Bed Bugs in Hotels

Bed bugs are prevalent in hotels. They travel just like us, in fact, they travel with us. So what's an unsuspecting vacationer or business travel person to do when checking into their home away from home? First thing is first. Put your bags right into the bathtub, and if you are able to live out of your suit cases for the trip I would recommend just leaving your suit cases in the bathroom. Keep as much as you can in there. What is the reasoning behind this? Bed bugs are opportunistic. They usually hang out on the mattress, or on the foot and head boards in the hotel room . This is the area you want to inspect upon check in before you do anything. Pull the headboard carefully off the wall and look behind it. Any bugs? Pull the covers off and the sheets down to the bare mattress, look for bugs. If nothing is found, you are most likely safe. Now at bedtime, check your body to make sure you have no bite marks, do the same when you wake up. If there is anything new on your body then it is possible that you were bitten by bed bugs. Usually the bites will leave blood marks on your sheets. If you find this you should let the hotel know and get another room. Part two of this series will deal with packing up and going home without taking these creepy crawlers with you.