How do I stop bed bugs between guests?

You cannot stop every guest from bringing them. Bed bugs travel in luggage, from hotels, trains and other homes, and well kept listings get them too. What you can control is how soon you find out. Set the beds up so bugs are easy to spot, check them at every turnover, and write down what happens if you find one, before you ever need it.

Caught early, bed bugs are often one room and a smaller job for the professional. Caught late, they are in the sofa, the next bedroom and your reviews.

Set the beds up once

• Mattress encasements. Zipped covers made for bed bugs, on the mattress and the base. They leave no seams to hide in and give you a smooth, pale surface to check. Keep the zips closed.
• Interceptors under every bed leg. Small cups that catch bed bugs climbing up or down. Pull the bed slightly away from the wall and keep bedding off the floor, so the legs are the only way up.
• A luggage rack, away from the bed. A bag on the rack is a bag not on the bed or the carpet. A plain metal rack is easier to check than an upholstered one.
• Fewer hiding places. Upholstered headboards, valances and piles of cushions all give bugs somewhere to sit. Plain and pale is easier to inspect.

Interceptors are a kind of monitor: they tell you what is there, they do not clear anything. Our page on bed bug interceptors explains how to read them.

The turnover check

1. Look before you strip. Check the sheets and mattress protector for small dark spots or blood marks.
2. Bag the linen in the room and carry it out closed. Wash it on the hottest setting its care label allows, then tumble dry hot.
3. Torch the hiding spots. Encasement seams and the zip end, bed frame joints, the back of the headboard. You are looking for dark spots like ink dots, pale shed skins, tiny white eggs or a live bug. The page on droppings and egg cases helps you tell them apart from dust.
4. Check the interceptors. Look, empty, wipe.
5. Check where guests sit and put bags. The luggage rack, sofa seams, bedside drawers.
6. Write it down. The date, the room, and “nothing found” or what you found. A dated log is what you show a platform or a professional later.

Cleaners can do this. Give them the list, a torch and a clear photo of a bed bug from the bed bug guide.

A bed bug policy you can write today

It does not need to be long. It needs to answer four questions so nobody has to improvise on a busy changeover day.

• Who checks, and when. Every turnover, every bed, the steps above.
• What a cleaner does on a find. Stop, photograph it, leave the bedding and furniture where they are, and tell you. Moving things to another room spreads them.
• What you do next. Block the next booking for that room, call a pest professional, and follow their advice on when it can be let again.
• What you offer a guest who reports bites. A calm reply, a move or a rebooking under the platform’s rules, and a look at the room. How to respond to a guest complaint covers the messages and the review.

What you must tell guests, the platform or anyone else varies by country and by platform. Read your platform’s host policy, and if you are unsure, ask your local council, tourism authority or a host association.

If you find one

Do not reach for a fogger or a can of spray. Foggers settle on open surfaces and do not reach the seams and cracks where bed bugs hide, and they can push them into the next room. Bed bugs rarely go with DIY alone, so call a professional.

Ask them how they treat, how many visits it usually takes, what you need to do before each visit, and when the room can be used again. Get it in writing. If you are comparing quotes, is heat treatment worth the price walks through what to ask.

Guests, kids and pets: a turnover routine does not need any insecticide. If a professional uses one, follow their advice and the label on when people and pets can come back in, and keep any product out of reach of guests’ children and animals.