I recently stayed in a very new hotel in Bangkok, and the rooms were BARE!! They took out the headboard, the dresser, and wall paintings. There was a metallic rack for clothes, and the legs of the bed were round and smooth. Then I realized the hotel was doing bedbug prevention. Everything was bare and smooth, so the bugs could not climb up or hide. I felt very safe. I think this is going to be the future of all hotels.
I have seen more of this too, and I agree that it likely will become much more common in the future. Let's hope they can still make the rooms comfortable though, and not like a jail cell!
I had never even heard of bat bugs. I would be freaked out enough by bats - I hadn't considered being worried about bugs on bats. We do check the beds and furniture for bed bugs whenever we stay at a hotel or rental home. I had never considered leaving luggage in the uncarpeted area til you are done checking for bugs though. That makes a ton of sense, it just hadn't crossed my mind. Thanks for sharing this!
If it helps at all (probably not!), the pest control people told me that only about 20% of bat colonies have bat bugs - lucky me, right?! Years ago, TheTimTracker had bats in his attic at their old house and he showed it and how he built a bat house in a couple of his videos. He was a lot braver and calmer about it than I was!
Thank you for this video! Out of curiosity, how do you go about finding hotels with a reduced chance of having them? I had just done a two-week trip in Europe last month, and every place I originally booked had signs of past or present bed bug infestations. I don't know what's going on lately, but it's made me a bit hesitant to travel anytime soon. It was really aggravating to have hotel staff say, "But our hotel is clean" and downplay complaints I had after doing this basic inspection. But as you said, it's not an issue of cleanliness but proper pest control on their part. I was booking these rooms via 3rd-party websites that seemed to have high ratings & customer reviews, but it was stressful to deal with.
We spent three weeks in Europe in August and had no issues, so I'm not sure what to tell you. I'd be curious to know what hotels, cities, and countries you were visiting? Did you leave the hotels you had booked and go elsewhere? Did you have to spend more? First of all, I do not recommend ever booking any kind of travel with third party websites. Especially when travel is tough/tricky like it has been for these past two years, you are always better off booking directly with the hotel/airline/cruise line, etc. or letting a travel agent do it for you. Quality hotels know that bed bugs have nothing to do with cleanliness, so if they're saying that to you, run! Quality hotels also take bed bugs VERY seriously because any report of bed bug activity in a hotel can destroy them and put all their employees out of work. It's fine to use sites such as Tripadvisor or Travelocity to look at customer reviews, but don't book that way. I advise sticking with well known, well established brands who are going to care about the hotel's reputation, and who also are a franchise and have to report to the brand and the parent company. Then if you have a problem, there is always someone higher up the chain that you can file a complaint with. This also might be a matter of "you get what you pay for", which is especially true with hotels. I'm only guessing, but if you were looking for the cheapest place you could find, they are likely cutting corners somewhere.
I recently stayed in a very new hotel in Bangkok, and the rooms were BARE!! They took out the headboard, the dresser, and wall paintings. There was a metallic rack for clothes, and the legs of the bed were round and smooth. Then I realized the hotel was doing bedbug prevention. Everything was bare and smooth, so the bugs could not climb up or hide. I felt very safe. I think this is going to be the future of all hotels.
I have seen more of this too, and I agree that it likely will become much more common in the future. Let's hope they can still make the rooms comfortable though, and not like a jail cell!
@@HeatherTravels LOL!!
I do the same every time I go to a hotel . But I will share this info with others that I know that travel like me. Thanks !
Excellent details and advice. Thank you.
Glad it was helpful!
I had never even heard of bat bugs. I would be freaked out enough by bats - I hadn't considered being worried about bugs on bats. We do check the beds and furniture for bed bugs whenever we stay at a hotel or rental home. I had never considered leaving luggage in the uncarpeted area til you are done checking for bugs though. That makes a ton of sense, it just hadn't crossed my mind. Thanks for sharing this!
If it helps at all (probably not!), the pest control people told me that only about 20% of bat colonies have bat bugs - lucky me, right?! Years ago, TheTimTracker had bats in his attic at their old house and he showed it and how he built a bat house in a couple of his videos. He was a lot braver and calmer about it than I was!
Thank you for this video! Out of curiosity, how do you go about finding hotels with a reduced chance of having them?
I had just done a two-week trip in Europe last month, and every place I originally booked had signs of past or present bed bug infestations. I don't know what's going on lately, but it's made me a bit hesitant to travel anytime soon. It was really aggravating to have hotel staff say, "But our hotel is clean" and downplay complaints I had after doing this basic inspection. But as you said, it's not an issue of cleanliness but proper pest control on their part. I was booking these rooms via 3rd-party websites that seemed to have high ratings & customer reviews, but it was stressful to deal with.
We spent three weeks in Europe in August and had no issues, so I'm not sure what to tell you. I'd be curious to know what hotels, cities, and countries you were visiting? Did you leave the hotels you had booked and go elsewhere? Did you have to spend more?
First of all, I do not recommend ever booking any kind of travel with third party websites. Especially when travel is tough/tricky like it has been for these past two years, you are always better off booking directly with the hotel/airline/cruise line, etc. or letting a travel agent do it for you. Quality hotels know that bed bugs have nothing to do with cleanliness, so if they're saying that to you, run! Quality hotels also take bed bugs VERY seriously because any report of bed bug activity in a hotel can destroy them and put all their employees out of work. It's fine to use sites such as Tripadvisor or Travelocity to look at customer reviews, but don't book that way.
I advise sticking with well known, well established brands who are going to care about the hotel's reputation, and who also are a franchise and have to report to the brand and the parent company. Then if you have a problem, there is always someone higher up the chain that you can file a complaint with.
This also might be a matter of "you get what you pay for", which is especially true with hotels. I'm only guessing, but if you were looking for the cheapest place you could find, they are likely cutting corners somewhere.
Thank you for your kind information.
I hope it was helpful. Thank you for watching!
If I found bed bugs in my hotel room, I would not stay and ask for my money back and go to a different hotel , or sleep in the car .
I didn’t know that bat bugs were thing till I found this video 😟
Believe me, I wish I didn't have to learn what they were! But they're still easier to get rid of than bed bugs.