed bug looks like or want pictures of all the mentioned bed bug signs above? Browse the image gallery here.

Hotel Room Bed Bug Checklist Graphic

Below is the Debedbug Hotel checklist that is included in the Guide to Beating Bed Bugs Ebook.

It’s one of 5 checklists in the guide and helps take the memory game out of the equation. Save it as a picture or bring a printout to save battery – I hope you find it useful!

Thanks for Reading!

Here’s to happy travels and a continuing lack of bed bugs in your life!

There’s a resource for any bed bug related question that might spring to your mind on this site.

If you come up with something I haven’t addressed, feel free to email me or leave a comment. I’ll get to it as soon as possible.

Thank you for taking the time to educate yourself. Together, we can push page the resurgence of bed bugs in this world. We all already have enough to worry about, after all.

Consider sharing these resources with those you care about – we can beat bed bugs if everyone’s on board.

Finally, congratulations on investing in your own health through knowledge; as always, best of luck in your fight to get or stay Debedbugged!

References

https://debedbug.com/references/