Hotel Bedbug Treatment Bexley

When You Are Housekeeping and Front Desk at Once

In a small place there is no duty manager to ring and no housekeeping supervisor to check the room. The owner usually finds out one of two ways: a guest mentions bites at breakfast, or the owner spots something while changing the sheets. Either way, the next decisions are yours alone, and they tend to be made in a hurry between check-outs.

The steps a hotel should take in the first hour, and how a room is treated and handed back, are set out on our London hotel bedbug treatment page for the full explanation. What follows is how that plays out when the business is a handful of rooms and one or two people.

Why One Room Out Hurts More Here

With twenty rooms, closing one is an inconvenience. With four, it is a quarter of what you can sell, and if the rooms either side have to be held too, it can be most of the house. That is why small operators are tempted to wash the linen, spray the mattress with something from a shop and put the room back on sale that evening.

That is the choice that costs the most. A shop spray tends to push bedbugs out of the bed and into the next room, and the next guest in that room is the one who finds them. Closing the room properly for a short time protects the other three.

Getting the Room Back Quickly

For most small operators, heat is the route that fits, even though it costs more than chemical. It usually needs one visit, it takes most of a day, and the room can be let again once it has cooled. There is no return visit to fit around bookings two weeks later. How it works in a house-sized building is covered on the Bexley heat treatment page.

Chemical treatment costs less but needs two, sometimes three, visits about ten to fourteen days apart, and the room is only back once the treated surfaces are dry after each one. It can suit a guest house where a room can sit out of use for a few weeks, for example in a quiet month. The chemical treatment page for Bexley explains what that course asks of the people in the building.

When you ring, have your booking diary open. Tell us which rooms are let tonight, which are free tomorrow, and when the next change-over is. We fit the visit around that where we can, and we say plainly if the timing you want will not work.

If You Live on the Premises

Many B&Bs and guest houses are also the owner’s home. That changes the job, because the rooms around a guest room may be your own bedroom, your children’s rooms or a shared landing. Treat your private rooms as part of the building, not as separate from it.

• Do not carry linen or luggage from the affected room through your own part of the house.
• Keep sleeping in your own bed rather than moving into a free guest room.
• Check the bed nearest the affected room on your side of the wall, as well as the guest rooms.
• Tell us about pets, because they need to be out of any room being treated.

If you are unsure whether your own rooms are involved, a bedbug inspection in Bexley covers guest and private rooms on the same visit.

Talking to the Guest

A guest who reports bites wants to be taken seriously. Thank them, offer another room that has been checked, and ask them to keep their luggage off the new bed. Do not argue about where the bugs came from. Bedbugs travel in bags, and nobody can prove which way round it happened.

If a guest asks about bites, point them to a pharmacist or GP; bites vary, and some people do not react at all. Anyone with signs of a severe allergic reaction needs 999. If the guest wants to know how to avoid taking anything home, our guide to unpacking after a trip is a fair thing to send them.

Checking a Few Rooms Yourself

The advantage of a small place is that you can look at every bed between stays without it becoming a project. Lift the sheet at the corners, look along the mattress piping and the back of the headboard, and glance at the luggage rack. Our London guide on where hotels should check lists the spots in detail; with a handful of rooms, it is a few minutes’ habit at each change-over rather than a separate job.

Write down what you checked and when. If you ever do have a report, a simple log shows which rooms were clear before it, and that narrows down what needs treating.

What It Costs

Hotel and guest house work is quoted on the rooms involved. Treatments start from £220, heat costs more than chemical, and inspections start from £120. Ring 0800 955 1018, tell us how many rooms you have and which ones show signs, and you get the figure on the phone before anything is booked. For family homes rather than guest rooms, see the Bexley bedbug control page.

← Bedbug Control Bexley · Hotel Bedbug Treatment London, in full