Sue4

What a nightmare! I'm in Paris now, and thank goodness, have seen (nor felt) nary a bedbug! I thought fleas and ticks were bad, but bedbugs sound a hundred times worse.

kerouac

I have been attacked by bedbugs once -- at an extremely charming B&B in Jersey. They are everywhere.

bettyk

I guess we've been lucky. Just returned from a 3 week trip to Germany and Austria, staying in 10 different hotels. Never once saw any creepy crawlies.

They do sound like a real pain to get rid of though.

LikeToTravel

Orkin agreed that they most often come into homes from luggage when people traveled. In addition to treating my bedroom, they advised to place my clothes (dry) in dryer on the hot setting for 30 minutes. Have had no further bites, but this has psychologically really affected me, not to mention the 25+ bites on each arm and also my face. As much as I like to travel, I do not think I will be doing so unless I have to. Also, I saw a website that lists hotels in the US and Canada that have had bedbug reports so that is helpful for those countries.
Fodors forums are good because hopefully fellow travelers will continue to give hotel reports that help others planning trips. On that note, during this same trip with the bedbugs, prior to that, I did stay at Hotel Terass in Montmarte area in Paris for 5 nights and my room was very clean. I also them went on to Beaune and stayed at Hotel de la Paix for 4 nights which was exceptionally clean. In fact, I walked into a neighboring room while it was being cleaned and was surprised how thoroughly the housekeeper was cleaning it and I could smell bleach too which I consider a good thing.

luvtotravel

Having traveled a lot on business I found myself bringing the little creatures home with me a couple of times. The only thing I found that helped me get rid of them is Capture, a rug shampoo powder that I bought at Home Depot. I sprinkled some (a lot, actually) under and over my mattress and bedding and let it stay a couple of days, then vacuumed up. Not sure why it did the trick, but it did. I also read that the creatures cannot survive temperatures over 130 degrees. During really hot weather perhaps one could place bedding in the car trunk for a day or two. It certainly gets hotter than 130 degrees in my trunk during the summer where I live.

kerouac

Basically, if you see lists of places that have bedbugs, those are the places where you can be relatively sure NOT to find bedbugs anymore, because the problem will have been treated. Logic would therefore dictate that it is the OTHER hotels not on such lists where you will probably find them in the future.

FrankS

After 30 yts of business travel, I feel bedbugs are the result of inconsiderate travellers placing their suitcases on the bed. Most hotels will wash the sheets after every guest, but not the bed covers. The bedbugs move from suitcase to bedcover to the bed of the next guest. Airport hotels would be the most likely to receive travellers with these stowaways,

Check your bed upon arrival, and if you have a bug ask for another room.

Vttraveler

I should have mentioned that when you inspect mattresses at a hotel you are not likely to see the actual bedbugs. They are really small and nocturnal. You are also checking for blood and fecal stains
This website has lots of pictures
http://bedbugger.com/photos-of-bed-b...s-of-bed-bugs/

Liketotravel--I hope you have gotten rid of the bed bugs. It sounds as though you did the things that were recommended to our family. I really sympathize with the psychological after-effects of dealing with bed bugs. I have to admit that my stomach turned when I saw the heading on this thread

ddena

This thread got me researching:
They have an odd way of making babies. It’s called traumatic insemination. Males simply stab females in the side with their reproductive organ and inject their sperm, which makes its way to her eggs. Females recover from one mating, but several matings increase the chance of infection and death.

cynthia_booker

From what I have read, staying at a hotel that seems 'clean' is not any guarantee.
And I think that some hotels post warnings about other hotels having bedbugs as a scare tactic. How can any guest be certain? It is a crap shoot.