How to Check for Bed Bugs in a Hotel Room, Step by Step

What you're looking for

Before you check for bed bugs in a hotel room, know what they look like. Adult bed bugs are flat, reddish brown and about the size of an apple seed. Young ones are smaller and paler, and the eggs are tiny, white and easy to miss.

You are more likely to find signs than the bugs themselves. Look for small dark or rust-colored spots on sheets, mattress seams or the mattress tag, pale shed skins, and in heavy cases a sweet, musty smell.

Start with the bed

Bed bugs live close to where people sleep, so the bed is where to look first. Use your phone's flashlight. Pull the sheets back at each corner and check the mattress seams, the piping along the edges and the tag.

Then look at the box spring or base, especially the corners and any fabric edges. If the headboard can be lifted or looked behind, check the back and the wall around it. Bed frame joints and screw holes are common hiding spots too.

Then check the rest of the room

After the bed, check the places within a few feet of it: the seams of upholstered chairs and sofa cushions, the inside edges of nightstand drawers, the luggage rack, behind picture frames, and the folds of curtains near the bed.

A clean room is not proof of anything. Bed bugs are hitchhikers. They arrive in a previous guest's bags, so they can appear in a luxury resort as easily as in a budget motel.

A quick routine for travelers

When you arrive, keep your luggage in the bathroom or on a hard surface while you look around. A check of the bed and the furniture next to it takes about five minutes. Use the luggage rack, pulled away from the wall, instead of the bed or the floor.

If you find bugs or clear signs, take a photo, tell the front desk and ask for a room that is not next to, above or below the first one. When you get home, put the clothes you traveled with through a hot dryer cycle. Our guide on what temperature kills bed bugs in laundry explains the heat and time needed.

How hotel housekeeping checks at every turnover

Housekeepers see the mattress more than anyone else, which makes them a hotel's best early warning. The moment to look is while stripping the bed: check the fitted sheet corners, the mattress protector and the mattress seams before the new linen goes on.

Give every housekeeper a simple rule. If they see a sign, they stop, leave the linen in the room, bag it and report it, instead of carrying it down the hall on a cart where it can reach other rooms.

What a hotel should do if it finds bed bugs

Take the room out of service right away and call a licensed pest control company. Ask them to inspect the rooms on each side, above and below as well.

Bag all linen from the room in sealed, clearly marked bags, and tell your laundry partner before pickup so those bags are handled apart from the rest of your linen. Sheets, towels and covers need high heat for long enough to kill every stage of the bug, which a commercial process does reliably.

Keep a record of the room, the date and the treatment. A clear protocol, followed every time, protects your guests, your staff and your reviews.