Should I worry about bed bugs or cockroaches before a trip?

Worry a little, plan a little, then go. Bed bugs exist in big cities all over the world and turn up in hotels of every price, which is exactly why a news story about one city does not tell you much about your room. What protects you is a quick check when you arrive and a few simple steps when you get home. Those work wherever you are going.

Headlines show the worst cases, because those are the ones that make the news. Most trips end with nothing more than a suitcase to unpack.

The two minute room check

Do it before you unpack anything, and before the kids jump on the bed.

1. Bags on the luggage rack or in the bathroom. Not on the bed, not on the carpet.
2. Pull back the sheet at the head of the bed. With your phone torch, look along the mattress seams and the corners.
3. Check the headboard edge and the gap between headboard and wall, if you can see it.
4. What you are looking for: clusters of small dark spots like ink dots, pale shed skins, or a flat, reddish brown bug about the size of an apple seed. The bed bug guide has a drawing of one, with the size, colour and signs to check against.

Nothing there? Unpack and enjoy it. Something there? Photograph it and ask for a different room, ideally not next door or directly above or below. Our page for travellers has the same check in short.

Airports, trains and theme parks

Bed bugs live where people sleep. They hide close to a bed or a sofa and come out at night. A seat in a departure lounge or on a train is not where they settle in, so a layover is a small risk compared with a night in a room. Nobody can promise any public place is free of them, though, so keep your bag zipped and on your lap or between your feet, and you have done what is sensible.

Theme park hotels are hotels like any other. Do the room check on arrival.

Should we cancel?

Not because of the news alone. The check on arrival and the steps at home cover the realistic risk, and you can do both in any city. Cancelling one destination does not make the next one bed bug free.

If the worry itself is spoiling the trip before it starts, that is real and worth taking seriously. Save the steps on this page, so you know exactly what you will do if you find one. And if anxiety is affecting your sleep or your day, a doctor can help.

Cockroaches in a hotel room

In warm places, a large cockroach in your room is often an outdoor species that has wandered in through a door, a balcony or a bathroom drain, such as the American cockroach. Unpleasant, but it usually says more about the climate than about the hotel. Small, tan cockroaches with two dark stripes behind the head are different: that is the German cockroach, which lives indoors, and several of them suggest a problem the hotel should treat.

• Tell reception and ask for treatment or another room.
• Keep snacks sealed or in the fridge, and bin wrappers outside the room.
• Close the bathroom drain with its plug at night if roaches are coming up it.
• Keep your case zipped and off the floor, and check it before you pack to go home.

Looking for a hotel with no cockroaches at all is a hard search in a warm climate. Look instead for recent reviews that mention how the staff responded when a guest reported one.

When you get home

If you saw nothing on the trip, normal unpacking is fine. If you had any doubt, unpack outside the bedroom, wash and tumble dry clothes on the hottest setting their care labels allow, and vacuum the suitcase seams. The full steps are in bed bugs in my hotel: how to avoid bringing them home.

Bites on holiday: if they spread, blister, look infected or you feel unwell, see a doctor or pharmacist. Do not spray insecticide on beds or luggage yourself.