How to Check a Hotel Room for Bed Bugs

Bed bugs spread fast and travel easily. A single hotel stay can introduce an infestation into your home that takes months and hundreds of dollars to eliminate. The best protection is prevention, and a quick inspection when you arrive takes less than five minutes. Here is exactly how to do it.

Step 1: Keep Your Belongings Off the Bed

The moment you enter the room, do not place your luggage or personal items on the bed. Set them in the bathroom or on the tile floor of the bathtub while you complete your inspection. Bed bugs cannot easily climb smooth surfaces, which makes the bathtub the safest temporary spot for your belongings. This one habit eliminates the most common way travelers bring bed bugs home.

Step 2: Inspect the Mattress and Bedding

Pull back the top comforter and set it aside. Bed bugs are rarely found in comforters but do hide in the layers below. Pull back the sheets and inspect the mattress surface. Focus on the seams and corners — these are the most common harborage areas. Look for brown or reddish specks, which are fecal spots left by feeding bed bugs, and for small rust-colored stains on the fabric. Live bed bugs are small, flat, and apple-seed shaped. Eggs are tiny and white.

Lift the mattress and inspect the box spring underneath, particularly the stapled fabric on the underside. This is one of the most overlooked hiding spots during hotel inspections and one of the most common places bed bugs actually live.

Step 3: Check the Headboard and Furniture

Pull the headboard away from the wall if possible and inspect the back and edges. Bed bugs congregate in cracks, screw holes, and joints where headboards attach to frames. Check the nightstands as well — inspect any cracks, joints, and the insides of drawers. Upholstered furniture near the bed including chairs and couches should also be inspected along the seams and underneath cushions.

Step 4: Check Baseboards and Carpet Edges

Inspect the carpet edges and baseboards immediately surrounding the bed. Bed bugs travel from their harborage to the host at night and may be found along the routes they travel regularly. Dark specks along baseboards near the bed are a warning sign worth taking seriously.

What to Do if You Find Signs of Bed Bugs

If you find anything suspicious, contact hotel management immediately and request a room change. Do not accept a room directly next door, above, or below the affected room — bed bugs travel through walls along plumbing and electrical lines and adjacent rooms are frequently infested as well. Request a room in a different part of the building.

When you return home from any trip, inspect your luggage before bringing it inside. Wash all clothing immediately on high heat and dry on the highest setting for at least 30 minutes. Heat kills bed bugs at all life stages.

What to Do if You Brought Bed Bugs Home

Despite your best efforts, it sometimes happens. If you start noticing bites after a trip, find small brown specks on your sheets, or see live insects near your mattress seams, act fast. Bed bug infestations do not resolve on their own and they grow quickly. A small infestation treated early is far less disruptive and less expensive than one that has spread through multiple rooms.

Extermco provides professional bed bug treatment in Fort Smith and Northwest Arkansas. We offer free inspections and treat homes throughout Fort Smith, Fayetteville, Bentonville, Rogers, and all surrounding communities. Contact us today for a free inspection if you have any concerns after recent travel. Check our current deals page for money-saving offers on bed bug treatment.