Bed Bug Protocol for Central Ohio Hotels

What should housekeeping watch for?

Housekeepers see more beds in a week than most inspectors see in a year, so training them is the cheapest early warning you have. Teach them to look at the seams, not just the sheets.

• Small dark spots on the mattress seams, piping and tags, which are bed bug droppings.
• Tiny rusty or red stains on sheets, which can be crushed bugs or blood.
• Pale shed skins and whitish eggs in seams and under the headboard.
• Live bugs, flat and reddish brown, around the headboard, nightstand and bed frame joints.
• A guest report of bites. Treat it as a lead and check the room, even if the bites could be from something else.

What happens when a complaint comes in?

Speed and consistency matter more than perfection. Put the steps on a card and make every shift manager know them.

1. Take the room out of service at once and keep housekeeping out of it.
2. Move the guest to a room that is not adjacent, above or below, and handle their luggage with care so bugs are not carried along.
3. Record the date, room number, who reported it and what was seen.
4. Call your pest company for an inspection of the room and the ones next to it.
5. Seal linens from the room in bags and wash and dry them hot per the care label, without carrying them through other rooms.
6. Hold the room until the treatment plan is complete and the room is rechecked.

Talk to your own counsel and your insurer about how to speak to guests and handle claims. We treat the bugs; the guest-relations and legal side is yours.

What do you say to the guest?

Keep the conversation short, calm and factual. Say the room is being checked, offer a different room right away and ask whether their belongings need to be bagged. Avoid guessing at the cause or the source in the lobby, since a guess becomes a quote in a review.

Write a one-paragraph script and give it to every desk agent. A guest who hears the same calm words from every shift is less likely to escalate than one who gets three different answers.

How far should a hotel inspect beyond the room?

Bed bugs travel through wall voids, plumbing chases and shared hallways. Inspect the rooms on either side, directly above and directly below, plus the room across the hall if the findings are heavy.

A single sighting does not always mean a spread, but you will not know until someone looks behind the headboards and under the beds next door. If one adjacent room shows activity, widen the check to the next ring of rooms. That reasoning, not guesswork, decides your out-of-service list.

Which treatment fits a hotel room?

The right method depends on how many rooms are involved and how fast they must return to the market. We work with three, and each has its own trade-offs.

Many hotel jobs combine methods. We also offer preventative treatments for property owners, so a property with a past problem can add a protective layer.

How can a hotel verify that a room is clear?

A room is not clear because the treatment is done. It is clear when inspection and monitoring show no activity. Plan a recheck after treatment, and use monitors under bed legs and along the headboard, so a survivor shows up in the monitor instead of in a guest review.

Put the room back into service only after the recheck is documented. Keep the inspection report, the treatment record and the recheck note in the same file. Our post on pest control logbooks covers the full record set.

How long should monitoring continue after treatment?

Longer than a week. EPA advises checking on a regular schedule after treatment, emptying interceptor traps (cups that catch bugs climbing a bed leg) weekly, and continuing to watch for at least a year. A hotel can do this room by room with a simple log, and the check takes only a minute during turnover.

If a monitor catches a bug, inspect the room again before it goes back on the market, and look at the adjacent rooms too.

Who does what in a hotel bed bug protocol?

A protocol fails when everyone assumes someone else has the card. Assign each step to a role and print it where the role will see it.

Review the roles once a year and whenever the management team changes. A protocol in a binder nobody has opened is no protocol at all.

How do you reduce the odds of a repeat?

• Use mattress and box spring encasements so there are fewer seams to hide in.
• Keep headboards mounted flat to the wall with no gaps behind them.
• Place luggage racks away from the wall.
• Schedule periodic inspections of a few rooms each month, rotating through the building.
• Do not move housekeeping carts or linen between a suspected room and the rest of the floor.