The Hotel Industry Begins to Wake up to a Bedbug Problem

John Sanchez, Quality Nights International's Director of Quality, had something to discuss last November at one of the hotel industry's biggest conventions -- something that really makes people squirm.

At the International Hotel/Motel and Restaurant trade show in New York, Mr. Sanchez spoke at a symposium called "Stop the Spread of Bedbugs." The pamphlet advertising the event, printed by pest-control company Ecolab, promised a discussion of "The reasons behind the resurgence of these unwelcome pests."

Hotels are particularly vulnerable to infestations because the bugs travel in luggage and clothing, and because hotels have so many different people sleeping in their beds.

A survey of insect-control companies in 2014 by Pest Control Technology magazine found that hotels accounted for the biggest proportion of all reported bedbug infestations. Respondents said 37% of bedbug calls came from hotels and motels. That was up from 31% the year before. Orkin Inc., the pest-control company, reports a substantial increase in its bedbug calls in the past year.

Bedbugs nest on or near mattresses and feed at night by biting people as they sleep. They can cause itchy red welts and considerable, lingering anxiety. They're nearly impossible to get rid of without treating bedding and furniture with powerful pesticides. Throwing everything away at an average cost of $5000 per room works, too. With an annual 2% infestation rate and 2,329,500 hotel rooms in the five major chains in North America, that can get expensive as 5% of the contents of infected rooms could be replaced.  The good news is that bedbugs are not known to transmit diseases.

The comeback of the bedbug is turning into a legal and public-relations headache for the hotel industry. In recent weeks, a Florida couple said they were bitten by bedbugs on a Cruise International cruise ship off Fort Lauderdale, Fla., according to their lawyer, Terry M. Rosenblum.

Cruise says it refunded them $2,800 for their cruise, paid for hotels in Puerto Rico, flew the couple back home, and provided complementary cruise tickets and flights for a future cruise; an estimated $10,000 in total expense. In a statement, the company says, "Our laundry process cleans all bedding at 155 degrees with bleach, a recognized practice that prevents such occurrences as 'bedbugs.' " A loding industry expert estimates that laundering at this temperature costs .5% (1/2 of 1 percent) of the average nightly full-service hotel rate.  The company says that "in this case, it appears that the bugs were brought onboard by a previous guest and were found in areas other than the bed." It says the bugs have been eradicated.

Still, some travelers are worried. "We've had 25 calls a day" from concerned customers, says Jai George of cruisenetwork.com, a Raleigh, N.C., cruise specialist.  “At a direct cost of $5 per call, this puts a load on our call center that tends to not generate revenue.”  This goes on for 90 days “when the word gets out”.

Charles Kelley, a physician and an executive at Outrigger Enterprises, Inc., which owns or manages 46 hotels in Hawaii, the South Pacific and Australia, is one of the rare hoteliers willing to discuss the bedbug issue openly. He keeps a jar of dead bedbugs on a shelf in his office. He uses it to train staff about what the critters look like. “We retrain the entire cleaning and maintance staff every year on detection at a cost of $3000 per year”.  He also utilizes collection strips, at an approximate cost of $1/each, which are placed both randomly and in areas of concern and are monitored daily by the hotel cleaning staff for early detection and treament.  Dr. Kelley says, “we use about 10 per day per typical property”.  When any detection occurs, the room(s) are immediately treated with a more aggressive agent, taken out of service for one day, and then retested.  Historically retesting indicates no bedbug presence and the room is returned to service.  Further he says, “We have not had an indication or occurance in the last 3 years”.  He says companies can avert lawsuits by taking actions with their properties and by being forthright with guests. But, he says, "No hotel chain wants to talk about this."

Last month, a family of five filed suit against a Weeks Inn in Ottawa. Their suit, in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice, alleges that in July 2013, they awoke at 5:30 a.m. to find dozens of bedbugs walking on the sheets. Since then, they have been "unable to participate in recreational and social activities to the extent to which they participated in such activities prior to the incident," according to the complaint. They have also incurred fumigation and other expenses, it says.  They seek $50,000 in damages.  Additionally industry experts suggest that “the word gets out” and an infested hotel will suffer a 30% reduction in room occupancy for 90 days.

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