Hi
I have a hotel room booked in late October in Cocoa Beach, a friend i am travelling with found a review that said the hotel had cockroaches. So I started to look for another hotel but almost all (except for the 250 dollar a night rooms) have at least 1 review about a bug problem.
Is this a problem down there that you just have to live with or are all the cheaper hotels in the are dirty?
Thanks for the advice ahead of time.

What that person experienced were not cockroaches but in fact Palmetto bugs (basically flying roaches).

Hotels have regular and routine pest control but these bugs are not a sign of dirtyness.

Even the $250 a night places have palmetto bugs.

It is literally impossible to remove them.

Seconding GoTravel's remarks. Bugs and warm climates seem to go together. It does not indicate that the hotel is dirty or badly maintained. I live near Cocoa Beach, so if you feel comfortable posting the name of the hotel, I can let you know if I've heard of any other problems.

Cockroaches, Palmetto bugs or whatever you want to call them are a fact of life in hot humid areas. It really has nothing to do with cleanliness. We just learn to ignore, spray, and hope that one doesn't crawl out when we have guests.

However, if someone finds several in a room, then, yes the motel/hotel is lax in it's housekeeping.

It comes as a shock to someone when they get into their car and find that one has managed to crawl in somehow and get into that left over bag of french fries. Been There, Done That.

I would respectfully suggest that leaving french fries in your car demonstrates a lack of cleanliness which clearly does increase the chances of a cucaracha sighting.
That said--one sighting in a hotel room in FL wouldn't freak me out permanently; repeated sightings, and I'm outta there.

If I were in FLA and found a large palmetto bug at the hotel this would be the reaction from my family:

Wow! This place is great! Can we keep him as a pet? Then we'd have to cancel afternoon plans just so they could set up a terrarium, including living quarters, decorations, food, water, etc.

Now a gaggle of palmetto in my room.... that's another story.

Did you mean a herd of palmetto bugs?

Since they fly, wouldn't that be a flock of palmetto bugs?

GT,
Would it not perhaps be a bevy or a swarm?

Or perpahs a gaggle could imply that I can hear them at night as I try to sleep.

We could call a bathtub full of them a pod.

Quit arguing. Just google that gaggle.

A bathtub full of them would be called unsanitary.

A gaggle of them would be called noisy.

My kitties like to hunt them at night and deposit dead ones on my bed in the morning.

When I lived in San Antonio most everyone called them cockroaches. I saw them in new homes, hotels, and in our home. It has almost nothing to do with cleanliness. We went to a house warming party one time (a beautiful expensive home) and saw a cockroach crawling up the wall and up onto the ceiling. The roach fell down and bounced off of the head of a bald friend of mine who was at the party.

LOL
I always manage to find one of these critters during the night. Usually when I have to turn on the light to go to the bathroom. You can find them in the nicest of hotels.
I sleep with the light on! MY family laughed at me. After seeing the largest cockroach they ever saw in Hawaii everyone slept with the light on I had the last laugh

When we decided to build in SW FL our builder suggested installing a pest control system IN the house. Perforated tubing in the outside walls between the cement block and drywall and around all walls in the bathrooms. Once the house was finished the pest control people came in, sprayed everything, then pumped a gas into the tubes through a vent in the outside of the house. Now they come every three months, spray around the outside and put more gas in the tubes and that pretty well does take care of any bug problem we have. BUT...the *Palmetto* bugs still get in the house when we open the doors to let our 2 Labs in and out...but they do NOT live long because of the gas that is in those tubes and in the house. I was told if they are BIG Palmetto bugs they came from the outside..if they are small, then we did have some hatch in the house. But what ever they put in those tubes does work...I find dead bugs in the tub and on the floor. Living down here, we just get used to the nasty things, along with the 'gators and snakes.

mamajo - the answer is obvious. Do not open the door

Years ago I stayed at the Holiday Inn in Hollywood, Florida and there were roaches climbing up the door to our room when we checked in. I kept the light on and barely closed my eyes all night. I was up at 4 a.m. and ready to depart before my husband even woke up. He says that the only time I've ever been up and ready ahead of him!

The hotel restaurant had some kind of early bird all-you-can-eat special and they let people take doggy bags back their rooms. I think it was all that uneaten food lying around in people's rooms that encouraged the hoards of roaches. They were everywhere. I had nightmares thinking I might have brought some back in my suitcase.

As for large numbers, isn't it a scurry of cockroaches?

OK, get ready to be grossed out. I ordered a salad at an international airport restaurant. Half way through the salad I found a dead cockroach in it. Many years ago I had a salad in a restaurant with a live green catapillar in it. Some years back I went with convention co-workers to the grand opening of a restaurant in San Antonio. The dish had lots of guakamoly (spelling) in it. I pulled out a foot long human hair which had quakamoly and hamberger bits dangling from it. I'm choosing not to identify the names of these places because I am sure it was a fluke and has been corrected.

Jorr, it's nice of you to not name the places! Hope that was fluke, not other yuck.
p.s. hamburger, guacamole, caterpillar.

Many years ago I was having dessert with a friend in the Palm Court of the Plaza and one crawled accross our table. Having lived in the south, I agree with the previous posters they are a fact of life in hot humid areas.

Isn't the palmetto bug the Florida state bird, next to the mosquito?