LikeToTravel

We redeemed priority club points for a one night stay at the Holiday Inn-Paris-Charles De Gaulle Airport, Allee Du Verger, Roissy-En-France for convenience prior to an early AM departure out of CDG the next day. When I tossed back the covers I noticed a small red bug on the linens and flushed it down the toilet. I was tired and having traveled extensively and never seeing one, it did not occur to me that this might be a bed bug. I tossed and turned all night and felt like things were crawling on me- thought it was my imagination and stress of having to get up at 04:30. It was not- I have many, many bedbug bites and have had to have my bedroom and luggage cleaned by Orkin to the tune of $250.00. I have contacted the hotel but so far - so word back from them. We were on the fourth floor ont he Executive Level.
I highly recommend avoiding this hotel. I traveled weekly for five years and this is my first experience with these critters and it has been AWFUL!
We just stayed there on 15October2009.

Michael

It is not the fault of the hotel. Bedbugs are becoming fairly common again. My daughter has spent a couple thousand dollars to get rid of them (but the neighbor has not done anything about it and the houses have common walls). Friends in Paris got them from traveling in first class couchettes; apparently the homeless break into the parked wagons in the rail yards to find a warm place to sleep.

letsgo39

Of course its the fault of the hotel.If not than whose fault is it.?? What do homeless people have to do with the hotel. They don't stay there.

Yuck,disgusting things. Thank you for the warning!

Michael

Voltaire explained the spread of VD in the following manner:

An Indian gave it to a Jesuit, who gave it to a cabin boy on the way back to Spain, who gave it a prostitute, who then gave it to a Franciscan who spread it around in his amorous affairs.

Or something like that. Would the OP be blamed or the subsequent hotels who might get infected by the OP's infected luggage?

barbmc

This seems to be an empidemic lately. Rachael Ray had a segement on her show about bed bugs today. They seem to be in New York city (as well as other places of course). Apparently you are supposed to check the bed mattress when you get into a room. They are creepy things...can get live in any crevas(?).

RJD

Ny trip report, under tardy prepartion, tells of meeting the critters in an apartment in the Marais. There is an epidemic, which is described in the Wickipedia article on the subject. Brought them home despite throwing away our luggage. Got rid of them with some good advice.

RJD

My, my.

Michael

<i>can get live in any crevas(?)</i>

Yes, and apparently can live for 15 months without food.

StCirq

There is indeed an epidemic all over, but I'm not sure that absolves hotels from responsibility. They are hard to get rid of, but surely it's easier for a hotel to do a building-wide extermination periodically than for every hotel guest who gets bitten to deal with the consequences.

The only place I ever thought I'd been in contact with bedbugs was in Nairobi, where I woke up one morning with little welts all up and down my legs. The hotel called a doctor, who came and looked at the read marks and pronounced them NOT bedbugs, suggesting that my previous day in the mud and cow dung at a Massai village was more likely the root cause. I was dubious, but they went away within 24 hours, and SO and I slept in that hotel room for another 10 days without a problem, so I think the doctor was right.

Michael

<i>but surely it's easier for a hotel to do a building-wide extermination periodically</i>

Easier said then done since the one known effective eliminator is DDT. Do you really expect the hotels to shut down completely for a couple days periodically? My friends have contacted the SNCF which admitted the problem and the impossible task of eliminating the bugs. It took the exterminator at least three visits to eliminate the bedbugs from my daughter's bedroom (presumably--we cross our fingers--the rest of the house was/is clean).

yestravel

RJD -- would u mind sharing what apt in the Marais u had this probelm? thanks

ddena

RJD: What "good advice" would that be?

I've seen in travel sales flyers they sell silk sleeping bag-type things to ensure personal, fresh sheets (you bring and take), I don't suppose that would help??
I am traveling next spring to Paris and I really, really would like to know a preventive measure-

WillTravel

What those sleepsheets would do is ensure that you have a good way to spread bedbugs around. The sheets that are treated with bedbug repellent might be good, but I don't know enough about it.

nancicita

I'm not sure if this would work --

How about bringing a plastic sheet (such as a shower curtain?) to cover the entire bed and just bring your own thin sheet to use a blanket? I know it sounds ridiculous but I've thought about how to deal with the bed bug issue for awhile now, and it seems there is no solution other than covering up the entire bed with a water/air resistant barrier...

WillTravel

A plastic sheet is not going to do the trick. You would need a bedbug-resistant mattress cover, and of course that won't help with other bedbugs already in the room.

nancicita

good point, WillTravel. I'm worried about the bedbugs crawling into my luggages.

I remember being bitten by them on my first trip to Europe, actually. I was at a hostel in Berlin, in a crowded room with 12 beds. I had bites all over my legs and arms, and I was scratching the whole night. I thought that I was just nervous about sleeping in the midst of all those strangers, but no -- I was being consumed by these nasty bed bugs!

It's amazing that I survived that because I definitely would not be able to tolerate those conditions now (back then I thought being bitten by bedbugs was part of the hostel experience, hahaha)...

Vttraveler

My son lived in an apt in Montreal that had bedbugs in the summer of 2008 (they think one of the roommates brought them back in his luggage). He threw out a lot of stuff and some of the rest of his belongings are still out in a shed on our property 15 months later. He was told to leave it out 18 mos to be safe, Michael.
One of the worst parts of the whole experience is that our son is paranoid about getting them again and was afraid last fall that he had somehow brought them back to our house despite all his precautions.

It is a good idea to check hotel mattresses and to be sure not to leave luggage on the floor. Taking your own bedding is not going to protect you

kleeblatt

Here's a website with pictues of bedbugs:

http://www.medicinenet.com/bed_bugs/article.htm

RJD

The key advice which we followed was to wrap our bedding in plastic mattress bags obtained in this case from Bed, Bath etc., and spray a pyrethrin bed bug spray on all the baseboards in the room. It worked.

Quark

I'm going to bring garbage bags to keep my luggage in while in the hotel. My friend just had to get rid of bedbugs in her apartment. It would have been easier to move. But seriously it was costly and labor intensive.