They're too small to notice, multiply rapidly in warm environments, can survive for up to a year with no food and are every hoteli...
Case Studies
They might have farcical Fawlty Towers associations, but bedbugs are no laughing matter. The wingless, six-legged pests thrive in places of high occupancy, making hotels ideal breeding grounds for the bugs, which are, unsurprisingly – given the itchy bites they leave after feasting on your blood – one of the biggest turn-offs for guests.
You only have to log on to any hotel review website to see the many bedbug-related comments decrying the reputations of infested hotels.
One reads: "In the evening, I started feeling feverish and very, very itchy with bumps forming on my arms and face. When I returned to the hotel I decided to take a closer look at my bedding, pulled back the sheets and discovered several dead and live bed bugs, along with small, brown and red spots on the sheets and pillowcase. When I approached the front desk they informed me that they do, in fact, have problems with bed bugs. I immediately informed them that I would be checking out."
Thanks to the power of the internet, it is no longer just guests' social circles who hear about such incidents, but anyone with access to the web. Internet review sites offer customers the perfect portal to warn thousands of fellow travellers against staying in a particular hotel, leading to loss of business and damage to reputation.
In some cases, hotel infestations can even lead to litigation – as the Mandarin Oriental in Hyde Park, London, found out in 2007 when it was taken to court by an American couple seeking millions of pounds in compensation for bedbug bites.
There are several possible reasons behind the increasing appearance of bedbugs. First, many chemicals are being withdrawn as the costs of keeping them registered continue to rise, leaving a smaller number of very similar insecticides. Second, there are now signs that bedbugs are becoming resistant to these remaining preparations, and there is little sign of any more effective replacements.
An increase in international travel has also affected the number of infestations occurring, with guests importing the small bugs on their clothes and in their luggage – unlike other pest issues, the appearance of bedbugs is not linked to poor hygiene standards.
Unfortunately, there's no way of stopping these creatures coming into your hotel – just because of the nature of the business you've got people coming into your hotel from all over the world, and all different walks of life, and that's how bedbugs are getting around – so to stop them coming in is pretty much impossible.
But there's certainly things that a hotel can do to limit the possibility of getting a deep-seated infestation, and there are things you can do to make an early detection. If you get it early on, it has much less of an impact on your business.
Because of their small size, and the fact they hide away in crevices in mattresses, furniture and flooring, bedbugs can, to the untrained eye, be very difficult to identify – with hotel cleaning staff often mistaking the creatures for fluff or dirt.
The most obvious sign of an infestation is the bugs' excrement – the blood smears that they leave behind on bedclothes after feeding – and complaints from customers. But, these signs are only visible at around week 10 of the bedbug's life, when the infestation is already fairly advanced.
Every day we get called to properties that have let it spiral out of control – places that just go on as normal, or dismiss the first reports of bedbugs and leave it until people are getting 30, 40, 50 bites a night. When you're looking around at this stage you don't have to look hard, and you're looking at shutting down maybe half the hotel.
If you get it early, within the first couple of weeks, then it's only that room that's likely to be affected.
To catch a potential outbreak early, and avoid a situation which could end up having an impact on your business and reputation, SDA Pest Control advises hotels to carry out regular proactive inspections to search for any early-warning signals.
Training staff in the tell-tale signs and educating them about the pests is a good place to start, informing them of the importance of not mixing used bedding with new on the laundry cart; minimising the movement of furniture between rooms; and isolating any room the moment they suspect an infestation.
The signs will be wherever the bedbugs are living, which is most likely to be within a three-metre radius of the bed.
Some hotel rooms are quite small – so they could be anywhere in that room. They could be behind wallpaper, in plug sockets, behind the heads of the bed – they'll live in there and come out for their feeds. If you're a trained pest control professional, then you'll be able to detect an infestation within two weeks; if you're a trained person – non professional – then you can spot the signs around week seven.
But if you're not trained, you won't spot any signs of infestation for about 10 weeks, by which time they'll have a really good hold on your building.
Article provided by Dynamic Pest Control