When you’re traveling and staying in a hotel, bed bugs can go unnoticed until you wake up with painful, itchy bites. Before you get underneath the sheets, use these four tips to help assess whether a hotel room has pests so that you can avoid bringing them home.

4 Way to Check For Bed Bugs

1. Inspect the Bed

Bed bugs eat blood, which is why they thrive in beds and bedding. Before you get into bed, look at the duvet cover, sheets, and pillowcases for tiny black dots or stains that are roughly the size of apple seeds. If you see these, you are probably dealing with pests, as they often hide in the seams or at the corners of the mattress near the bedboard.

2. Assess the Furniture 

Bed bugs can also burrow into upholstered furniture, so check chairs or couches before you sit down. They often hide in the seams of furniture, where the seat or arms meet the back of the chair. With more substantial pieces of furniture, lift the dust flaps on sofas or armchairs to check for bed bugs underneath.

3. Make a Note of Smells

If there is a bed bug infestation, you may notice a sweet smell that isn’t coming from a vase of flowers or a tray of candy. Call the hotel concierge to help assess if your room is infested and what you should do moving forward. Keep your luggage in the hallway and wait until they arrive to avoid bringing pests with you when you leave.

4. Read Reviews

As a rule of thumb, you can avoid bed bugs by reading reviews of the hotel ahead of time to see if they have a history of pests. Look into review websites like Yelp to see if any past visitors have made a note of bad experiences with bugs. To be safe, call the hotel’s management and ask about their pest prevention plan to learn when they last treated their space for bugs.

Contact the beg bug specialists at Jackson & Eagle Pest Management in Howell County, MO, if you unknowingly brought bed bugs home from your travels. Their expert team has more than 120 combined years of experience serving the Ozark area with termite inspections, bee removal, and treatment for rodents, wasps, fleas, roaches, ants, and spiders. Call the pest professionals at (417) 256-6286 or visit the website to read reviews from satisfied customers.